Well my friends, it’s been an amazingly intense three days but not anywhere near what I feared. I’ve been here on ICU since the surgery Friday morning and now am leaving at 10:00 AM. Will spend night in West Vancouver with a friend. Tomorrow I can fly back to my little island with my sister. My incision is still quite sore but that’s to be expected for the time being. I can wash my blooded matted hair on Wedndesday. Get the sutures out next Monday by family doctor. The next six weeks will tell the rest of the story. I still have a big purple bruise on the lower side of lip/ chin from the breathing tube and huge grooves inside lower lip from tube, pretty sore but normalizing daily. Looking forward to a bath and a bowel movement in a clean, quiet space…perhaps not in that order!
Xoxo to all
Keep heart
Bellalarke
Bellalarke, it's so wonderful to hear you are doing so well!! I was also so relieved to hear they found issues with the nerve, actually nerves when I had surgery. I think that was my worst fear going in - What if they don't find anything??. Hope you continue to improve daily!
wishing her a speedy recovery, tell her things get better each day, I am 6 days out from my MVD and walking around my block .
Bellalarke....This news sounds really GOOD! All the Best with the recovery-God Speed and Blessings
Bellalarke said:
Well my friends, it's been an amazingly intense three days but not anywhere near what I feared. I've been here on ICU since the surgery Friday morning and now am leaving at 10:00 AM. Will spend night in West Vancouver with a friend. Tomorrow I can fly back to my little island with my sister. My incision is still quite sore but that's to be expected for the time being. I can wash my blooded matted hair on Wedndesday. Get the sutures out next Monday by family doctor. The next six weeks will tell the rest of the story. I still have a big purple bruise on the lower side of lip/ chin from the breathing tube and huge grooves inside lower lip from tube, pretty sore but normalizing daily. Looking forward to a bath and a bowel movement in a clean, quiet space...perhaps not in that order!
Xoxo to all
Keep heart
Bellalarke
Greetings Bellalarke,
I am happy to here the good news, keep getting better everyday!
Scott
High five !! Great to hear that things are moving along smoothly! Keep feeling better!!
Best wishes-- Tiffanie
Wonderful, get well soon
great news Bellalarke, you are a very strong lady, you give everyone hope get well soon
god bless and best wishes
Thank you to everyone for all the support, it really counts! Big time. I flew home on the seaplane today. Blows my mind. I’m tired and sore but no other issues.
Uploading a photo. 20 stitches! Can’t believe it’s me.
251-image.jpg (2.16 MB)
Yeah! So happy for you! Don’t forget to take it easy. Take care.
This is truly wonderful. I hope she’s one of the lucky ones x
Great! Happy healing.
Nice scar! Glad it's over with!!
Don't overdo it, no straining...take it easy.
So happy for you Bella...!!
Wishing you a fast recovery
~Mistee
Here I am at 10 days and my sister took me on the ferry then drove me to town to get my stitches out. Feels great! I can hardly wait to wash my hair tonight. Only one little problem…I was so excited to be out I forgot all about the two staples on the hairline on my forehead. Can you believe it! Going to ask around if one of the retired nurses on the island can do it so I don’t have to go to town again tomorrow or the next day. (Now here’s another laugh, I had an auto- correction on the last sentence that read retired “neurosis” on the island…probably the entire population!)
Had a whirl around the grocery store too and wanted everything in sight-
I’ve been eating like a little piggy. Friends have brought food and goodies. Others have chopped wood. One friend came with a whole laundry basket of cedar kindling.
And this morning found a rat who met his maker in a trap another friend set yesterday. (My dear old cat was put down middle of June and it didn’t take long for a rat to make residence in the garage). Terrible the things that make me gleeful.
On the whole I feel great. Still soreness around my magnificent incision and scar - and yes, I love showing it off and getting the reactions. I still have other feelings of tenderness and numbness, occipital and scalp still not great, throat and ear a little sore but not killer, so on the whole I am optimistic. For a person with the triple whammy: V, VII, and IX, I know that the best that can be done for now has been done. The next weeks and months will tell more the of the story.
I also got my surgical report today. One the one hand it is extremely gratifying and relieving to see in print that “there was a loop of super cerebral artery indenting the trigeminal nerve near the root entry zone” and “an anterior inferior cerebral artery branch contacting the VII/VIII complex from below as it coursed more superficially. Arachnoid bands were taken down. There was a small branch running toward the brainstem for this, which could not be taken. The vessel was freed of all arachnoid adhesions over a long a distance …pledges were placed between stem … To hold it away from the VII complex. This was effective …the more proximal artery was Tisseeled to the petrous bone to ensure there was no kink. . Looking inferiorly at the lower cranial nerves…there was a vessel coursing between the lower cranial nerves, although it did not appear to have a bend in it, and as it was coursing between the rootlets it could not be taken away from the nerve contacts. The decision had been made preoperatively not to peruse dissection of the glossopharyngeal nerve. At this point we felt the the V nerve, as well as the VII/VIII complex was well decompressed. … There were no intraoperative or immediate postoperative complications. The patient tolerated the procedure well.” On the other hand I know compressions are not the be all and end all of cranial nerve pain. br/>
So there it is! Like the vessel coursing through the lower cranial nerve rootlets, this whole process from the first piercing ear pain through the misdiagnosis and the scans and tests to finding the right neurologist, the trials and errors or medications, and then like a breath of fresh air the easy consultation with the neurosurgeon on August 6th - is embedded in my conscious life - who said he’d schedule me in sometime between the middle and end of September and by god that’s just what he did. No disappointment and waiting. Here it is September 30th and I am on the mend with a realistic expectation of how the future might unfold.
Finding this group in February kept me going through some intensely bad episodes. I am so grateful to everyone who has dropped a line or share their experience along the way.
Keep Heart
Bellalarke
Sorry for the run- on sentences…eek!
Wow Bella. What an operation. Well done I’m so thrilled for u that these problems have been delt with properly. I hope yr pain will ease fully once this recovery is done. You must have been in so much pain. Sending my love xx
Congrats!! Hugs! High- fives!! Each day and week will be better than the next. Just keep that in your “head” heehee! No pun intended!! It really is a relief to be in capable hands. Knowlegeable doctors make ALL the difference in the world!! So happy that you are in the mend!!
Tiffanie
WoW Bellalarke,
No wonder the pain you were in! Sounds as though you had an excellent NS! I’m so pleased to read your uplifting post. So nice of your friends to help out in so many ways! You deserve it! Take advantage and take care of YOU! I pray for your continued well being and hope that your recovery is smooth.
I still feel so fortunate to have had the MVD with no complications. One day at a time my friend, thinking of you with warm thoughts ( despite the 8C temp outside here) lol
Please keep in touch,
(((( hugs )))) Mimi xx
woohoo. Glad it turned out so well. It's a much needed jump start. When I had mine I was in manic mode for a while.
Man I wish I had a wood burning stove or fireplace, love the smell.
Congrats!