The second day of being in the oncology unit at 10am I had to meet with the neurosurgeon who was going to discuss the surgery. The surgeon walks into my room and I am already impressed with his professionalism and care towards me. Checks my eyes and head and then talks about what a tumor is and how serious of a situation I am in. In fact that he will need to speak to his team and strategically and tactically plan this major operation over 5 days. With constant MRI and CT scans with contrast which I'm allergic too and counted up having over 27 injections before surgery checking for
Hormones
Sodium
Blood Cells
Etc I can't remember.
The neurosurgeon wanted to see me on the Tuesday the day before surgery which was a Wednesday in his office with my family to discuss the operation in full detailed. So over the next couple of days I spent in Hospital with my family who would come and visit me and then I was transferred to the Neuroscience neurology ward where they treat patients with strokes, blood clots, tumors and intense brain damage problems so I knew this was pretty serious. Over the days I developed great relationships with the nurses and they were so nice. It gave me peace that I had some of the same nurses both day and night shift looking after me. Because I had a tumor they were doing my blood pressure and sugar levels every 2 hours so at night you would be woken up every 2 hours so sleep was hard. However the food was awesome and I can't complain!
I've never experienced anything like a feeling knowing that I am going to have major surgery involving ICU at the end. It's no comparison to wisdom teeth or ingrown toe nail surgery. Brain surgery scared the living day lights out of me. IT'S THE BRAIN!!
It was so lovely of my partner to stay with me each night before surgery, had lots of laughs and short walks to Hudson's coffee as really a Hospital isn't really a place of adventure and entertainment.
On the Tuesday I was wheeled up with my family to see the Neurosurgeons office to discuss the plan of attack and I was anxiously waiting to hear what involves. Got called in and away we go. The surgeon told me he was going to perform a
craniotomy
which is a removal of the scalp to get the tumor out but there are major significant risks involving this.The surgeon out the risks and complications in statistics and was scary. The following risks were:
Brain Damage
Blindness
Stroke
Blood Clot
Loss of Oxygen
Nerve Damage and Brain Damage
Death
However he was optimistic and the location of the tumor I had a good chance but if I don't do the surgery I will die within the next 2-3 months or less. So I had no other choice.
The important thing was that he was telling me that he grades his tumors from 1-4
1&2 being benign and 3&4 magliant (cancer) was fingers crossed that I have a tumor that is a 1.
So after a very confronting consultation I go back to my ward eat up before fasting and had the Catholic Priest and Epworth Pastoral Care Team do Holy Communion with me and the social workers helping my family out.
In all my life I've never been so scared tomorrow was the big day starting surgery at 7am and knowing that it may take 5-8 hours followed by 3 days of ICU how could I not sleep? Especially with a blood pressure reading of 190 then 210 at 1am in the morning. Will I die? Will I wake up?
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