Well, technically the day is not over YET at 10 p.m., but I haven’t had to take any pain pills today! Yippee! I eased up on the strong black tea, drank more water, stepped away from the iPad and paced myself a bit more. And, even enjoyed my first lengthy soak in the tub without getting a head or neck ache.
Fingers and toes crossed that I’ll sleep all night now.
Thursday overnight and Friday were not pleasant. I could not get comfortable and could not get to sleep. I spent all day Friday in bed and didn’t venture out of the room until the evening to watch the opening ceremony for the Olympics. Then, of course, I was up very late because I had slept during the day….but at least I felt better.
Not sure what triggered that set back. I straightened up my home office Thursday afternoon and may have bent over to pick things up off the floor from my chair a little too much. That’s the only thing I could think of. My head had a heavy ache about it and my jaw felt a little swollen. Pain pills and cold cloths helped finally.
Today, I woke up feeling better and knew I needed a prescription from the drugstore, so I showered, which still wipes me out, then Dave drove me to the drugstore which is about 15 minutes away. Not convenient to home, but very convenient to work. The drive bothered me because it was very sunny out and the light flashing through the trees effected me. The roads are also rough this time of year with frost heaves popping up, so the jerking and jarring of the car bothered me a bit.
Walking into the drugstore wasn’t too bad and I even looked in one aisle for another item. Although I certainly felt all of that stimulus and it bothered me, I know from previous experience, it will get better. I just need to get out there more.
Then, like an idiot when I got home, I did too much and really felt lousy so had to lay down and had a nice nap. Dave, bless his heart, threw a beef stew in the slow cooker before we left and we had a lovely dinner later in the day.
The majority of the stitches around my ear, where my glasses hit, have healed, but there is still quite a bit of dried blood in the larger areas of the incision. I’m trying to be more gentle around those areas yet.
At the three week mark, I need to step up my recovery and build up my stamina. Dr. Dave informed me yesterday he needs to get me OUT of the house and exposed to more stimuli. Hmm….wonder what that means…and just where did he get that direction? 
Seriously though, I do need to do that. During my recovery after my rupture, once I started going into surroundings that I wasn’t seeing on a daily basis that had a lot of clutter, it was tough to process all of the data my brain was seeing. I am hoping I won’t have that kind of difficulty this time because the clipping wasn’t an emergency situation like the rupture in 2006 was.
I’m now trying to come up with a word or two to describe what my scalp feels like the last couple of days. It doesn’t hurt or ache really, it just feels…odd. When I psychically touch the left side of my head it psychically feels like my scalp has been shot up with novocaine and I’m told it could feel that way for months. That’s an easy one to describe and something other people can relate to.
However, when I’m not touching it, there are odd sensations and slight aches and pains when I’m simply sitting still. I’m assuming it’s all part of the process…just strange for me going through clipping this first time after multiple coilings
My hair is growing back and, if the winds are favorable, I can cover that area up with the longer hair around the 1″ wide shaved section and the incision. If it’s windy…well, people get the freak show.
When I have my 4-week follow up appointment, I’ll be curious to ask my Dr. exactly where the bone section of the skull was removed and to get a better idea of the size of the aneurysm.
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| From middle of forehead to ear | Hair growing back | And some hair covers it |
Better day today. Felt much better when I first woke up. Started doing some very small loads of laundry, which was good as it helped me walk up and down stairs. Then I wanted to go outside for a walk, so Dave and I set out up the road. Really enjoyed the fresh air and as I was looking up at the bare, stark tree limbs against the beautiful blue sky, I thanked God for blessing me with life and allowing me to continue. January was such a rough month for my family and as things start to settle down, the sadness of losing my other sister continues to linger. Again I ask God…why am I still here? Apparently he has other plans for me.
And one of those plans was a giant NAP! LOL After small loads of laundry and the walk, I could not keep my eyes open and was wobbly. Dave went into town to pick up a print job and some groceries and I settled down for a long, winter’s nap. Unfortunately, when I woke up, I wasn’t feeling as good as I was earlier. Dinner helped, then I wanted to take a shower.
I guess I got a little rough with my hair in the shower, even though I thought I was very gentle at the time because my incision ached quite a bit afterwards. Stitches are starting to dissolve, but there is still quite the raised area on the incision and anytime I “catch” the incision with my fingernail or the end of a comb or brush, it’s an owie!
As I was settling down after the shower, I started to read some of my digital magazines on my iPad. This is the first time I made a concerted effort at reading things longer than a Tweet or Facebook post. It went well. We’ll see how I feel in the morning, but it’s a start. Since I stare at a computer all day at work, I’ll need to build up to lengthier times with on-screen viewing.
We’re supposed to get a snow storm tomorrow, so no walking outside for awhile and I will miss that. Not that I’m going anywhere…oh, yeah…I had brain surgery 19 days ago! I can rest.
Heidi's Brain Blog 