Tag: recovery

I Remember

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As my six month anniversary of my brain aneurysm clipping arrives, I ran across the notes I took at my first followup appointment with the surgeon. I scribbled that the “bone has to heal”. I keep forgetting the bone will heal around the screws and plates holding the bone flap secure. The last several weeks, I have “felt” my brain/head/nerves when I lay at a flatter level in bed. It’s not painful, it’s just not a pleasant sensation. So I have added another pillow and that helps.

On Neurosurgery.com from Australia, there was this question: Does the bone heal back into the skull?  In most cases yes, but in some people it can re-absorb to a degree then you will have a depression in your skull.

I must be one of the “some people” statistic. I notice the depression and can feel it and Dave has noticed it, but unless I point it out to people I don’t think they know it’s there. So I should stop pointing it out, right? LOL Hey, I had a hole cut into my head and 53 stitches. It MAY just leave a scar, right?

I know things are continuing to heal. The scalp is still numb, but it appears to be getting some feeling back now. My short strands of hair that were shaved at the incision are now growing a tick longer and annoying the hell out of me! We’ll see if I can hold out one more month then get it all cut short for the rest of the summer.

I THINK I’m starting to get some energy back. Granted, I haven’t really DONE much of anything. I’m getting chubby, but I’m rested. That’s good isn’t it? I’m up for a full physical next week and have to get some lab work done this week. We’ll see how my numbers look.

Overall I’m doing well. I’m listening to my body and when I need to sleep, I sleep. At least I try to. The main reason I had this procedure done was so I can continue living and that’s what I’m trying to do…one month at a time. I must remember I am still recovering and must remember my head/skull/brain is still healing. My brain bling is firmly in place.

Chatty Cathy

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We had another brain aneurysm support group meeting in Portland. The turnout was not as good as in previous months and we’re sure it’s because of the beautiful weather we were having. There were only two of us for quite some time, then we learned the speaker had to cancel due to a death in the family. Now what?

Finally a few more people showed up and a decision to simply have an open forum of discussion was agreed upon. There were 21 at last month’s meeting and this month was about half that at 11. There were four survivors and 3 care givers, two mental health care givers, Dave’s sister Nancy, our own medical person from the hospital and a reporter. I knew there was a possibility the reporter would be there to write a story, so we were very pleased when a few more people showed up.

As it turns out, it was probably one of the best group sessions the reporter could have attended because there WASN’T a speaker. We spoke freely, asked questions of one another and shared frustrations, fears, and our collective “brain bling” because the four survivors in the group were craniotomy & clipping recipients. It was a wonderful hour and 15 minutes of sharing and in some cases educational for a few.

I seemed to think I was overly talkative when I thought about it afterwards. I think because the reporter WAS there, I wanted to make sure some of the efforts of our group and our events were brought to attention as well as some of my own personal experience. And perhaps I did a bit too much. Probably the reason the reporter never spoke to me personally about my experience…I blabbed about it the whole meeting. LOL I was the only one she didn’t seem to speak with afterwards. I guess I gave her enough info…and then some, or my story just wasn’t that intriguing.

It was nice to speak up and out. I don’t get the opportunity very much, other than in this blog, and I never know who is, and isn’t reading my blog because they rarely make themselves known to me. I enjoyed knowing I could speak freely and have people understand some of what I was talking about. I hope I didn’t do too much or interrupt. Listening is the most important thing you can do at a support group meeting. It’s why we’re there…to lend support and allow people to speak. I just spoke…and spoke…and spoke. So I apologize if I ran over anyone. Chatty Cathy can be powerful!

Gravity

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Since my craniotomy brain aneurysm clipping surgery in January, I have slept at an angle with a large, decorative pillow behind my regular pillow. I decided to try sleeping with a regular one instead and realized I guess I can’t sleep that low. I was kind of surprised.

I had trouble getting to sleep the other night. My skull was “acting up”. I have yet to find the correct word to describe how it feels. It’s not hurting per say, but it feels strange and kind of aching and disarming. Almost like someone is squeezing my brain, or at least the tissues around my brain. I’m sure it’s just all of those layers of tissue continuing to heal after being cut apart and pealed way from my skull, but laying down flatter certainly made it more prevalent.

Gravity was not my friend. I tried to get comfortable. I always start to sleep on my right side anyway, but even that wasn’t very comfortable. I rolled over and that didn’t help, even when I tried to position the pillows so they weren’t touching my head in that area. Which is NOT easy, trust me! 🙂

So, I grabbed the large pillow again and positioned that behind my head and that helped…or at least psychologically it helped me. I’m not sure if this is just part of that healing and recovery process or if laying lower really created that discomfort. I had the same discomfort driving home from work today. I know I can’t blame that on gravity as I don’t normally lay down while driving! I think they frown upon that.

Dave has urged me to take advantage of our medical personnel presence at the brain aneurysm support group this Friday to ask her if I should be concerned or if that’s just a normal part of the healing and recovery. I just wish I could describe the feeling better.

The 5-Month Mark

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Five months ago this morning, my brain aneurysm was clipped. After two nights in the hospital, I spent 8 weeks recovering then was back at work. The report so far is good and I think I’m doing well. I know I still have a ways to go and the upcoming months will begin to test my fatigue and stamina as work efforts will increase.

But, until that happens, the progress is good considering everything that could have happened. Fatigue, both mental and physical is still an issue and I cannot determine exactly which type of effort tires me out more. Grocery shopping is a chore. I used to go grocery shopping after work, but have yet to do that since January. Working a full day and driving 60 miles is still difficult and if I were to add groceries to that, I fear my attention to driving would be severely diminished. As a result I wait until the weekends, and usually give myself a day to rest after the work week on Saturday, then shop on Sundays. So far that seems to be working.

20140616-224105.jpgMy incision is basically invisible. I can feel where it is and it’s obvious where the incision was made due to where my hair was shaved, but it’s doing good. I’m still a little self-conscious of the dent at the side of my eye and the visible screws underneath my skin on the left side of my forehead, but I’d rather have that small issue than have to go through another rupture. There….so shut up about it Heidi!

20140616-224326.jpgNow, my hair growth from the shaved area is taking its sweet-ass time growing in, which is frustrating still. At 5 months it has grown a whopping 2″. At least it isn’t sticking up quite as bad as it had and I can finally dry it so it lays flat. Progress, but still weird to deal with. My next cut may be short, with some color. I hate my hair short, but it’ll grow back (maybe!).

Bending over too much and lifting heavy things are exhausting and I think…THINK the feeling in my scalp is finally starting to come back. The only reason I’m starting to think that is that my scalp is hurting now. It’s not an ache-type of pain, but if I scratch, touch, or brush that part of my scalp where the skin was peeled back, it feels tender and almost like little needles, lightly pricking my head. I’m hoping that feeling is all of the nerves reconnecting where they were cut. It was a large area that was cut for the incision and peeled back, so there is a lot of reconnection that needs to occur.

I’ve been told by two doctors that it will probably take a good year before I feel back to “normal”, whatever normal is now. So that means a tiring fall and winter. Goody! But I’m still here.