Yesterday I met with Dr Reichman up at IMC. That is where I will be having my surgery. Dr Reichman is the Neuro-surgeon that will work with Dr Shelton. I enjoyed meeting him, he told me that many years ago he had had a similar surgery, he lost the hearing in his ear and had his balance nerves cut, he said he's doing great. He told me it hasn't affected his skiing at all. I was so relieved to hear that since that has been one of my concerns.
He did say that it was going to be very difficult to remove my tumor from my brainstem. The surgery should take 4-6 hours but because my tumor is "very large" and because it is on the brainstem it will probably take 8 hours or more for the surgery. Nick then had to ask what side effects I could have from having it removed off my brainstem. He said I could lose all movement on the left side of my body, but with physical therapy I can learn to move again in about a year. I am not too concerned about this happening I have fasted and prayed for these surgeons a lot and I will focus on that. I am sure that they will do a great job.
One good possibility from having a very large tumor is that there is a chance that the tumor has already destroyed my balance nerves, and so my brain has already compensated for not having them on my right side. That means that recovery could be a lot easier. I wouldn't be so sick and it would be a lot easier to learn to balance. I am trying not to get my hopes up though.
I have lost about 50% of my taste now most of it was lost within the last month. I was very disapointed when me and Nick stopped for my favorite icecream and I couldn't taste it. I don't know if my taste will ever come back. I guess that will just be one more thing that we have to wait and see if it will ever come back.
I will go meet with Dr Shelton again on Friday and should get my surgery time that day. I am so sick of waiting, I just want to get this over with. I will post again on Friday when I know what time my surgery will be.
Hang in there Stephanie! They are great surgeons and they have both worked many miracles. It is so hard seeing someone else go through exactly what we just went through and are going through. Unfortunately this surgery requires a lot of waiting, for surgery to come, and through recovery.
ReplyDelete