The Adventures of Alyssa and Timmy: I just had brain surgery...what's your excuse?

Hey everybody! I know it's been forever since I've written something, but I have been so exhausted and weak I couldn't even think of anything to write. This post is going to focus on the actual surgery and my first stay in the hospital (yes I've had two hospital visits, but I'll tell you about the second one some other time)

So I had my surgery February 20th. We had to be at the hospital at 6:30 in the morning and surgery was at 8 am.

Me waiting in the pre-op area

It was a six hour surgery! And two of those hours was spent prepping me. I had two IV's (one in my hand and one in my foot) an IV in my wrist that measured my blood pressure and a central line in my neck. They had to shave my hair (luckily I read online to wear your hair in double french braids, which meant they didn't have to shave more than they needed). They also had to screw my head into a halo, because I was sitting up during surgery. I was left with some pretty nasty goose eggs on my head from that.

The last thing I remember before succumbing to anesthesia was my surgeon waving to me and them strapping my legs to a table. The next thing was waking up in the neuro ICU nauseous and asking the nurses to put a wet towel over my eyes.

I was so sick that first night. They brought me dinner (spaghetti, who the hell wants to eat spaghetti after brain surgery) and I refused. I asked for jello and ginger ale, but I ended up throwing that up for the rest of the night.

I had the best nurses in the ICU. First I had Oliver who I confided in and told him my fear of waking up to the zombie apocalypse after surgery like in the Walking Dead. He understood, he watches the show. Then I had Alex who I asked non stop what time it was, because I was eager to see my parents and boyfriend and find out if I passed my boards. Then I had Merriam who made sure I was completely ready when they transferred me to the main hospital, and also informed me that my hiccups were a side effect of brain surgery (who knew!). They were all so kind and patient and I was really well cared for. I had great nurses in the main hospital, on the neuro unit, as well.

By the way on my second day in the ICU I found out I passed my OT boards! It was a great day...until they transferred me.

For some reason they put me in a shared room, and my roommate was AWFUL. She was an older lady who was extremely loud, had tons of visitors, had the loudest nurse ever, and had her TV constantly blaring. We had the nurse ask her to turn her TV down because I was extremely sensitive to sound, and it caused me extreme pain. She said, "No. I don't see how that benefits me. It's my last night in the hospital." Ugh. When my heart rate spiked to 120 they finally moved me to a private room and I was able to rest.

I was in the hospital for four days. They tried to send me home after three days, but I was terrified. My pain wasn't under control without IV meds, and my blood pressure had been 96/57 the night before. My nurse, William, advocated for me and they let me stay another night. William was awesome. You could tell he really cared and I appreciated everything he did for me.

They sent me home on a Sunday. I was miserable at home and in tears. I wanted so badly to go back to the hospital, because I was comfortable and felt safe there. I'm not unsafe at home, I just worry a lot.

I'm just gonna add on here a little note about the tumor. Most of this info we found out later, but I don't want to keep you worrying. So they got all of Timmy except a very miniscule portion that was attached to a major vein. My surgeon cauterized it so it's dead. I got the final pathology report on Thursday and it is benign! There are some confusing parts though. It is possible, although very very very unlikely, that down the road it could come back and it could come back malignant. My tumor is such a rare one there isn't much known. However, because of the extremely small chances there is no reason to worry about that. I will however have to get regular MRI's for at least five years.

Now for some pictures! Some of them are a bit gruesome so if you are squeamish, don't say I didn't warn you.