Day 13 - Staples Out!

I had my first post-op appointment on Wednesday and it went super well. I feel I completely lucked out with the level of care I was given by my neurosurgeon Dr. Shahlaie. As fast as this all happened he was completely reassuring, empathetic and enormously talented. The whole procedure was minimally invasive (what he specializes in) and I feel like I won the brain tumor jackpot (if that makes any sense.)

Me & Dr. Shahlaie at my appointment.

I told him I'd remind everyone that I shaved my own head so he wouldn't get blamed.

I learned the there's a very small chance the tumor will return, but he got the whole thing and everything is healing really well. I also got some super cool pictures of my scans and was able to compare pre-surgery MRI to post-surgery CAT scan (the night after surgery.)

But first! Here I am with no more staples! YAY! I can report that it didn't really hurt coming out either. More like a little pinch. Thank Goodness! I was a bit scared about it.

14 staples gone!

Now here's the MRI of my tumor on the left and the CAT scan without it on the right just after surgery. It's amazing how fast my brain tissue was taking the space back up that the tumor was filling. The black lines on the CAT scan are silicone mesh that they inserted between my tissue and skull. That will stay.

The blue circle here shows the part of the skull that was removed to access the tumor.
You can also see the staples to the right side of it (that are now gone.) 

And here we have what I consider to be the most interesting picture. It's a CAT scan post surgery showing my 3 plates and 10 screws. To make it easier to see I color coded it.

• Blue is the piece of skull that was removed and put back. 
• Red is the 3 plates. 2 are straight bars and 1 is a round one. All are titanium
• Yellow is the 10 titanium screws keeping everything in place.  

You can see the staples here too, but that's just in the skin.

All the other hardware will be with me for life now.

My husband calls it "jewelry for my head." Hahah!

Here's what the round titanium piece looks like not in my head. I think it's really interesting looking!

Here's the scan without my markups. It's a bit harder to understand, but easier to see all the details.

I got cleared for lifting 20lbs and doing moderate exercise (as long as my muscles cooperate of course.) I'm trying to be more active and get some exercise. My father-in-law gave me the fantastic gift of clearing out my garden for me, so I'm now trying to beautify it and give it even more love. So far it's hard for me not to do too much, but I'm trying!

My amazing father-in-law going to town on my mess of a garden.

What a great gift!