Musings of a Technonerd

In case you hadn't read my earlier posts, our son underwent brain surgery last Thursday, November 9th, to remove an Arterio-Venous-Malformation. (Google it. Here, I'll do it for you.)

It was located in the right front lobe of his brain, and presented a major risk for bleeding, or worse, outright rupture and certain death. The neurosurgeon was emphatic that due to it's size and location, it needed to be removed. He emphasized "I wouldn't wait very long to do this!!" And he meant it.

It was the most tense 4 hours we've ever spent in our lives. When the surgeon came out to the waiting room to tell us that "Everything went fine. I got all of the AVM out, sealed off all of the ends of the veins and arteries, and he should recover fully!" it was like an overfilled balloon was suddenly released. The release of tension was palpable. We sat there, pretty much drained, and contemplated what had just happened. He was in post-op for a couple of hours, and all of a sudden, my wife and I realized we hadn't really had anything to eat that day, and we were really hungry. After lunch, we were directed to the ICU where he was to spend the next couple of days, and we saw him for the first time. He was awake, cogent, and as "with it" as one can be after someone pulls your scalp halfway off your head and punches a big hole in your skull. His entire head was covered with dressings and a gauze cap. We asked him how he was doing, and he said "I feel like I've been hit by a truck! A reeeeeealy big one!" Right away, his sense of humor was there, and that was incredibly reassuring to us. He was back on solid food on Friday evening, and was in a regular room by Sunday, with all of the tubing and wires and crap off, and boy was he glad to get rid of all of that.


He's back home now, and he's back to his old self! (Mostly. Still feels like a truck hit him, but a smaller one now.) It's going to take about 6 weeks of recovery before he can do things like go back to work, school, etc. The most important thing is that he's back mentally. One of the things we had to realize was that there was the possibility there could be side effects from the operation. Anytime you go inside the skull, no matter why, there's always the possibility of after effects. Our son seems to have none of those, and as I wrote, he's his old self in every way possible, and that's the thing we are most thankful for. That isn't entirely working in his favor. He's a classic type "A" and was hoping he was going to be able to "hit the ground running" but is somewhat dismayed that it's going to take longer than a few days to get through this. He's the type to get bored if he sits any longer than 15 minutes, but we've finally managed to convince him that if he doesn't just take it easy and recuperate fully before getting active, he could end up right back in the hospital, in worse shape than when we started. That got his attention, and he's resigned himself to taking it easy, laying on the couch, and watching movies he's been meaning see.

Once again, I want to thank everyone so much for all of the thoughts, best wishes, and prayers. They meant so much to us, and helped us get through this stressful month. (The operation was one month to the day after the seizure that brought all of this on.) Thank you all.

Hariseldon 67