The good, the bad, and the ugly

My staples are out!  After being told there were just twenty of them, I didn't think this would be a big deal, but apparently people involved in medicine need some help counting.  I actually had 43 staples, so it took about thirty minutes to get them all out.  Pulling out staples surprisingly does not hurt very much at all, but thanks to the fact that the staples were on my head makes it a very messy process.  I now have some of the most impressive scabs I've ever seen in my hair.  I also discovered that Dr. O is an avid fly fishermen, since him and Rock had an engaging conversation about how the instruments he used to remove the staples and stitches looked a lot like equipment used fishing.  Ewww.

I'm free!

The best news of all of this is that I can now take a shower normally!  I am supposed to let the staple wounds in my forehead "breathe" for 24 hours, then I can scrub them shampoo as much as I want.  I am considering walking down the aisle in a store with the staple wound visible just to see how many men I can get to collapse. (They did let me keep the staples :)

On another note, my tumor sample sent off to the specialist still has not been returned.  Apparently the specialists sent it off to specialists of the specialists.  It has now hit the point where it could take up to a month since my James Dean tumor is so obnoxious in its indecision.  So, the tumor board decided to go ahead and meet.  

This is where news is not all good.  They have made the decision to classify my tumor as cancerous.  Ugh.  As a result, I am going to be having radiation and chemo treatment.  Double ugh.  That means I am now graduating from Dr. O onto Dr. Wagner, Dr. Remmington, and Dr. Stille (pronounced "style", not "still/steel".  Pronouncing it "steel" would be cooler after Remmington though).  I have my first appointment tomorrow with Dr. Remmington.  All I know so far about treatment is that they plan on being really aggressive with radiation (5 days a week!!) and will be less aggressive with chemotherapy.  It will be mostly outpatient with low dosage.  

Well, sorry it couldn't be all fun and humorous news.  Just know that should the chemo be strong enough that I lose my hair, I want it to grow back either blonde or neon green.

Brainy pictures!

After much bugging of the MRI/CT people, (and a $15 fee), we were able to get copies of the reports and pictures generated by my multiple visits to those obnoxious machines.  I'm pretty sure that by the end of all this I will have had a pretty extensive love affair with the MRI machine.  First of all, tumor size.  According to the first report my tumor was "10 x 6.3 x 5.4 cm area of edema  predominantly involving the left temporal lobe." That is HUGE!!!!  I thought that the doctor was a bit negative by saying how it was a miracle that I had never had a seizure, now I agree with him. When I do tumors I don't do them half way.  Here is a picture of my pre-surgery MRI.  The tumor is on the right:

It is pretty gross to look at, but also sooooo cool.  Is it bad that my first thought when I finally saw these images today was that they would be an excellent teaching resource in my science classroom?

I was also able to get the MRI images of my head post-surgery.  I never thought I would be so happy to see a hole in my brain.  The white area is where they had my drainage apparatus installed.  Some of the MRI images showed my staples, but I didn't think the men out there could handle it :).

On another note, the meeting with the "tumor board" that was supposed to happen tomorrow was delayed until Wednesday.  They have yet to receive the needed report from the specialist committee that they had to send my tumor samples off to.  Since my tumor had decided to be so obnoxious with all of its indecision, I am now going to call it the "rebel-tumor".  It will put up with being mostly removed, but not fully removed; cancerous, but not cancerous; loving blood, but hating quick growth.  Stupid tumor.  

I don't know the Wizard of Oz very well . . .

Time to make my first entry now that I am officially home and out of the hospital.  I never thought I would appreciate home so much!  I mean, don't get me wrong, I always loved coming home to our house, but now I come home to showers, real food, and incredible friends and family.

One big adventure that I was looking forward to was washing my hair for the first time.  I was told by Dr. O that I could do it as long as I kept the staples as dry as I could.  That is what Moms are for.  So, much like a child, I was ushered over to a water filled kitchen sink to have my hair scrubbed.  Through this washing we did discover that all twenty staples are perfectly straight, except for three at the end of the staple line.  Maybe they were done by my very exuberant anesthesiologist.

Mom brushing out my hair after the washing

 On that note, I am also going to quit my teaching career.  Now that I've gotten a good look at the staples on my head, I realize that those staples look remarkably like that staples I use to hold together work in my classroom.  I am going to begin reselling those staples in my classroom to doctors in order to make a couple million bucks.  Maybe I'll even offer to staple them in a straight line for small fee.  

We also discovered through inspection of my staples by a nurse before I left the hospital that some men are just . . . wimps.  My friend Jessi (who is pregnant none the less) leaned over to take pictures and document what it looked like; her husband left the room because he was feeling queasy.  Our friend Nick left the room only to lose consciousness next to the nurses' station.  Apparently us ladies are tougher when it comes to blood and guts.

There's no place like home

We're home! Now the recovery can begin! Thanks to everyone for their support we'll be updating as her recovery progresses.
She'll take care of her OWN blog now. Rock, signing off!
-R

...close your eyes and click your heels

We are so close to home! The doctor and nurses said that tomorrow, if blood work is good we can take Shannon home. Just going to have to wait for the doctors final approval, which may take awhile.

Finally got some photos of the cut they made (thanks Jessi!). Sorta makes her look like a baseball with all those staples. She has alot of hair left which means dry shampoos and hair nets are in our near future. Probably be a few weeks till she can take a normal shower.

What a world, what a world!

Well its not good news but its not bad news. Our doctor told us its a type 3 tumor. But its a funny type 3. It has developed arteries but its very slow growing. It is large but the cell density is very sparse. We are going to have radiation but chemo is in question. We are waiting on reference for confirmation, but there with be meetings with the tumor board. Doesn't sound pleasant.

Good news Shannon gets to go home tomorrow, as long as she behaves tonight. She's enjoying friends visiting, such as her friend Jessi from Anaconda.

-R

Just click those ruby slippers....

Well, this is the first blog entry written by me, Shannon (transcribed by Rock), since the surgery. The first exciting news; I show no problems!  Yeah! All of my limbs, senses, and memories work as they should. My 6-8 weeks of recovery has been cut down to 3-5 weeks. I am also very happy to report that after 3 1/2 days I am out of the ICU. While i do get why i was in the ICU (it was brain surgery after all), i will not miss the ICU in the least: It was certainly "memorable".

Good memories
-sweetest nurses I've ever met
-visit by my extra quirky anesthesiologist
-friends sneaking in "unsterilised" gifts

Bad memories
-woken up every hour, on the hour, for tests of some sort
-a ton of IV's (literally)
-inflatable socks that exist solely to prevent blood clotting
-lack of a bathroom
-the "crazies" waking up in a room nearly
- laying, or sitting (sometimes),  for hours with an ice pack. I love being able to see out of both eyes.
- people panicking because something became disconnected
- food ( at least edible food)

....to be continued (my fingers are cramping).