Happy 4th Anniversary

Four years ago today I had brain surgery to remove Arnold the Acoustic Neuroma from my ear.  It is considered brain surgery since they had to drill into my skull.  Thankfully, the surgery did not actually go into my brain.

Although I am always surprised at who of my friends have read my entire blog, I am sure there are many of you that have not read any of it yet.  My first post will help you understand who Arnold is and why he had to be surgically removed from my life: http://arnold-the-an.blogspot.com/2013/02/meet-arnold.html
 
Today is a day to reflect on this surgery.  I find that my memories of this day 4 years ago are rather hazy and there are only snippets that I remember.  This doesn’t surprise me at all.  My memory is horrible now plus with all of the medication and pain it is rather best I don’t remember too much.
 
I do know that my kids visited me in the ICU sometime the day after my surgery.  Some things I don’t think they told me before was that they had their temperatures taken before they could come see me.  They also got popsicles, the kind with the two sticks!  I asked if I was scary looking with all the tubes and stuff.  They said no.  I know they were worried about me, but I don’t think they understand fully exactly what happened to me, not even now.  I guess it’s good they have good memories of the hospital, popsicles, the gift shop, so they are not fearful of hospitals.
 
When I talk to Greg about that day, it seems during my surgery is a blur for him as well.  We were up at some crazy hour and had to be at UCSF by 6:30AM.  Then there was a lot of waiting before surgery, which we did together so it wasn’t too bad.  When I finally was wheeled off for surgery, his waiting really began.  This type of surgery usually takes about 8 hours.  That seems like a long time to be waiting for someone.  He seems to just remember going to lunch with my brother and talking to him a lot.  Of course, all I remember was being wheeled into the OR, thinking it looked like a messy storage closet full of equipment, then waking up with my eyes bouncing all over the place and feeling like crap and wondering why in the world I ever went through with this!!
 
Every year there after I have felt better and better.  With my personal training certification I learned more about balance and stability training and have incorporated that into my workouts.  I feel like that has helped me and that I am improving in both areas.  I feel physically strong and mentally strong and like I am charging through life at full speed.
My biggest difficulty now is my hearing, and that will remain my biggest challenge.  But, I’m not really alone in this.  Hearing loss is quite prevalent, especially as we get older.  I just consider myself ahead of the curve!

Scar

One thing I have not posted is a picture of my incision and subsequent scar.  So here you go:

Just after surgery, stitches still in.

Today, 4 years later.

Yes, I have kept my hair short.  I tried growing it out last year, got fed up with it and cut it short again.  I kind of love not having much hair.
It was about 2 weeks to get my stitches out.  I did not have a whole lot of swelling, but the scar did keloid.  It has slowly gone down over these 4 years with the help of Rosehip Seed Oil that I rub on it almost every day. 
It is still numb in places.  I don't think that will ever go away.  I do constantly wonder where exactly the hole is and how big it is.