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Showing posts from November, 2023

Recover and the Plans After Surgery

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This may shock and amaze some, but the recovery from deep brain surgery is a two-week period. I have been told that I should not run a marathon or anything, but I should be up and moving, using my brain as much as normal.  If you think about someone who has had hip surgery, they must get up and start walking quickly after surgery. It hurts, but that pain will turn into progress if they move. Brain surgery, if I start using my brain, the pain will also turn into synapsis firing, brain reconnecting, and recovery will be more progressive.  The most amount of pain will come from the skull/bone pain. However, if you break your arm, you are put in a cast, and you return to work within a few days, this pain will be similar.  There is no muscle to go through, simply skin, bone, and brain tissue. The brain technically does not have pain. It receives pain sensors from the other parts of the body and relies on the information but can not feel pain itself.  In recovery, I am tol...

The days are shorter

Since November 1st has come, the days have felt shorter. 16 days, 15 days, 10 days, 7 days, ... and as I write this, it is only 5 days away. The emotions over the last few weeks have been different. I am striving to continue to hold on to peace from God and not the fear of this world.  My family strives to hold on to peace from God, but it is not easy.  However, in the midst of this, my boys are thriving. Blaine received Student of the Month for Inola Middle School, and Elijah was crowned King of the ESA Carnival after raising over five hundred dollars for the school. Both boys were brought to the School Board meeting to be honored. What beautiful humans they are and the great men they are growing into. However, I am most proud of how they love Jesus and others. I know they strive to see how to do such a simple and challenging task daily, and that is the joy that they are learning and growing.  Due to Pre-OP, I had to miss the Board Meeting and the Veterans program Elijah...

New scans

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Here is a view showing the tumor from the side view. It is located in the middle-middle of my brain.  The Pineal Region. Where is sits, the nerves and vessels use that canal to then go down into the spinal column. Blocking this area can be dangerous.  Here is a closer view.   This is the view from the top of my head, looking down.  My eyeballs look the creepiest part of this entire photo. lol 

Meeting Dr. Ian Dunn

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Mom and I went to the city, OKC, on Halloween day to meet with the neurosurgeon Ian Dunn.  He walks into the room, and you can feel his confidence.  It was not a prideful or boastful confidence but the confidence of a man who has worked hard to get to where he is in his profession. He was kind, had great patient-provider connections, and was honest with everything.  During the first part of the visit, he reviewed my updated MRIs and showed us a better picture of the tumor. He shared how it is potentially touching a nerve and maybe a vessel and how he will preserve the nerve and vessel and leave tissue of the tumor if needed. Dunn shared the tumor will rarely, or never, come back.  He has never seen one return in his experience.  Mom asked about cancer and his previous cases.  Dunn does fewer than five cases yearly, and I will be number four in 2023.  It is rare to need this surgery. In the twenty-four cases he has ever performed, he has only seen patho...