(I have reposted this article that appeared on my old site because it was a popular page and I don’t want it to get lost when I shut the old site down…..so here you go.)
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Hi family, friends and fans,
This is just a note to let you know that I am still alive and survived my surgery!!
I was in surgery last Thursday May 20th all day from 8:30 am until 6:00 pm….Then I was in ICU for a day and a half and finally got discharged from the hospital on Tuesday of this week. I hope to be able to be released from doctor’s care in early July.
Unfortunately during surgery they found more “dehiscences” (medical term for a hole in your head…..) besides the one they had already visualized through the superior canal bone via the CT scan. The other dehiscences were in my mastoid bone…..they could not see these particular dehiscenses from the CT scans. Basically I had perforations through my skull base and I was leaking cerebral fluid out of my head into my inner ear and sinuses. Very appetizing, I know! LOL. Among other things, this could have caused me to get meningitis if not corrected, but they tell me they got them all patched. I also ended up with a cerebral spinal fluid leak and an air pocket that caused me the hugest headache I have ever had and took several days to get under control. A lumbar “blood patch” did the trick, thank God, otherwise I would have been staying the night again at Hotel Swedish. Home is good. 🙂
So, right now I exercising my faith in my surgeons and God as I currently cannot hear in my left ear at all except for sporadic very weird, “zinging” and “buzzing” sounds. I could swear every now and then I can hear some kind of radio transmissions in my left ear as well! I am serious! They tell my my they monitored my hearing during the entire procedure and that my sensorineural hearing is just fine and that right now the reason I cannot hear is because my mastoid bones and inner ear are full of fluid that should dissipate over time and they expect me to fully recover my hearing and have normal balance again once I am all healed in 4-6 weeks. I also came away with one heck of a scar! I told the surgeon I liked to play the bass and wondered if he could fashion a bass clef shaped scar!! He must of thought I was serious because I think he came pretty close!! LOL! It’s very bad. Here are some lovely pics for you at the bottom of this post. 🙂
At the risk of being redundant, but for the benefit of anyone on the Internet reading this who might also have SCDS and had or will have the surgery, here is a bullet list summary of my post-surgical experience:
- Unable to hear in my left ear Day 1 post op to present
- Spinal headache Day 1 post op to Day 5 post op
- Very dizzy Day 1 post op to present (this will be a longer term healing and adjustment process according to doc. Position changes still cause me a lot of dizziness, especially driving in circles!)
- Unable to see or focus on things steadily, especially things more than 5 feet away Day 1 post op to present (this has improved slowly each day.)
- Nauseous Day 1 post op to Day 3 post op. (I’m glad that stopped! The hospital actually had some really good tasting food.)
- Able to get out of bed and walk with a walker by day 3 post op
- Able to walk around hospital without a walker and use handrails by day 5 post op
- Able to walk out to mailbox and back with my wife’s assistance by day 7 post op. Now we will be gradually increasing my distance each day.
- I have a post-op follow up appointment to have my 35 staples will be removed next Tuesday.
Pam and I would once again like to thank everyone who has stopped by the hospital, our house, called, and emailed and brought us food and other things. Old fashioned thank you cards will be going out to you in the snail mail. Thanks to all my family and friends for your love and generosity.
-Chris
