Just a post to show others my journey in recovery.
I had a 0.5 cm X 1.2 cm right AN that was 54 % larger than the previous MRI 6 months earlier. Dr Haberkamp of the Cleveland Clinic decided that it needed to come out because of the speed of the growth. I had already lost all hearing in right ear. Went from 100% to 0% in 4 months.
The translab surgery was scheduled for 8/12. Then changed to 8/05. Then changed to Monday 8/17. Dr Gonzalez and Dr Haberkamp did the surgery.
Stayed overnight in Cle because I was an hour away and had to be there at 5:30 am.
Left pre-op at 7:10 am. They put me out at about 7:30 am but the surgery didn't start until about 9:15 am. The surgery was about 6 hours.
The surgery went perfect. Total removal.
I was in recovery for 3 hours. I remember dreaming while I was out and then when I awoke in recovery I was thinking how I wanted to go back to that dream state because that was better than what I was experiencing now.
I was having a LOT of trembling and sweating. The sweating was probably due to me being on Lasix and not taking it the day of surgery plus them giving me fluids IV. The had to change the bed after recovery because it was soaked.
I did not go to ICU. Ate a tiny bit of food that night. Tuesday I felt out of it early. Did eat some things. Felt good enough that evening to use my laptop and look up stuff.
Went home Wed noon. The bright sun on the hour drive hour was a killer. Gave me a headache. Went to sleep as soon as I got home. Still had headache after waking up and took Tylenol and that got rid of the headache. That is the only thing I needed for pain this whole time.
The days since have shown improvement each day. I had some sinus drainage on Thu but that stopped. No problems at the incision site. Top half of ear is still kinda numb. Bottom half is normal. My tongue feels like someone spread lard on it. Any food with fat in it does not taste good.
They have me on Predisone. It is giving me heartburn and I am not sleeping well. I will be so glad to get off of that. After every surgery I swear the side affects from the drugs are worse than the actual surgery.
Funny story is that I was doing a lot of walking before the surgery and the last day I walked a piece of the inner shoe ripped at my little toe. This piece of fabric made a little ball and rubbed my little toe and made it painful and bright red. So I would be walking a lot more now if I could put on a pair of shoes!
So things are going better than I expected. I am glad for that.
