Surgery was planned for July 26 at 11:30am. I was discharged for two days prior, to go home and rest.
Art By Carolyn Lee • www.CarolynLeeArtist.com
I realized pretty quickly that the hospital is not an easy place to get rest! There were always nurses coming in to check my vitals or giving me meds. I had frequent visits from the neurologists, oncologists and students in training. At night, if I moved too far one way or another, the wires connected to me might be dislodged and a machine would beep until the leeds were reattached.
On the day of surgery Jan drove me into Boston and Eva met us there. We had to arrive at 6:30am so that I could get an MRI to know the exact location of the tumor. I was nervous about being on time, and we ended up being about 15 minutes late. When they took me in for the MRI, I said goodbye to Eva and Jan. My foray into surgery was starting and they were beginning a day of hope and worry.
After the MRI, I was taken to a new wing of the hospital that looked so futuristic, with high ceilings, huge display screens, white walls and clean lighting. Along the hallway there were tall windows lined with potted trees and comfortable chairs looking out to the street. There were beautiful abstract paintings. The people seemed tiny and quiet in this space.
I was taken to a large room with about 15 areas separated by privacy curtains. I had several nurses come check on me, as well as an anesthesiologist. Next, two women came in dressed in blue scrubs, wearing bright red covers on their heads that looked like showercaps. They were very animated, funny, and kind. It was their job to give me neuro tests to see if I could identify pictures of people doing things and to read sentences on the cards.
To make me more comfortable, they started a conversation about what my interests were and what I liked to do. I named gardening, cooking, and art. One of the women said she was a gardener and the other said she was absolutely not an artist! She said she took a painting class and was to supposed to paint an adirondack chair. She told the teacher it would look like a tree but not to worry!
They reiterated what Dr. Vega had told me: that I would be awake for a couple hours during the 5 hour surgery so they could check to be sure he was operating on the exact right part of the brain – the part that controlled my speech. Soon, Dr. Vega came in to see me and sat down in the chair next to my bed. He asked if I was ready and I said, “Yes, I’m ready!”
I was wheeled into the state-of-the-art operating room and was given oxygen. The last thing I remember was the woman putting the soft plastic cover over my nose and mouth and telling me to breathe. She just kept saying, “you’re doing great!” I remember thinking, well, I’m just breathing!
I woke up and didn’t remember anything about the surgery. Dr. Vega later told me that he got 99% of the tumor, and that I was awake for about 2-3 hours as he operated. He said some of the attending were concerned that I wasn’t able to identify some of the images...but I didn’t have contact in or glasses on, which made it tricky to see clearly. He told them, “She’s gonna be just fine!”
One of the odd things about the surgery is that they have to inject a dye so that they can more clearly see the tumor. The dye makes your skin light-sensitive. So, after the surgery, I had to be in my room, pretty much in the dark for 2 days. It was not as bad as I thought it would be, but I counted the minutes on the final day until I could open the shades.
Prior to the surgery, Dr. Vega did a neat job of shaving only a 1/4” strip from my forehead to my left ear and using staples to close the incision. They actually looked very cool; I thought I looked a bit like a cyber punk!
I was released 5 days later to go home, with very few restrictions. As long as I wasn’t using any pain meds, I could even drive.
The MRI after the surgery showed how perfect the surgery was, with just a small circular cavity where the tumor had been. The main thing would be to prevent even 1% of new cell growth which could attach to the DNA and be cancerous.
Jan and Eva were so happy to see me and greatly relieved that the surgery went so well. Lot’s to be thankful for.
