Went to KU Med today for my Pre Op. That was the shortest trip that I can think of being at KU Med. Got there, signed papers, flirted with the cute admin lady, got blood drawn, asked questions, said I was healthy, told me about when/where to be on the 4th and that was about it.
Then I went home and ate a “Chicken-Fajita-Burrito with Brown Rice, Hot Sauce, Sour Cream and Cheese” at Chipolte. 😉
KU Med contacted me and let me know that I would not need another MRI before the surgery. Before they had said that they wanted me to have another one to make sure they have a good picture of the damaged area. After looking closer to the MRI scan already done, it was decided that another MRI was not needed.
I’ll need a blood test at my pre-op and will have to sit down with a pharmacist to discus meds that I can and cannot take.
Asked about the time-span in the hospital and the they said the 1st surgery of drilling the 6 holes and putting the things on my brain will last about 2 weeks to wait for a seizure to happen. When that does happen, I can go ahead and have the 2nd operation which will be the operation on the brain itself. After that, I stay in the hospital 3 more days.
I hope I explained this good enough. Trust me, I didn’t understand when my doctor explained it to me the first time either. I will be in the hospital the entire time between the first and second operations. The second operation is all set after I have my seizure with the probes covering my brain, not before then. Still, it is not set of stone as to if I will have this second operation. If the docs/surgeon don’t feel the second surgery is 100% safe and might effect other things (sight, etc.) then they will not go through with it. I’ll wait for another way to help me a few years down the road.
Over 2 weeks in the hospital. I do like Chipotle , but I may not be up to eating burritos. The side holes are going to be right at my jaw muscles and I may not be very up to opening my mouth, at least the first few days or so. Have to wait and see…
The November 4th date for the surgery is set in stone.
This site that I found seems to explain the process of accessing the brain and show the placement of the “grids” on the brain. These “grids” are placed all over the outside of the brain and are just “slid in” through the 6 holes in my head. This is to be easy because the brain is covered in water and these can just slide right in.
Where it says [Figure 2] and others that are links, those links will show pictures of where grids can/will be placed on the brain, within the skull. I just don’t believe there won’t be any of those that I see on the pictures with the grids placed between the left and right hemispheres. Looks as if a person would need a hole put directly in the middle of the head to do that.
……
Ok… I’m thinking about this too much to explain this. Just read through it. It has allot of “big words” in it.
Here’s the link:
Techniques for placement of grid and strip electrodes for intracranial epilepsy surgery monitoring
It’s Thursday and got back from talking from the surgeon. I learned one thing off the bat, a surgeon just does the surgery and can answer questions about that. Not the other questions I had about the recovery time, etc. This is fine, now I know.
What I learned: (these dates are not set in stone)
October 14th is my pre-op appointment.
November 4th is when I have the Intercranial Grid. This when they are going to be drilling SIX holes into my head: 2 in my temporal, 2 in the mid-side and 2 near the back. The EEG leads will be placed through each of the holes and directly onto my brain.
My head will be wrapped up like a turban.
They’ll be taking me off my meds and we will wait for a seizure to occur, just like what happened when I had the Video EEG back in April. (What fun!) This can take up to 2 weeks!! ARG! Laying around with probes in my head for two weeks….
If they can clearly tell where the seizures are happening (and the surgery will not effect my speech or motor skills), then they will go ahead with the surgery. If they do not feel 100% comfortable to do the surgery right away, they will stitch me up and the Neurologist has a month to look at the charts of my brain to determine if I am still a candidate for surgery.
IF SO, I’ll go back in and do the surgery. IF NOT, there are other procedures down-the-road that may be available. Down-the-road, meaning a couple years.
The Catalpa Chronicles 