Obviously was still in the hospital and healing GREAT. I just wanted to share a picture of the surgery from 2 years ago…
This picture was earlier in the blog, but I just wanted to share it again.
I was doing good then and I’m doing SUPERB today! 🙂
Category: Surgery
My Brain Surgeon Visit
THIS IS WHAT WE’VE BEEN WAITING FOR, BOYS AND GIRLS.
Today is Wednesday and I did… wait, wait… YESTERDAY was Wednesday and I did one of those “check-in with the Neurosurgeon” appointments. (you know, that check-in that EVERYONE does for the SAME REASON as me on a regular basis…)
What did the surgeon say today? Well…
- “Everything looks good that was done by the surgery that I did. I can see this by how well your scar looks on the side of your forehead.” (Hard Work done by Him)
- “You are doing a good job by how your hair is growing back cover the rest of your scars.” (Hard Work done by Me)
Ok ok ok…. May have been several things talked about there, but those are the MAIN ones to brag about. 🙂
Several other things he talked about and how he was so proud of the work he finished. (Not those exact words, but you know what I mean) 😉
He asked what I’ve been doing lately…
“Oh…. I’ve been riding my bike all over the place to…”
“While wearing a helmet to thoroughly protect that WORK that I FINISHED UP THERE????!!!!”
“Uh… I guess I could, huh? I mean, I have one. When I first got out of the hospital after you doing the BRAIN FIXING SURGERY, I wore one. But.. I kinda just… Hmmm… Forget to?”
“No. No. No. No….. WEAR YOUR HELMET! You are not just going to fall off a bike and screw up all that work I did for you!”
“Ok…. “
“JUST MAKE SURE! DON’T FORGET!”
YES, I have a helmet. Do I enjoy wearing it? Not my favorite thing, but that’s true it needs to be done. 
When I came to my meeting, I “found out” that the party going there on was actually the Surgeon’s Birthday. Not really for me being there at all (ha ha). I bought a present to give him just for me to be a “nice guy” since it has been SO LONG since I had seen him. After learning about the Birthday, that’s exactly what my present becomes. A Birthday Present. 😉
This is a pretty nice present….
“Head” Pictures
I was “digging” through my list of my own hospital pictures of myself from earlier in 2014 and thought…
“Why didn’t I share this one I just came across..??”
Huh? Then I was looking some more and just found this…
So, you can see that I didn’t really find too much just by looking around… Type later…
Day 7 – Better Day (by Sherry)
So, I returned to the hospital today and I was there 4 minutes and Darren was whisked off to his 10th MRI this year. Darren came back over an hour later and when I asked him who he listened to while having his MRI, he replied:
“MRI 5”
“ummm… you mean: Maroon 5?”
“Yep, that is what I meant.”
Darren had a much better day. He ate chicken enchilada and drank Diet Pepsi at lunch.
This is his “drainage bulb” they drain this a couple of times a day.
Darren also got moved back down to the 8th floor. The doctor was super impressed with his improvements. They removed all his Zonegran and today he only had 75 milligrams of Lamictal. Tomorrow he is completely off Lamictal which leaves his Depakote ER which they really don’t want to mess with because it helps treat his bi-polar.
Darren was smiling a lot today and he was having computer withdrawl so I let him surf on his phone for awhile. Tomorrow I will take his computer now that he is back on the 8th floor and feeling better. Darren did not know why he had the drainage bulb or his new IV line which is good for 30 days. He knew it was Wednesday and he also did not know about the 2nd surgery.
His cousins came tonight to visit. He was brought a seed of happiness.
Now we need seizures! Please pray for seizures!
Long Day Indeed (by Sherry)
Got to KU at 5:30am. Sat in Surgery waiting room while we waited for the MRI dept to open. They put him in and his arm was trembling so much he had to lay on his arm. Once that had finished, we went up a building floor and caught the surgeon coming in. Darren asked him where exactly he would cut. He showed him, then Darren smiled and eased up a bit.
Now we are back in the waiting room his surgery isn’t scheduled for another 2 and a half hours!
They called him back and I met with the Anesthesiologist and the Surgeon. They marked up where his incision would be on the left.
They whisked him off to surgery, where the discovered he had 2 large nodules at the back of his tongue. After surgery an ENT Doc came and took a biopsy of each nodule, we won’t find out anything about that for a while.
When they began to cut into his skull the saw they used was not big enough. Bud’s skull is double the thickness of a regular persons!! So they had to stop and find a bigger saw and get it sterilized before they could begin.
This is me (Darren) writing this bold area:
I remember being shipped up to the surgery room and being “hooked up” to get ready for my brain surgery. After already laying there on the surgery table, I was told…
“Okay, Darren, get relaxed and we can all be ready to get this underway after you fall asleep.”
“Hold On! What are we doing today?,” I said. “What is the plan?”
Everyone kinda stopped…. Then one person spoke up and explained the whole thing. (I don’t remember a word that was said…)
“Eh… OK. That sounds good. I’m ready. Lets go.”
His surgery was from 11:20 am until 5:30 pm. He got into his room about 6:30 pm. They did a CT Scan before he came up because he was difficult to wake up after surgery.
He got all checked in and I spoke to him, but really all he wanted to do was go back to sleep and continue his dream about his nurse. He did ask me “What happened with my angioplasty?” I said “Bud, that is a big word for you.” He replied “I know.” I discovered he meant anesthesia. So I told him it was fine.
The Catalpa Chronicles 