Darren was in surgery for nine hours. Right before the surgeon showed up the hospital had a code red (fire alarm) then the surgeon told me it would be six to seven hours. It took about three hours just to get the first two holes drilled.

We had a nurse assigned to us her name was Nancy. She came about every ninety minutes and have an update.

I was fine until about four in the afternoon. Then I got ancy about it all.

I got a call from Mary the PA to Dr. Uysal, while I was in the waiting room. That didn’t make sense so I went to the ICU nurse and tracked her down. Answered her questions and went back to wait for the surgeon. I missed him somehow, but I was in Darrens room. He was very puffy and could barely open his eyes they were so swollen and matted.

They finished hooking up his EEG leads and my Mom and I went to our house for a break.

His leads this time.

I headed back to the hospital to find his call light not being answered for awhile. I went and personally got the nurse. He was on a lot of pain in his head and neck. The nurse took forever trying to make a neck pillow for him. Finally and she brought pain med for his IV line.

About twenty min later he got nauseous. So after he calmed down again they have him his night meds. They almost gave him his lamictal again.I told the nurse he does not take that at night.

He is very restless and uncomfortable tonight. He keeps asking the nurse and I what time it is. He is being monitored on video like before. I don’t have twenty days I can take off from work and we don’t know what post OP will be like. So this is what we do while we wait for him to have four or five seizures before we go onto round two.

Met with the doc today (finally) and had questions answered. This is how it is. Serious time, folks…

It’s gone from two operations to three. And I’ll most likely be in the hospital for 20 or so days. Now, let me explain:

Originally, it was thought that the brain damage was just in one area deep within the brain on the left lobe. After all the MRI scans and such, this doesn’t look to be all there is. Where there seizures start is not in a perfectly set area. There is “scar tissue” and deep bleeding (I call it a scab) from the trauma that is evident. The entire left temporal lobe of the brain is “smaller” than the right due to years of seizures.

The original drilling spots of “near the front”, “sides” and “near the back” are not going to be used anymore. Still six holes, but the side ones are going to be higher in the skull just to be safe. Do not want to drill on the side and “puncture” the areas that have the scar tissue. This might cause me to be paralyzed.

I was thinking that it was going to only have to be just one seizure and then on to the next thing, but they want a few seizures (fun, fun). Once I have a few seizures, I was thinking we were doing the brain surgery. Now I find out that the second surgery being done is another opening to put more probes in. This time, they are going to take a slice out of the top of my skull to make a larger hole and put probes there. This is done to find more precisely the focal point as to where the seizures are beginning. Need to have a few more seizures too.

From the tests that were done, it was surprising to find out that my memory is being controlled on the left (damaged) side as opposed to the right. The seizures I’m having, that cause the left lobe to shrink, is the reason my memory is bad. This brain surgery may have worsening effects to my memory. Grrrr….

Still, if EVERYTHING is looking good and the doctors/surgeon feel it to be safe, I’ll go ahead and have the brain surgery. Still have a ways to go before then, but I’ll be in the hospital for the next 20 or so days starting on Monday.