One of my biggest concerns going into the surgery was how my brain (my interface with the external world) would be after the surgery. Now that I'm six days out of the surgery itself and I can finally type fairly accurately again, here's some stuff I notice:
My hearing is different. When I listen to stuff I've been working on in the recording situation, it just sounds different and I am at an unusual spot where I don't have adjectives to describe it. It's not bad, just different. I think it's why my guitar playing feels different also. I expect to hear one thing when I do this other with my fingers and I hear something slightly different. It'll just take a little getting used to. Maybe after I'm healed up I'll get a hearing test and see if I've lost some high frequencies. My friend who went through this said that she lost a little on the top of her audio spectrum. The other being the hair. My head is half shaven, but the per the doctor, I was warned. ;) I'm going to try to get it symmetrical as soon as possible. Thanks again to everyone who is commenting and offering support. I really do appreciate it. I read every comment and it really does help. Thanks!
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One nice side effect of all of this is the time I'm having to practice. It's coming along nicely. I'll put up a post of my playing something in a week or so maybe, depending on how it goes. I might even get some work done on the symphony. ;)
So I talked with my surgeon today and she confirmed that the biopsy results were in line with the first assumption: It was indeed a melanoma tumor. So I have an appointment with my oncologist on Wednesday. I'll know more about the plan of attack at that point. I've been keeping up on trends in cancer research over the last 6-7 years since my last bout with it. Gamma knives and the DNA specific treatments (though I just got an article showing some trouble with some of the DNA tricks) are giving me a lot of hope about eliminating the last few cells that may be left over.
Today's pretty good. I'm feeling pretty strong. My dad came out and we went and got some coffee and stopped at Radio Shack to get some audio cables. I slept well last night, which bodes well for tonight and the upcoming nights. I don't have a lot of witty stuff to say today since I'm just taking it easy.
Yep, I got to go home today. I played a little bit of guitar and I'm not too deficient, at least not compared to where I was. Not much else to report right now. I'm ok to have visitors, but short visits are the way to go. It's been great reading all of the posts. I really appreciate it. Thanks to all of you!
I talked with the doc yesterday and she said that I'll probably get to go home today. Typing is a little inaccurate so far, but when I get home I'll get to play some guitar. We'll see how that goes. The tumor was in a location where was quite afraid that I might have interruptions in playing. The area of the brain controls motor nerves on the left sie of the body. But I seem to have full motion on my left side, so I'm pretty happy about that.
Here's a picture of me. I have my computer here in the hospital. I've had some great visits that have been nice and brief. A bit of clarification on Marcella's paragraph below: They will biopsy the tumor, but so far there is only suspicion that it might be cancerous. There is no confirmation of that at this time.
It looks like they might let Kevin go home tomorrow (Sunday). WOW! I'm on the run but our friend Marcella has set up and is organizing a "Helping Hands" account. I'm not sure how this works but she just sent the following paragraph for me to put out on this blog so that anyone that wants to help us the next while can do so. Very cool!
From Marcella and Helping Hands- "Welcome to the coordination website for Kevin and Jai as they walk the next part of Kevin's cancer journey. There are many ways we can help them through this. Please look through the calendar to see how you can help, and if there's something you think of that's not listed, let me (Marcella) know through the website. (Note that you can enter 503 000-0000 for your phone number if you'd rather be contacted only via email.)Please visit https://www.lotsahelpinghands.com/c/654940/login/?logout&language=en to get started. See you there!" She's going to be asking me questions about what Kevin and I need, I'll be able to answer better after we get him home. I totally over did thing yesterday with visitation. It was hard to get to sleep. Converation n problem solvin are really tiring. I' like to keep visits todayukinda short.
Jai here again. Yesterday Kevin was doing great although by the end of the day with having just family visiting he was exhausted. So I'm hoping he got a good nights sleep last night. We may have to do something to co-ordinate visits when he's ready for others to start seeing him so we don't wear him out. So if I seem to be protecting him by not letting everyone in right away, well.... I am. But I hope everyone will understand. He will be a hard one to keep down because he loves everyone and does like to visit.
He did get moved out of ICU just after lunch yesterday so he has a nice room up in the neuro trauma care center. It has a south facing window overlooking Bush park, so he got to see the sun shining. What else can I tell you at this point. Just time to let him rest and recover and heal and - Oh yeah, took his computer in for him. So he can listen to music. I was reading the other day that music actually helps heal brain injuries and surgeries. Something about the music helps the brain to rebuild the neuro pathways. This isn't the same article I read but it's from the same foundation if I remember correctly (and my memory is quite questionable these days): http://www.dana.org/news/cerebrum/detail.aspx?id=26122 Ok, so I woke up with the beginnings of a migraine this morning but the medicine is startinig to work now so I'm going to get ready to go see him. Maybe I'll have some new news for you in awhile. |
KevinIt's me, Kevin, but with a brain tumor. Disclaimer: I have a very dry and twisted sense of humor. This is a scary situation. The jokes ("tumor humor") could be a little dark from time to time. I intend to keep this rather interesting for you, but if I get a "how could you SAY that?!?" response from you, know it's just, well, I hesitate to use "gallows" humor, but I don't have better phrase for it. Enjoy, and thanks for your support through this time. Archives
February 2015
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