If at first you don’t succeed … 

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10th

Well, a week ago Friday my Neurosurgeon stood over a very groggy me to let me know that I did well during my surgery. She was able to get all of the tumor. That needs to be confirmed by an MRI, but she is confident it all came out.

But there was a glitch. During the surgery it was revealed that there was thinning in the lining that held back the brain fluid. So when my Neurosurgeon took out the tumor, that brain fluid started to leak.

(Insert joke about how I’m so smart my brain thought it didn’t need it all—or some such joke)

My surgeon went with the Standard Operating Procedures and plugged it up before the end of the operation. Then put me on 48 hours bedrest. She extended it another 12 hours to give the plug time to heal.

The things that you have time to think of while laying flat on your back for 60 hours.

First, I didn’t want to have to sleep sitting up. Check! I wasn’t worrying about that now.

Second, how do you eat and drink and other important things laying down?

Eating, if you are blessed with an amazing sister named Faith, like I am, you learn what baby birds feel like. She would hover over each meal, try and spoon feed me the already puréed food, and cut the rest into tiny pieces. Yes, I would chew them and carefully swallow them while laying flat on my back.

Then came the drinking, which is a lot more fun. Syringes with cool tips added to them. You suck up the tea, water or soup and then shoot it into the back of your throat. Not burning yourself or spilling while filling them up is the biggest learning hurdle with the syringes.

Those 60 hours passed quickly with family and friends popping by or calling, texting, and FaceTiming.

Then came 10 hours of freedom. I was allowed to eat sitting up, go to the bathroom by myself, and even take a walk with my dad around the hospital. It was a short walk, but a view other than my room. And that is when I was reminded that I had been concerned about losing my sense of taste.

As my nose continued to drain—a normal part of the healing process, a strange taste began to accompany it. I kept being asked if it takes like salt or metal. There were a few times that I tasted salt—but metal, when had I sucked a metal straw. But the longer the taste lingered the more I realized that was it.

And that was a problem.

It meant that the plug my surgeon put in place did not do its job and I still have brain fluid leaking out. At least that was the hypothesis. So to test this theory it was back on bedrest, BUT I got to collect all the nose drips and drops into a container to be analyzed.

It was meant to be a 12 hour process, but due to some things which I still don’t understand, we didn’t get results back on Friday. That meant I got to stay in the hospital under the same protocol and collection process.

Yesterday morning, when my Doctor came to see me, she didn’t like the look of my nose drippings and quickly took me off all food and drink and sent the 2nd sample off to see what this one says.

All day I had the feeling that I would be heading into an operating room for round two. Pete the pituitary tumor may be gone, but some of the memories and ramifications are trying to stick around. But the shift change came and went and no change happened for me.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11th

It’s a new morning and my surgeon has just shared the latest test results. I am leaking less brain fluid which leads her to believe the plug is healing on its own and she doesn’t need to operate. It does mean another day of bedrest and trusting the Dr and her process. But more than that, it is putting my trust yet again in the hands of the One who made me.

I’ve been doing that for over 40 years. Doing it laying down maybe a new one for me, but it isn’t any surprise to Him.

But I feel differently. I feel different. One doesn’t spend this much time in this type of a situation and not be changed (if they are open to it).

I’m too tired to go through the learnings. I am typing from a 25 degree recline in my hospital bed. I continue to wait.

Be Blessed,

Charity Mongrain

Missed last weeks post about the Surgery – check it out here