More energy today

This morning started out a little rough with some nausea and a restless night. After talking with Teresa (Stanford RN) this afternoon, I think the source of my woes has been the pain killers. She recommended that I stay off the vicodin as much as possible. It tends to knock me out for an hour after taking it and it messes up my insides. I haven't taken a pain killer since this morning and actually feel the best I have in a week.

After getting over my morning nausea, John and I drove over to Stanford Hospital to meet Lily and John C. (our fellow moyamoya friends). John C. had his follow up appointment with Dr. Steinberg and was cleared to fly home later this week (I'm jealous). We all went to lunch in Menlo Park...this is the longest I've been out of the condo since getting discharged.

My appointment with Dr. Steinberg was at 2:15pm and of course, he was running a little behind. We met with Teresa first and she performed a quick neuro exam and checked my sutures. So far so good. I asked her to remove the four extra staples that my mom found in my head yesterday. Sh!t!#!!!...that hurt! John and Teresa seemed to enjoy the removal process though. John was happy he was able to watch how the remove them, since he missed the ones that got taken out during my hospital stay. Teresa said it was safe to wash my hair and get the stitches wet. Yes!!! Finally, a real shower.

We discussed my next surgery, before Dr. Steinberg came in, and Teresa assured us that I should be able to fly back anytime after next week Thursday. The surgery is similar (Teresa said it should be a little shorter) to the moyamoya surgery with the same duration in the hospital.








Once Teresa answered our questions, she went to get Dr. Steinberg. Steinberg pulled up my MRI (post surgery) and showed us the graft going into the right side of my brain. He seemed happy with the results...so that makes me happy. He also showed us the angiogram pictures and explained that I actually have four aneurysms. Steinberg is only going to treat two of them though. The other two are near the bone and he didn't see a risk of rupture. Dr. Steinberg showed us (on a model) how he would make a similar incision through the skull and somehow snake the tools through the lobes of the brain to attach clips to the aneurysms. He mentioned shaving of an area of bone which I think is to create more access. He explained that there shouldn't be any pain from shaving the bone. The area to be treated is close to the optic nerve and he warned that I may have more swelling around my eye, but all that should subside after a few days. I will have to get a post-op angiogram (not another one!!?!?!@#!) the day after the surgery to verify that the clips are working.

All in all, the appointment went very well. I felt much better after discussing the surgery with Dr. Steinberg. He told us the risk of anything going wrong is low, based on my age and health. He seemed very confident that the surgery will go smoothly. Whew.

Before he and Teresa went off to see their next patient, I asked them for a photo op.










I booked plane tickets when we got back to the condo. We are scheduled to fly back next Saturday (February 7th). I am going to try to enjoy my free day tomorrow. I'll have to check in at 5:30am again for a 7:30am surgery on Wednesday. What a whirlwind this has been.