Thanks to Russ (Rusty PW) I had a good conversation. (Brain surgery appears to have gone well)

[ShadowsPapa]

…Pedro asking to borrow some of your skills, Napoleon Dynamite.

I have other pics of me with even longer hair - once it started getting into creeper wheels, that changed how much I liked the long hair. OUCH! And the more you move to try to reverse it, the worse it gets into the wheel!

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[WILDHOBO]

I have other pics of me with even longer hair - once it started getting into creeper wheels, that changed how much I liked the long hair. OUCH! And the more you move to try to reverse it, the worse it gets into the wheel!

I’ve had my hair do that. It’s horrible.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Weeeeelllll, I was going to post that the local neurologist turned on the device Wednesday, did his thing as far as figuring out which of the electrodes on the wires to use, and how high to set things, that sort of thing. And frankly, that did go pretty well. Everything from intense tingling to feeling like I was going to fall over in the chair while he did the initial setup. I left there with much less tremor, left hand all but perfect, right hand about 60% better so far (he does this another time or two as I adapt.
But - last night at 9pm, I went down to our finished basement where Pickle was laying and leaned over to give him is meds.
I felt something drip onto my forehead. I looked around - nothing on the ceiling tile, no water anywhere. I ran my hand through my hair (didn't take long LOL) and it came out WET.
Well, don't know what's going on, maybe I got into something earlier.
Then at 10pm I went down to scoop the litter boxes.
Same thing - drip drip when leaning over. WEIRD, but it stopped, so I went to bed.
Woke up with wet spot on pillow about the size of a dollar bill and my hear was WET.
Went into urgent care - doctor checked me over and took a swab to check for bacteria. Won't have results until tomorrow. Found two pinholes not closed up on the wound area - but that's really weird because they seemed to be healed up pretty well, closed up.
She contacted the neurosurgeon's office and they want me back to Iowa City tomorrow.
Likely at the very least, restitch the area.
My question - is this the normal clear fluid you get when the body tries to heal a wound?
Looking it up, it's pretty normal - but this much? And the incision, the surgery there was over a month ago, October 10th. This seems like a lot (like the kid on the bike says in that snack commercial on tv "That seems like a lot".

 

[WILDHOBO]

Weeeeelllll, I was going to post that the local neurologist turned on the device Wednesday, did his thing as far as figuring out which of the electrodes on the wires to use, and how high to set things, that sort of thing. And frankly, that did go pretty well. Everything from intense tingling to feeling like I was going to fall over in the chair while he did the initial setup. I left there with much less tremor, left hand all but perfect, right hand about 60% better so far (he does this another time or two as I adapt.
But - last night at 9pm, I went down to our finished basement where Pickle was laying and leaned over to give him is meds.
I felt something drip onto my forehead. I looked around - nothing on the ceiling tile, no water anywhere. I ran my hand through my hair (didn't take long LOL) and it came out WET.
Well, don't know what's going on, maybe I got into something earlier.
Then at 10pm I went down to scoop the litter boxes.
Same thing - drip drip when leaning over. WEIRD, but it stopped, so I went to bed.
Woke up with wet spot on pillow about the size of a dollar bill and my hear was WET.
Went into urgent care - doctor checked me over and took a swab to check for bacteria. Won't have results until tomorrow. Found two pinholes not closed up on the wound area - but that's really weird because they seemed to be healed up pretty well, closed up.
She contacted the neurosurgeon's office and they want me back to Iowa City tomorrow.
Likely at the very least, restitch the area.
My question - is this the normal clear fluid you get when the body tries to heal a wound?
Looking it up, it's pretty normal - but this much? And the incision, the surgery there was over a month ago, October 10th. This seems like a lot (like the kid on the bike says in that snack commercial on tv "That seems like a lot".

I’m just thrilled it’s helping. I’m sure they’ll deal with the incision. I’m guessing if they thought it was really serious they’d have sent you to the er.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I’m just thrilled it’s helping. I’m sure they’ll deal with the incision. I’m guessing if they thought it was really serious they’d have sent you to the er.

They did say if I developed a headache, dizziness, slurred speech or any neurological thing (she listed several this AM) to head directly to the ER.
I said nothing new along those lines - she approved me going home but told my wife if she noticed anything different in the way I acted or talked, head directly to ER.

 

[Stan H]

They did say if I developed a headache, dizziness, slurred speech or any neurological thing (she listed several this AM) to head directly to the ER.
I said nothing new along those lines - she approved me going home but told my wife if she noticed anything different in the way I acted or talked, head directly to ER.

Seems like ypu are receiving good care there in Corn country .Maybe I need to take my wife to the ER ?

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Seems like ypu are receiving good care there in Corn country .Maybe I need to take my wife to the ER ?

No, don't go to the ERs in Des Moines.
I'm pretty sure that my wife would have headed to Iowa City post haste - instead of the 30 minutes into Des Moines, she'd have gone the 2 hours to Iowa City.
In Des Moines, you sit for 3 or 4 hours before a nurse gets to you, and 3 or 4 more hours before a doctor gets to you. You may lay on a table in the hallway for a few hours.

 

[Stan H]

No, don't go to the ERs in Des Moines.
I'm pretty sure that my wife would have headed to Iowa City post haste - instead of the 30 minutes into Des Moines, she'd have gone the 2 hours to Iowa City.
In Des Moines, you sit for 3 or 4 hours before a nurse gets to you, and 3 or 4 more hours before a doctor gets to you. You may lay on a table in the hallway for a few hours.

Yeah I know a guy went in with extreme abdominal pain they did that to him . He had his son help him leave He could barely walk got to the other hospital. Found out He had a ruptured Gall bladder and He was a mess inside . He could have died . That same place that done that is where I refuse to go for another reason with my Dad (RIP)

 

[WILDHOBO]

They did say if I developed a headache, dizziness, slurred speech or any neurological thing (she listed several this AM) to head directly to the ER.
I said nothing new along those lines - she approved me going home but told my wife if she noticed anything different in the way I acted or talked, head directly to ER.

Seems reasonable.

 

[NC_Overland]

Glad to hear you’re on the mend!

 

[Rusty PW]

Good to hear that the implants are working. It takes a little while to fine tune them. You will still have to have it adjusted as you age.

That leaking is kind of worrisome.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

It takes a little while to fine tune them. You will still have to have it adjusted as you age.

Yeah, like he said and I've experienced, it's a progressive thing. And he's said at least 1, maybe 2 more visits to adjust this round. Shooting for 80% or so, but so far I notice quite a difference.

That leaking is kind of worrisome.

I've dug into Mayo and Johns Hopkins and other legit sites and two things it could be -
1 - the body's reaction to a wound producing the liquid - though that us usually in the first 2 to 4 weeks.
2 - there is a "leak" of fluid that should not ever be getting out - but I don't at this point have any other symptoms.

The doc this AM said it's coming out two small openings in the incision, yet that seemed to be closed based on what the doc who removed the stitches said, and what the doc who turned things on yesterday.

And frankly, there's been no pain except in the area of the incision on the 16th, and that's not where fluid is coming out, though it is swollen

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Update:
The first person in the room was the doctor's assistant an ARNP.
She said that generally they'd rather see leakage of CSF instead of fluids due to infection.
The doc came in and they were sort of like "are you sure" on the pain meds (I'm off all of them) and he reiterated - don't lean over! And don't "strain"...........
I've been leaning over, even head down, and sometimes lifting, opening jars for my wife - well, back to mirilax as well LOL

I thought that was just for the first month - nope - a lot longer than that.
He said my scalp would feel like it was numb or tingling or even crawling for a long time yet as nerves healed and things got reattached and healed. Even the large lump on the right rear of my scalp - he said over the months it will get better, but there's a large connector in there where the electrode wires attached to the others. So there will always be a "watch out for this area" when combing and getting hair cuts (so they don't snag it with anything like a trimmer)

He said that the pin hole the leakage was coming from appears to have sealed itself over since yesterday. No leaks since last night.
I'm to take a picture of that area, a close-up, in a week, and send it to him.
IF it doesn't close up and seal - it means they open that area, flush it out and re-stitch it. But he doesn't think that will be necessary at this point and "give it more time"
In the meantime, I guess back to not doing anything!

 

[WILDHOBO]

Update:
The first person in the room was the doctor's assistant an ARNP.
She said that generally they'd rather see leakage of CSF instead of fluids due to infection.
The doc came in and they were sort of like "are you sure" on the pain meds (I'm off all of them) and he reiterated - don't lean over! And don't "strain"...........
I've been leaning over, even head down, and sometimes lifting, opening jars for my wife - well, back to mirilax as well LOL

I thought that was just for the first month - nope - a lot longer than that.
He said my scalp would feel like it was numb or tingling or even crawling for a long time yet as nerves healed and things got reattached and healed. Even the large lump on the right rear of my scalp - he said over the months it will get better, but there's a large connector in there where the electrode wires attached to the others. So there will always be a "watch out for this area" when combing and getting hair cuts (so they don't snag it with anything like a trimmer)

He said that the pin hole the leakage was coming from appears to have sealed itself over since yesterday. No leaks since last night.
I'm to take a picture of that area, a close-up, in a week, and send it to him.
IF it doesn't close up and seal - it means they open that area, flush it out and re-stitch it. But he doesn't think that will be necessary at this point and "give it more time"
In the meantime, I guess back to not doing anything!

So it opened because of too much bending over, too early?

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