It feels weird that I can put that as a title for a post. I had my retrosigmoid craniotomy two weeks ago at Swedish Cherry Hill Hospital.

It’s still surreal that I can say that and that part is already over and done with. The month leading up to surgery felt agonizingly slow as my symptoms felt like they were progressing and the fatigue was starting to take its toll on me. By the time I was off work, my eyes felt like they weighed a million pounds which meant that by 7p I’d end up passed out on the couch.

Sept. 8th was my scheduled surgery. We got in for pre-op at 5:30a and by 6:45a I was wheeled into the surgical room and introduced to some of the surgical team. Next thing I know I’m awake and puking all over myself. Not from pain but from the most intense nausea I had the displeasure of experiencing.

The insane part is that my pain threshold never surpassed a 4/10 while in-patient. The discomfort was just from well… the incision on my skull and the nausea. I didn’t get to wake up with a cool bandage wrapped around my head and in the end, I spent more time asleep than awake.

The first night was in the neuro ICU where I had hourly check-ins. I was fully expecting this to be extremely dysfunctional but I just slept in-between every checkin. What’s your name? What’s today’s date? Where are you? Why are you here? Answer those and then bam, I was right back asleep.

I was discharged by 9/11. Crazy to think I was there for 4 days and then sent home to recover. But I went into this so positive. I had the best experience I could have asked for. This has also translated so well into my post-recovery.

I have experienced no pain. I got sent home with dexamethasone, famotidine, anti-dizzy, and anti-nausea meds. Zero painkillers. I was stressed about that because I know how I am with suffering in pain. But nope, Tylenol really did help manage the little aches I’d get. I did end up forgetting that I can’t blow my nose and blew my right nostril. That ended up with some referred facial pain Monday and some of yesterday. But completely cleared up today so I’ve felt great.

The best news?

I haven’t had a headache in two weeks. My short-term memory feels so much better. I have no idea if this is related but my hands and feet feel like they can regulate temperature so much better. I’m not perpetually fucking cold anymore.

Fuck vestibular schwannomas 😀