The few days leading up to surgery! April 29, 2017

May is brain cancer awareness month

Hello! I am in Milwaukee at the moment staying at my Mom's friend, named Peggy's house. We came down bright and early Friday morning because I had tests that afternoon.

We stopped in Green Bay and ate a late breakfast/early lunch because I needed to stop eating 3 hours prior to getting a CT scan done.

Then we stopped at a few car dealerships in Milwaukee near the hospital because my parents were looking for a new car for my brother. Before we knew it, it was time to head to the hospital.

My first appointment that day was with Dr Corsten to talk about what we would be doing and signing the consent form with him.

Surgery is estimated to be 6-8 hours. He said that we will be going through the same incision we had for the previous surgeries but this one is going to go a lot farther down my neck too. The facial nerve is right there and they will have to move it to the side as they work. The nerve does not like to be moved, so after surgery but before the stitch me up he can test it and give me an idea on if it is going to quickly go back to working, slowly come back or if it is too damaged and may not work anymore.  Of course this makes me a bit nervous. I have a lot of nerve problems in my face as it is, but its hard to tell. Most of the areas move okay still so I would hate if part of that side doesn't move at all!

Then he explained to me that once they remove the tumor and everything, they may need to fill that area in. There is a muscle in my head that would normally be used for that area, but guess what? It has already been used in my head! Along with the fat graft from my stomach! Since those options are not available, they will go into the side of my thigh, remove muscle and veins, and put those in my face! They take a piece of skin from my thigh too that is still attached to the muscle and it is added somewhere on my neck. By doing this, they can watch the skin. And by being able to see that skin, they will know if the muscle and veins are alive and doing their job. Crazy!  He said usually they overfill the area because it settles in overtime. My face may not be proportionate for a while.  He did mention that if they are unsure that I need this, they may wait until I heal and do it at another time.

I am hoping it is all done in one surgery though. And sadly, Dr Corsten is moving to Texas in a month. So I feel lucky that I still have him for this surgery, but I also hope he is here to do this other part of surgery if it doesn't happen on Monday.

After meeting with him, I went down to a different floor and had pre-surgery tests done. First was blood work, then a pee test, then I had an EKG done, and after that was a chest x-ray.  All of those went well and it ran very smoothly. I had it all finished in a half hour!

After that, it was time to head into a CT. This is the appointment with the Fiducials. The first thing the nurse did was put the little lifesaver looking stickers on my head. Two above my eyebrows, one on the top of my forehead, two in front of my ears, two behind my ears, two on the back of my head and one on the top of my head. The three that are in my hair, had to first be shaved before the stickers went on. Then she drew around them with a marker. I can not wash my hair or get my head wet at all. I am wearing these all weekend! Normally they are done the night before surgery but since I need to be at the hospital at 5AM Monday morning, this is as close to surgery as we could be.

Once the stickers went on, I was put in the CT scan for about 5 minutes. Then I was free to go! The stickers are to guide robotic arms during surgery. I am not sure if it is a new thing, but I have never had these at any other surgeries of mine.

Luckily I had wore a sweatshirt with a hood on it, and I also brought a thick headband into the hospital with me because I was prepared to hide these things! All weekend I have been wearing hats, headbands and scarves.  Today we went out shopping for a bit and I wore a scarf. I told my Mom her job was to worn me if one of the forehead stickers were showing! Haha. She failed once, but other then that she did well!
I usually wear something on my head even when we are just at the house. The stickers look ridiculous. Lol. So I prefer to have them covered. They aren't too uncomfortable. There are times I want to itch where one  is, but then remember that I can't!

Check out these beauties!

                       

                                                             
                  My ways of hiding the stickers!

We don't have a lot planned for tomorrow. Church and then an early dinner with my Dad's sisters. Yesterday, April 28, would have been my Aunt Liana's 40th birthday. This is my Aunt who passed away from brain cancer. We are going to celebrate her birthday tomorrow with everyone.  My papers say I can't eat after midnight, but with my surgery being so early the next morning, I feel like that is not enough time without food so I am going to go 12 hours without it which is what I usually need to do.  Eating too soon to surgery can cause you to be nauseous when you wake up. And I would do anything possible to help keep that away!

Aunt Liana

 I think this surgery will be more painful for me. A lot of my head has become numb so that helped with the past few surgeries. But my neck has no problems! So I will definitely feel a lot more there, and my thigh will be sore and weak afterwards Dr Corsten said too.

We had a potluck at work for me the last few days, and I have gotten many messages, cards and some flowers, food, a USB with shows and gifts from friends too.  It was so nice and thoughtful of everyone!

I am ready. I wish surgery was tomorrow. I want to get the ball rollin. I want to be on the road to recovery. I want to know what the next chapter is. The last few days of prepping before surgery are the longest. Two more sleeps and I will be there!

Look at this crazy group of girls wearing "fiducials" for me! Haha, love it!