A week ago yesterday (Friday) I had neurosurgery…for the second time.
I don’t think I know anyone else who’s had neurosurgery even once, and I’m certain I’m the only person I know who’s had it twice. After my first operation, when I was 18, I was very concerned about possible damage to my brain. Not anything major, that would have been obvious, but I feared that there might have been tiny nicks or bumps to the ol’ grey matter that could leave me a little…off. But a successful college career eventually convinced me that I was as sharp as ever, although my assorted medical problems often did leave me feeling tired or unable to concentrate.
But now after operation #2 I have decided that I don’t need to suffer from the same nagging doubts as last time. In fact, the better-than-expected success of the operation (a more dangerous and invasive one than before!) and my rapid recovery have amazed everyone, especially me. It has occured to me that my brain is now better than ever! So I have decided that I will attempt to use my new and improved brain to become a super genius. Since I have learned so much from the good folks here at the SDMB I thought you should all be the first to know. If I am successful in my goal I promise to use my powers only for good, and to always speak highly of the Dope and of course Uncle Cecil, the perfect role model for all aspiring super geniuses everywhere.
Oh, if anyone’s feeling morbidly curious, the procedure this time was a craniotomy. I found this link that does a pretty good job of explaining what that’s all about (with diagrams and everything), in a general sort of way: http://www.yoursurgery.com/ProcedureDetails.cfm?BR=4&Proc=19. My specific operation was a frontal/temporal one on the right side.
Lamia, my brother had neurosurgery about 25 years ago. Unfortunately, his was an unsuccessful attempt to remove a tumor; they removed what they could, but it had already sprouted tendrils that were deeply woven throughout his brain, and they couldn’t dig it all out. If the lousy doctor who had been treating him for epilepsy for years had bothered to order a CAT scan it could probably have been removed with little trouble years earlier. My brother only lived about a year after that, but fortunately most of it he spent in good shape, without a lot of pain.
I’m sure glad to hear that both of your surgeries were so successful. Congratulations on your new super-genius life! Don’t forget the SD when you become rich and famous!
I’m very sorry to hear about your brother. I too was initially misdiagnosed (with migraine headaches), and if I’d been diagnosed properly when I first started showing symptoms might have been able to avoid surgery altogether – or at least only would have needed one. I was upset enough about that at the time, and can hardly imagine how much worse it would have been if the time delay had made my condition terminal. As things are, my tumor is partially inoperable because bits of it are right up by some major arteries. Luckily, modern radiation treatment can do a lot. Not quite enough last time (hence the second operation), but my medical team and I have high hopes for the next course of treatment.
That’s right, my brain is not only surgically enhanced, but radioactive as well!
I think that means if I bite someone, they’ll gain all the superpowers of a lamia. But I haven’t dated in a couple of years, so I have been unable to test this hypothesis.
Well, hell, Lamia, I wish I hadn’t mentioned it now! But my brother died 25 years ago, and things have certainly changed a lot since then. As a matter of fact, in a way you are a beneficiary of his experience, as he participated in an experimental radiation/chemo treatment being developed at UAB (University of Alabama in Birmingham) at the time, as well as ‘participating’ in many lectures for the neurosurgery students. (They would regularly pop him in a wheelchair and scoot off to some lecture hall - he always had blue diagrams drawn on his head!)
It definitely sucks cow-turds that he was misdiagnosed for 15 years, as earlier detection would made the tumor removal simple and safe, instead of being a last-ditch attempt to save his life. But what really sucks is that, after nearly a quarter of a century, you were also misdiagnosed.
It sounds like your doctors are on top of it, though, and are going to persist until you are clear - make sure you do, too! Blast those renegade tumor cells to oblivion!
Meanwhile, you’ve got this nuclear-powered, turbo-charged brain - whatever are you going to do with it? Perhaps you’ll finally answer that puzzling question that has eluded the best minds for many years - why do we park in a driveway and drive on a parkway? Inquiring minds want to know!
Boy, do you have a surprise for the next person that tells you “Bite me”!
That’s great that your brother was willing to participate in experiments and lectures – I’d be hesitant to do that myself, although I like to think I would if asked because I know how important that kind of research is in developing new treatments and diagnostic techniques. Both my procedures were performed at a university hospital so I had my share of med students coming to peer at me while I was recovering, but AFAIK that’s been my only contribution to the field. I remember they were all really interested in my urine output the first time around. I hope they learned a lot from the experience, because it certainly caused my poor gown-clad 18-year-old self a great deal of embarassment to have her catheter bag held up so all the hunky young med students could get a good look at it!
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Definitely sucky. But I don’t get too upset about it anymore, since I have a family history of migraine headaches and that must have seemed like the obvious diagnosis at the time. Migraine meds even helped me for a while, but in retrospect that was probably just the placebo effect.
I’ll get back to you as soon as I figure out what happened to that missing dollar…
Congratulations, but missing dollar nothing, I wanna know where those billions of dollars went in that whole American-CEO-roundup last year! Hmm. I guess you should start small.
May I ask if you had to do any psycological tests afterwards? My brother is taking some psych classes, and I read his textbooks for fun. They have all the tests for aphasia, hemispherical ignorance or whatever it is… Interesting but scary! I don’t know what I’d do to assure myself I was working properly afterwards… self-checking your own brain is a tricky thing.
In almost every science fiction movie I’ve ever read where someone becomes a super genius via tampering with stuff wot man was not meant to know, it always ends up in tears. I think we can pretty much expect Lamia to start manifesting telekinetic powers, saying things like “I am as much above you as you are to the lowly ant.” in a hollow voice and using said vast mental powers to callously manipulate and destroy anyone who stands in her way. Not to mention the cosmetically unfortunate glowing eyes and enormous forehead.
Fortunately, just before vaporizing our primitive and worthless society, the supergenius usually ascends to a higher evolutionary plane of pure radiant energy and loses interest.
Lamia, f they still have internet access on higher planes of pure radiant energy, let us know how it all works out for you.
Yeah, I had to have a bit of testing before they let me leave the hospital. I had to write a couple of things following printed instructions, work a few math problems, do a bunch of little “which one of these figures is different?” things, and some memory tests. It was all pretty easy stuff for anyone of normal intelligence, so I think they were just checking for obvious problems. It was worrying about potential minor problems that gave me concern after my first operation. For instance, I could obviously still read, but did I read as quickly and understand as much as I could before? How would I ever know? It’s not as if I had any recent test scores from before the operation to compare myself to! But this time I have decided not to fret about such things and focus my attention on becoming a super genius instead.
Oh sure, I get my brain poked at by a brilliant neurosurgeon and I turn into the evil offspring of Carrie and Nietzsche, while Peter Parker gets bitten by a dumb spider and he gets to be the big superhero! Tell me, is that fair? But I’ll show you all. My vast mental powers have given me the answer. I just need to wait until after the radiation treatments and then bite myself! Then no one will be able to stop me! Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Oops, sorry. Don’t know what came over me there. Gosh, my eye feels hot. Maybe I need some drops…
Hate to hijak AND be a know-it-all, but if you’ll repeat this problem to yourself, you’ll see the word you’re looking for is actually “language,” and doesn’t end in -gry at all.
As I’m sure you know, you should see a doctor if you’ve recently started having bad headaches, but if it’s any comfort to you I’m pretty sure that headaches are rarely the only symptom of serious neurological problems. The big giveaway in my case was double-vision (something that should always be checked out ASAP, as it could be a sign of anything from brain tumor to botulism!), while other common signs are difficulty balancing and loss of sensation or decreased strength on one side of the body. It takes an MRI or CT scan to be sure, but if you don’t have any other neurological symptoms your headaches are more likely caused by something less exotic.
But if worse came to worst and you did need an operation or radioation, I’d let you be my sidekick.