I'm hoooooome!!!!

I'm home, 2 days after freakin' brain surgery!  Can you believe that?!?!  When they said I would have a fast recovery period, they really meant it!

First off, I have to thank my cousin Steph for all of her timely, accurate, and entertaining updates to my blog.  I've gotten a ton of feedback saying that people really liked the updates.  Steph, you rock.  ;)

I am also owing big thanks to my sister Amy as well, as she and Steph are going to be taking turns staying with me for the next few days.  I'm not that entertaining these days and like to lay around eating soup and pudding, so they are awesome for just hanging out and helping.  Hopefully my 1-month free NetFlix trial streaming through my TiVo will help make this more exciting for them too.  :)

Overall, I'm feeling really good.  I've had a headache on and off, and I have a couple pretty tender spots (one at my right jaw hinge and one of the right side of my neck) which I think are from the very weird position they put me in during surgery.  Painkillers have been helping (plus foods not requiring much chewing, as it hurts my jaw).  I'm in very little pain and have been able to control it well.  All of the doctors at nurses at UWMC were pretty great, and I was surprised to be sent home so quickly.  I do feel confident though and have a schedule written up for my new drug regimen, so it should be easy to stay on top of things.  My incision hurts a bit at times, and I'm definitely on the light-headed side of the spectrum, but I'm able to walk around normally.

I'll go meet with my neurosurgeons next week (Wednesday) to get the results of the tissue analysis as well as my prognosis.  Keep your fingers crossed for that appointment.  I'm a little bummed, as I talked to Dr. S this morning.  He looked at my after-MRI that I had done yesterday, and it appears that while they got most of the tumor out, they didn't get the whole thing.  Sigh.  I think it was a safety issue, and they were able to remove as much as they felt safely could be.  I think he said something like 90% came out... but I might have remembered that wrong.  Having some tissue left in my head makes it more likely that I'll have to have additional treatment (like radiation and/or chemo) but we'll just have to see.  I'm not worrying too much until I actually have something to worry about.  In the mean time, I am just SO RELIEVED to have made it through surgery without complications and feeling so good!!!!!  Plus I have a pretty hot hairdo of 4 braids right now.  haha

I know that some people out there want to see my incision, and some don't (as it is graphic), so I've uploaded a picture of it to a page on my blog that you have to actively click on to see.  If you don't want to see it, don't click; if you do, do!

Link to the graphic picture of my large head incision: proceed with caution!!!

Thank you again for all of your love and support.  I'll post more details and info soon.  And if you have any questions, please feel free to send them my way, as I'll probably put together a post-surgery FAQ page one of these days.