Sunday 13 September 2015

Home again

Saturday 12th September

Amanda remains in the Critical Care Unity (no cause for alarm - she's simply recovering from a huge, huge operation and there's no beds available on the ward she will be moved to). Thankfully, the nausea and sickness which marred the period immediately after the same operation she went through back at the end of May didn't return this time and she actually had a good rest last night and she's even watched some Hollyoaks and Gogglebox on my iPad today. She managed to get an MRI scan at 8pm this evening as it's critical that we find out whether all of the tumour has been removed successfully. When being operated on, the margins were good although there is a risk to Amanda's ability to read and write if complications occur. We may get the feedback from this tomorrow or Monday. She's tired but she's fighting this.
As for the photo this evening, well put it this way. I'm amazed that really sick people - we're talking inpatients dressed inn pyjamas & dressing gowns who are quite obviously very ill here - to the point of having drips attached to them - quite brazenly just congregate around the main entrance points to the hospital sharing their smoking experience with us. Especially ironic near the lung clinic. Deep breath...well, I would if it wasn't for the noxious fumes around.



Sunday 13th September
Well here you can see below Amanda going through post-operative recovery. 48 hours after her surgery, she's home (and watching Big Brother, which some might say may lead to a speedy readmission to hospital)
So, what's happened in the last few hours?
She had her MRI scan at 8pm last night, and the results came back this morning." The post-operative scan showed satisfactory post-op appearance....she will be contacted for further management once the histology results are available"

The full terminology for the surgical procedure that she went through was " left parietal re-do craniotomy and de-bulking of recurrent metastatic lesion" 

She called me up at 9.30am this morning to say she was being allowed home and despite the usual bureaucracy of the staff having to fill out copious amounts of paperwork for discharge and awaiting a once over from physiotherapy,  the OK to leave Critical Care unit was permitted. 

So, next steps.
 - she's at home recovering now (you can see the horseshoe shaped bandaging on the back of her head covering the operation scar and the soft-stitches too)
 - stitches to be removed w/c 21st September
 - wait for further consultation once post-operation recovery has been completed

Amanda's very tired after being woken at 5.30am three mornings on the bounce (she didn't realise there was a 5.30am in the morning...), there's lots of swelling to contend with, and a whole lot more bruising from cannula insertions and surgical injections.

Pretty amazing (for the second time in just under 4 months) that she's home after pretty invasive cranial surgery within 48 hours.

Thanks for all of your messages as always. They've been a great source of comfort during a very difficult time.



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