Plates and screws..........

[leapyrtwins]

Brian and Lori, you guys are SO lucky that I like you   

vschaub -

interesting story about your sensitivity and headaches - I bet having your "hardware" removed post AN surgery is very rare indeed.  I'm glad to hear it was a success for you 

Jan

[Denise S]

Mine showed up on a post CT or MRI.  I had all that extra swelling they were worried about is why I had to have them  tests so soon.  Hard to see, but it was there. 

I too know (not personally, but through a friend)  someone who had hers taken out.   She was having severe headaches, and kept getting infections or something.  Her pain in that area ended up going away too!

[WHWT]

Thanks for all your replies.  I'm glad they're not dinner plates and drywall screws.

[Lizard]

My plates were removed because my scalp was very sensitive and I could feel them through the scalp. I was having a lot of headaches in that area. I consulted with my surgeon, Dr Brackmann, who felt it might not help to remove them but it would not hurt either. He said that it is very rare to remove them. I live in Florida so they were removed at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. I am happy to report that the scalp tenderness disappeared and I get very few headaches.

Was the surgery a tough one, because I have a lot of tenderness in that area and can also feel it moving around.  I wonder if that would help with my headaches?  I hope my surgeon wouldn't think I was nuts to ask for that do you?

Amazing and something else to consider.  How long were you a postie after they removed it?

Thanks!
Liz

[AMD]

Even though we do not do acoustic neuromas much in the operating room I work in, we do lots of other brain surgery.  Cranial plates and screws vary a bit in thickness and length, but overall are very, very thin and small.   I like to think of the tiny screw that holds a pair of glasses together....Cranial screws are a bit bigger, but you get the idea.  In my operative report, they used several screws and 20-hole plate, none of which I can really see on my 1 -yr post-retrosigmoid MRI.


-Amy

[WHWT]

Here I am, almost 13 years post surgery.  Balance is still off.  I'm wobbly most of the time.  Noisy rooms are a bother.  Left side deafness is annoying.  Surgery left me cross-eyed.  But life goes on.

The plates and screws have been causing some issues for years.  I went to a neurologist (not the surgeon who operated), and told him that it feels like the edge of a piece of metal has come loose, causing pain.  If I slide my scalp over it, it catches.  The back of my h ead is very sensitive.  If I lean my head back on something, it hurts.  He sent me for X-rays.  "You are right.  The metal is catching on your scalp."

Do I really want to undergo another surgery, however minor, to correct this?