Hi everyone,
I think my daughter did an update on my June 26th surgery, but I need to add a few more important things that happened!
I had my surgery on Thurs., June 26th, and spent 2 nights in intensive care. Things went pretty normal, and I came home 6 days later. I was home for 3 days, and all of a sudden I felt a stream of liquid start dripping out of my nose. I had just bent over for a second to pick something up.
I called the doctor's office and someone called me back. They asked me if it tasted salty, but I couldn't really taste it. I did feel something dripping in the back of my throat! An hour later the doctor called me back, and it started dripping again out of my nose, and yes, it did taste salty.
They said to come back to the ER right away. I was so scared. They tested me in the ER, and yes, it was spinal fluid. They scheduled surgery AGAIN for 7am the next morning. DANG.
I had surgery again, and the doctor repacked the area very tightly. In fact, since I wouldn't be using my left ear anymore, he closed that area off completely.
Afterwards, the doctor said that I hadn't done anything wrong to make it start leaking. He said my "u station tube" (spelling?) was 4 to 5 times bigger than he had ever seen in his career. That's what made it leak. He was surprised that it took that long after surgery to start leaking. He put in a spinal drain, and I had to lay flat on my back for 6 days in ICU. I have fibromyalgia, so it was so hard to lay like that. My doctor is wonderful, tho, (Dr. LaRoure from Michigan Ear), so he got me a special bed ordered, and he gave me Dilaudid (sp?) for a pain drip. That helped me handle the pain some. I was in the hospital for 8 days this time.
Anyone had to go thru this surgery 2 times in 9 days b/c of this problem?
??
He had to reopen my stomach to repair this again, and now I have two rowes of stitches behind my ear.
I know it could have been much worse.
He also had to take out my balance nerve, b/c the tumor was wrapped around it. How many balance nerves do we have in our brain?
I wonder how that will affect me in the future?
?
He did get all of the tumor the first surgery..........but he said he never could have saved my hearing. The tumor was wrapped around the middle ear, also.
I'm just so thankful that this nightmare is over.
I would really appreciate any comments, or similar experiences anyone had.
Thanks so much for caring.
Sorry I couldn't have gotten on sooner. Got home on Sunday from the hospital. I feel so weak now.
Hope everyone else is doing ok.
Lacey