Lupy ~
I definitely had the 'hit by a Mack truck' feeling when I awoke in the ICU. This lasted approximately 18 hours, and I slept most of that time. Once I came out of it (fatigue, anesthesia) I started feeling much better - but I was weak. Of course, I was also over 60 which probably was a factor, but I was in very good health and suffered no complications. No CSF leaks, headaches, incision infections, nausea or dizziness. No neck aches, either. Just SSD (just as I was prior to surgery) and a few days of mild double vision (I could watch TV but reading was a challenge). I assumed the extreme fatigue I experienced in the first 18-to-24 hours post-op were a combination of the trauma of a 9-hour skull surgery and the after-effects of the anesthesia.
These varied post-op experience are informative and, once again, underline the fact that every AN surgery patient has a slightly different experience. Some have a relatively easy time of it, some have a bit of trouble that resolves fairly quickly and some, unfortunately, have a lot of problems, some intractable. There are
so many factors involved; size of the AN, it's exact location, how difficult to remove the tumor, length of the surgery, surgical complications that arose during surgery, the surgeons skill (and experience), the patients overall health and attitude, etc. Some AN surgeries are over in 5 or 6 hours. Most are 8 -10 hours. Some go 12 -16 hours (or more). It's a very mixed bag and while we can gain some insight from each others experiences, there is simply no realistic way to accurately predict someone's ultimate surgical outcome. Still, exchanging surgery experiences is a useful tool for learning, as long as we realize that
'your experience may be different' - because it probably will be.
Jim
