Vermont

Home sweet home!

Dan and I arrived yesterday late afternoon to find our apartment filled with banners, food, and gifts (Thank you everyone!)

My friend Shannon also magically brought one of our dead plants back to life! Now if we could only keep it that way.

Recovery continues, and I am doing well, although my voice isn't getting any better. I am so sad to not be going back to school tomorrow! I hope everyone has a great first day!

Continued Recovery

So because I wasn't taking the steroids anymore, my head was very swollen and uncomfortable, so the doctor prescribed five more days of steroids, so I am much happier.

Dan and I plan on driving back to Vermont Monday, and we are very excited to sleep in our own bed, eat our own food, and see all of our friends and family in Vermont!

More Surgery

So, I saw the laryngologist on Tuesday, and was given the bad news: I will be needing surgery to repair my vocal cords. My weak voice and lack of propulsion when swallowing is due to nerve damage caused by the surgery, and will not get better without surgery. Bummer. While unfortunate, they had expected it, so it's not a surprise, although I was hoping it wouldn't be necessary.

Surgery is scheduled for October 13th, so we will be driving back down to New Jersey in October.

Recovery is going pretty well, but now that I'm done taking the steroids my swelling is up quite a bit, which causes more pain and discomfort than I had before, on and off. I definitely have more energy most days, but not as much as I'd like.

Dan and I will be staying in New Jersey for about another week; my dad turns sixty on Saturday and we'd like to be here to celebrate with him. :)

No More Stitches!

I went to see the neurosurgeon today, and he took out my stitches! He was very impressed with how well I have been healing (I'm very talented.), and said my neck looks beautiful. If you say so. I think it looked better before he covered it in betadine and left like a hundred tiny pin-prick holes in it, but alright. Healing is good.

Tomorrow we go into NYC for the second follow-up with the neurotologist and his laryngologist partner, who will tell me how my swallowing is and if it will get better or if I will need additional surgery.

My voice is doing pretty well, and I think it's getting better, or at least lasting longer, each day. If I need surgery, it isn't dire, which would make it more frustrating to go through since I'm not that bothered by the swallowing/voice issues. Although I guess if it didn't improve it would bother me more.

Hopefully a return trip to Vermont is in the near future (two weeks or so? maybe?)! I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed and laying on my own (new) couch. I also am missing all that Vermont food, like Als and Ben and Jerry's!

Yesterday I went shopping! It was my first (and only so far) non doctor related outing. My aunt and cousin brought me to Kohls and I bought new sneakers, since Dan has misplaced the bag of stuff I wore to the hospital, and I only brought one pair of sneakers.

All these outings are exhausting, but I'm resting resting resting in between.

Thanks for checking in everyone!

ER day for my Hacklioma

Yesterday we called the doctor because my right pupil was constricted. The neurosurgeons insisted on my meeting them at Westchester Medical Center's emergency room, where we spent seven hours.

All in all, the pupil is part of Horner's Syndrome, a nerve weakness that often occurs on one side of the face following nerve surgeries or even just nerve damage. They did a CAT scan and found nothing wrong, and gave me some eye drops, because if the eye is too dry it can have trouble dilating.

They also prescribed me lots of ear drops, because the pressure in my head is due to a large amount of clotted blood in my ear canal. It's all hydrogen peroxide based drops, so every few hours I have to deal with bubbling and tickling, trying not to make faces that will make my stitches hurt later.

My aunt, uncle, and cousins from Vermont came down to visit! It was great to see them yesterday and today, although my poor cousin Jonathan got sick. :( Hopefully not something I will catch. My cousins have decided my tumor should be named after me, a Hacklioma. I love it! Especially since they are still undecided as to what it actually is/was.

We have decided I need....Ben and Jerry's! I've lost almost twenty pounds! I haven't been this tiny since college!

Thanks for the continued cards gifts etc!

Road to Recovery

Hi everyone!

Thank you for the continued cards, flowers, calls, and visits! I'm still kinda groggy from pain meds but it's nice to break up the day with little conversations. :)

The swelling has gone down immensely; I can tell because I can feel parts of my face I couldn't before.

I'm not sure if I've told you all (I can't remember what I've written and it would take a while to try to go back and read) but the tumor is all out, and they are nearly positive they didn't do any damage to any nerves, even the one it was on. I can talk and swallow really well, although my voice is still a little weak and its hard to eat because of the swelling. But I can feel the numbness receding each day (my head is just so swollen on that side that I can't feel anything in the general area of the surgery), and my tongue is almost back to completely normal motions.

We are still waiting to hear what type of tumor it was, as it was neither a paraganglioma or a schwannoma. But they still think it was not cancerous, based on the shape and make-up.

My ear continues to make a purring sound as the pressure reduces in my head, every so often it pops a little which is exciting. I'm still on lots of steroids for swelling and pain meds and pills to keep my stomach working and pills to stop me from being sick because of all the other pills...

Oh yeah, and I'M NOT COUGHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, when I breathe in a little spit then I do, but other than that, NOT COUGHING! It makes me really happy.

I'll continue to update you on my recovery, but I'm guessing it'll mostly be the same, just slow and steady. I keep reminding myself that they still expected me to be in the hospital today, even best case scenario, so I am ahead of schedule.

Taking too many naps to be bored yet, so that's good!

Talk to you all soon! Thank you for the love and support!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Everyone!

What a crazy ordeal. (I apologize for any typos now; I am having some typing difficulties due to the meds.)

After the throwing up, I wisened up and refused morphine, which made my stomach feel a lot better. They also gave me dilaudid (sp?) which was some good pain medication. I miss it...lol.

While I was in neuro ICU, some guy who shot himself in the face was on the bed across from me. In the middle of the night they called in the priest and gave him his last rights. The next day some kid coded in the hallway, causing a huge problem because people had illegally moved equipment from rooms and not followed procedure. It was very dramatic.

Thanks to everyone who called, texted, messaged, and visited! It was so nice to feel surrounded with love and support.

I am currently watching Cake Boss S 1 Via Netflix (Thanks, McAuliffes!!!) Trying to keep my mind off the pain and pressure.

Talk to you all soon!

Heather

Heather has left the building

This afternoon, roughly at 1:45pm, Heather was released form the hospital. Actually she was released around 11:00, but we could not find someone to bring her downstairs, so my grandmother eventually commandeered a wheelchair and off we went. The pressure from going up and down hills has definitely been a cause of pain as she cannot yet regulate the pressure in her ears. She is home and well drugged with pain meds and sleeping.

No More Tumor!!

Hi all! The tumor is all gone!! But let me back up.

First, on Monday Heather was admitted at 6:30am to Westchester Medical Center, and was setup for her angiogram. It went well, and they embolized it with no issues. The morphine or the anesthesia made her throw up and cough, which hurt her puncture wound in her thigh, which made them want to give her more drugs... it was a vicious cycle.

She survived the night, and so did I... on two chairs pushed together in a waiting room. Oh well.

This morning (what day is it again?) she went into surgery for the tumor-ectomy. She went in at 7:45am. At 1pm they told me that they had "reached the tumor" and I groaned thinking I was in for a long afternoon of surgery. To my surprise she was all done by 4pm and I could go in to see her by 5:30pm. She looked like she had just gotten done with a long surgery (surprise surprise, huh?) and was very groggy and squoze my finger kinda hard, but was heavily drugged.

She went to PACU (post anesthesia care unit) and then to Neuro-ICU where she was given far too much morphine, which made her throw up, which started a who new vicious cycle. Eventually Valium won the day and she went to sleep. Then I cam back to her parents house, showered, shaved, became more like a normal person, and am now blogging with you nice people.

Night Night! (or goodmorning)