Stage II

I don't know where to begin, I'm usually not without words. I was thinking as I was having brain surgery, what would be a good adjective to describe this process. Nothing came to mind. I'll try to explain.I'll pickup from arriving at 0530 in the morning (that's 5:30 to you non military types) that's too freaking early for anyone.. You give your car away to the valet and go to the front desk. I had pre admitted, so that saved us a stop. Told to sit,and wait-for your name to be called and we'd' go up to 3rd floor together to prep for surgery. As I wait for my name to be called a couple groups were called out in front of me,and I watched them herd up like cattle and squeeze into the elevator. They all had that uncertain look on their face, it wasn't scared,maybe a look of uncertainty.My name was called and we went to the 3rd floor, and entered the busy hall space for a little and turned into a nurses station, I got Sue on the end. Everyone was in their quick mode, Sue said strip down and put this nice gown on. Got a green one this time! It's going to be a great day! I'm in bed waiting for the parade of doctors and assistants to come by, you know they come by look at your ID,and ask your name and birthday and introduce themselves. The nurse anesthetist David,spent the most time with me ,but where is the main man,the head dude,the brain surgeon? Dr Konrad. They page him,and he says bring him down. I didn't get to visit with Konrad pre-op, a little disappointing, but I know he is busier  than Santa.Time to roll,kiss goodbye and Donna is left holding all my clothes that I wore in this morning. I'm in the bed rolling down the halls, and you feel like everyone is staring at you,feeling pity for you as you speed by. I get to the OR and they say the wrong table is there. The correct one is coming, the one in place will not go high enough. I'm all for everything being exact, but I felt that it put us a little behind the schedule. The new table came quick, and they were impressed that I could scoot my ass 30 inches onto the new table.I didn't have much drugs in me at this time. I was wanting some though! They strapped me to this table in a recliner type position and ask how I felt, I said ok, and they said good enough for 3 hours, I answered we're about to find out! A wiry little woman they call Sarge took control of the room, and said let's get him shaved. She said"Scott, you're getting a new haircut". I answered "I'm sure you all have been to training". They laughed. Sarge and her student I think was responsible for the setup of the platform my head is enclosed in.As they built it there was a bunch of tugging and pressures put on the head. I finally spoke up and told them what I was feeling (as I was told to do) I think they either reversed a few steps or started over completely. By the time they started drilling a dime size hole in my head I was thinking how much this sucks! It was so loud, like a masonry bit trying to go through blocks. I've been called hard headed but come on!

 A group of people have filtered into the room. I think there is no less than 14 people in there. Vandy is a teaching school so I think all positions had a student/teacher thing going on, including Dr Konrad. He had a couple of surgeons from Japan. One of them came to me, and asked which side did I have most of my symptoms, I replied my dominant,left side. He patted my arm and pressed on. I'm sure my timeline of events are off as I drifted in and out of (perceived) sleep mode. I say perceived because I think I was awake for everything except maybe the last of the stitching up. David gave me a little something to calm me down, I was telling them how my legs were trembling, and they said it was being off meds combined with nerves. Everyone had their masks on, so all I can see are the eyes, and hear conversations. My understanding of the procedure is they took data from the scans of last weeks visit and made a plan of action.Where they planned on going, and what was going to be achieved. I'll refer to he main surgeon from Japan as J.J seemed to be the  man in charge of the operation. The implantation I think was computer driven from input from him. He would make call outs as the lead was slowly inserted into my brain. They would be like "8 cm above target, 7 cm above target, 6 cm above target and so on. I don't know at what point the neurologist steps in to having me squeeze a foam ball while he works the opposite hand back and forth to determine release to that side. He would make calls like 25%, 50%,75%100% release. At the same time he's talking to me wanting to know what I feel. I was having feelings of tingling, hot flashes, double vision. I would follow his finger and tell him when double vision stopped. So, you had this 3 way coordination going on! J would say approaching target,neuro working my hand says I've got 75%, and they would stop and annotate that. They might ask how that feels to me, open and close my hand quickly.

During all this I'm perceiving that things aren't going well because of the number of times the nuro would fail to get above 25% release. After the procedure he told me I did well and things went great. I'll go with that.

Now you have to take down what you built and clean up. Sewing up the cuts they made reminded me of the scene from First Blood when Rambo sewed his on arm up. A big thanks to J. During surgery my mouth was so dry, no fluids 12 hrs before you know. I kept licking my lips, he got up and wet a cloth for me, and said I know its not a drink but it might help as he put it against my mouth. I really appreciated that.

Dr Konrad talked to me before he went to see Donna. He reaffirmed that everything went well and I should have good results from the DBS. He then went to Donna and told her the same.

As I sit here 5 days post implantation I feel good. I can sit here and bend over without pressure building in my head. My voice is lower than normal, hopefully that won't last. Thinking positive I think things will be better overall. I just need a battery now!