Surgery On My Mind

Today was a big day for Kathy. She visited with her new Neurologist, Dr. Shen Ye Wang and her Neurosurgeon, Dr. Sohaib Kureshi. Hard names to remember but both unforgettable doctors. Kathy’s morning visit was with Dr. Wang for the continued ear ache pain.

Kathy needs a permanent Neurologist besides a Neurosurgeon and visiting Dr. Wang seemed a good choice. He gave Kathy a round of testing but could not diagnose any problem with her inner ear or identify the referred pain source. His opinion was since the inner ear and brain are in such close proximity with both intertwined in function; her source of pain could very well be the low-pressure level in her brain. He portrayed “were there’s smoke, there’s fire”. He also gave us interesting alternative viewpoints of what issues are going on internally in Kathy’s brain and suggested she move forward on her shunt revision. If her ear aches did not go away after the revision we could eliminate that as a source and proceed on alternate treatments. One down one more to go!

In the afternoon we meet with her longtime Neurosurgeon, Dr. Kureshi. The purpose of the visit was to exorcise, face to face, some of the bewildering questions towards her shunt revision. Dr. Kureshi was awesome in taking time to answer each question in a layman’s approach with true compassion and emotion. I summarize their conversation below:

He suggested since Kathy has severe symptoms like headaches and neck pain 100% of the time, it is worth the surgery risk for the potential upside of less pain. (Kathy has a condition where her shunt is overdraining her CSF fluid in her brain cavity) Nothing ventured, nothing gained and nothing guaranteed. He is a smart doctor, he continues not to issues any guarantees except these comments "most of my patients I have performed shunt revisions on, have shown some improvement".

What are the major risks in shunt revision (replace the fixed valve with a adjustable magnetic valve)? As in all surgeries, this carries an infection and internal bleeding complication factor around 1%.

The surgery will be a Sharp Hospital (the same spot as her rehabilitation hospital) as soon as it can be scheduled. We will let you know ASAP.

The operation should take less than an hour without any complications. He will cut into the area of the original shunt, cut back the scar tissue, disconnect the siphon tube from her brain to the shunt and drainage tube to her stomach from the shunt, remove the old shunt and insert the calibrated adjustable shunt in its place. Once everything is working he will hook up the two ends to the new shunt and stitch up the incision.

Kathy will stay in the hospital for one or two day at the most. He wants her home as quickly as possible to minimize any hospital borne infections. If Kathy were to get an infection later, it most likely originating during the actual surgery itself. We don’t even want to go there-It would require a 3-4 week hospitalization and be a major bummer.

Over a period of three weeks to a month Kathy should progress to point-possibley further along than where she is today. We hope this includes less headaches and ear aches! She should easily make her son’s Wedding in May without any hitches-His words not mine.

Kathy asked about her constant inability to speak words she was thinking but could not quite roll out into her conversations. He described this condition in a Latin term and is associated with the damage her abscess created in the speech area. He is still extremely pleased in the fact that Kathy can speak and write as well as she does and not to worry because this will improve over time.

Kathy asked about her short term memory loss after her accident. She stated she could not remember much of anything over the last two years. He reminded Kathy the brain takes a long time to store away short-term memory and if you have an accident, the brain has not properly preserved the items into long term storage yet. It’s like your hard drive crashed but the data is still intact. He suggests a cognitive recognition program that was being taught at UCSD as a possible start to finding and remembering her recent memories.

Kathy asked about her inability to remember daily comments from people around her. He stated that her brain after the injury is not as attentive and trying to get to recover to optimum performance. (He reminded Kathy it has only been six months since her surgery and it takes up to five years to get everything back that’s coming back) He told her to concentrate when someone talks to her similar to the way she was listening to him. (Because he said he was going operate on her head so she better listen) She would need to work on her concentration and over time she would regain these abilities.

Finally Kathy told him of her tiredness, frustration an embarrassment of her condition. He stood up and lectured Kathy on the miracle she is and reminded her of her close brush with death or extreme retardation. He told her everyone else should be embarrassed around her that cannot appreciate what she has gone through to survive today. She should be proud that she has recovered 95% of here abilities and above all, got that second chance so many people don’t get. A great deal of recovery will be driven by her desire to fulfill her destiny.

He was very inspirational and even I wanted to go out and run through a wall for him and Kathy after his uplifting speech. As we sit here tonight Kathy is still scarred and confused. The operations, the hospital, mistakes, pain and the uncertainty-Should she go forward or not? I guess we’ll find out sooner or later? Keep you posted on the surgery date and the outcome!

Love and Prayers