3 Days to D-Day

Well, this is my first post in this blog. Not sure if I'll tell anyone about it yet, or whether I'll actually continue with it, but I thought it would be good to have at least a couple of posts from before the surgery. Partly because I'm interested in observing how my personality might change before and after the operation. In reality I don't know what'll happen over the next week/months/year, but I'm recording it. At the very worst it'll be boring as hell, because the surgery hasn't changed me - here's hoping I don't find anything too interesting to write about!

Here's a quick run down of what's happened in the last 6 months before I arrived here, at 3 days to D-Day.

From the start: In July this year I had a seizure. This isn't new - I have epilepsy - but soon after that one I had another, so as a precaution I was taken to hospital. In subsequent scans from that seizure, the doctors found a tumour in my pituitary gland. (This is a gland at the bottom of the brain, directly behind the eyes.) The good thing about tumours in this place is that they are benign (non-cancerous).

Since then, I've been going in for tests and scans to identify the size and severity of the thing. Things that I've learnt include:
- It's called a pituitary macroadenoma.
- the pituitary gland is normally about the size of 2 peas. At the moment it's about 5 times that size. (10 peas - or a small artichoke)
- the pituitary gland is below some optic nerves. If we leave it, I could go blind as it grows and puts more pressure on the nerves.
- (sorry, I can't think of anything else right now!)

Last week I found out that I need to have surgery to remove the tumour - but not just any surgery - brain surgery! They put me on a waiting list, and told me it would be around January/February.

This evening I got home from work and there was a courier-letter in the mailbox saying that I have to go into hospital on Monday 17th (this Monday), to prep for surgery on Tuesday!

I had planned to chat to all of my friends and family in that 30 days. Now that it's three days I've had to send out an email.

Apparently the operation will take me out for 3 or 4 days, then I'll be recuperating for up to 4 weeks (I'm aiming for 2-3).

So yeah. I know there will be heaps of unanswered questions, and I'd love to give you my doctor's phone number so he can field them - since I've been given no notice - but in reality, I'd prefer my neuro-surgeon relaxed and ready for my surgery.

This website here was good for answering a lot of the questions I had - feel free to have a browse, otherwise I'll regale you with tales of hospital room drama when I see you again.

POSTSCRIPT: Funny thing is, I've been thinking that I'd be more afraid of the surgery as it got closer to the date (jan/feb). Now it's in three days, I don't have any time to do anything! At least after finding out - I had enough time to catch the last 5 minutes of Shortland Street and see who the killer is!