6 month Brainiversary

Yesterday was officially My 6 month brainiversary!

 

This month has so much happening! My Brothers 1st wedding anniversary at the beginning of the month. My very amazing friends wedding in a few days! I only wish I could be there with him to share it. My inlaws celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this weekend as well. Our 15th wedding anniversary in 5 days! I wasn't sure I'd be here for it and I'm so very happy I am! We'll be away for a weekend together on our own to celebrate.  Our youngest boy selected his classes for senior and has arranged his work experience and mapped out the rest of his working life (as he would like to see it for now). 

 

I have an appointment for follow up in Sydney with my neurosurgeon on November 1st. I'll be having a new MRI done before I go.  On the way down and back (we're taking a couple of days to drive down and home) we'll be stopping to visit some beautiful friends along the way. I miss them so very very much it makes my heart ache. They were very wonderful and put us up when I went down for my initial appointment and again when I went down for surgery. 

 

I have also been offered the opportunity to do a two day flight trip in outback australia. Over Lake Eyre, out to Coober Pedy, birdsdville etc. It will be a great opportunity to take photographs *fingers crossed* That trip will be after I get back from Sydney, so EVEN more to look forward too. This has been a miraculous year and its not over yet.

 

Adventures!

What a huge day!
Today was the second of the days trips I went on with Dad and my Uncle.  Our First trip was to Queen Mary Falls, Daggs Falls, Carrs Lookout and various points in between. It was a massive day of 11 hours driving and walking which was absolurtely wonderful. I paid for every bit of it the following day and was completly wiped out by the time I got home but It was such a wonderful breathtaking trip I didnt mind a bit. Seems Im still not quite as "mended" as I think I am.
The second day trip Dad and my uncle went on was to Wild horse mountain and the glass house mounatins. I had to bow out of that trip as I was recovering from physio and not likely to make it up Wild Horse Mountian. As it turned out the rural firebrigage and other emergency services were doing burnoffs and having a big meet about working together efffectively so photgraphically it didnt turn out to be a great trip in the end.
Todays trip was primarily Tamborine Mountain. Starting with Curtis Falls, then the botanic gardens, some lookouts, the Bearded Dragon for a (very) late lunch and then a trip to Labrador. Another 10 hour day of driving and walking. I'm not so wiped out this time!
Today I also recieved in the mail a package from Brent at Capture Imaging. It is his absolutely stunning book "Moods of Port Stephens" if you get the opportunity to see it, please do! I spent a few days staying with our beautiful friends at Anna Bay before and after my brain surgery. It's a gorgeous area and the people are wonderful.
To add to the wonder of my already amazing day, I discovered that I managed to successfull complete my first walk challenge since surgery. So I have signed up for another one this month to see how I go and keep the inspiration going. Oh! and sometime this week or next I should hit 5 million steps since may last year when i started doing these challenges (not including february, march, april and may 2011 which i didnt count due to recoving from surgery). The June challenge I manged 86%.
I have included some pictures from the day trips below.

5 Month Brainiversary

Another month has passed. Time is still something that isn't sitting right with me but that's ok, everything will continue to improve with time In the last month a few things have changed. I'm feeling a lot more confident in my ability to get on with things. I'm busting at the seams to get stuck back into life and have SO many things running through my head that I want to do! 
I have had a couple of set backs, first my medication hasn't changed much since last month, that is still something that can change in the not too distant future. Also we have discovered through a new set of scans that my old spinal fractures while healed, have now developed into bulging discs, arthritis and degeneration through my spine, hips and sacroiliac joints. Fear not! I have an amazing physiotherapist who is helping me get back to "normal with that as well and will be helping me to develop a plan of attack to slow down the degeneration and any further damage for as long as possible. So...... more hard work for me! I am prepared for this challenge and I feel confident that we'll do well in the end 
Meanwhile I have some short day photographic trips planned with my dad and my uncle so that should be GREAT! I have been playing around with old photographs and playing with my camera pretty much daily since I got home. There is still a lot I don't remember but boy am I having a ball relearning my camera 

4 month Brainiversary

So in the last couple weeks I have had my 4 month Brainiversary. In some ways it feels like only yesterday I had the surgery and in others it feels like years ago. I'm really very thankful to be here and to be having this amazing life with my family and friends.

I'm on the second day of 1/4 dose of my original medication. It was the only thing around at the time that was making any difference at all to my quality of life and over the years it has caused hair loss, kidney damage and a pretty nasty rash on my face which flares up from time to time. Today is not very comfortable, my head is aching. I'm hoping over the next couple of days it settles down some more. I see my doctor again in a week so we'll see what she says about it all then and if we can do done to ZERO!!!! I really hope so!

The Things We Do

I am still in the process of recovering from my surgery and as time goes by it has become more and more apparent that my memory has gigantic gaping holes in it. It has effected both long and short term memory. Last month I became very depressed about it all. I was very frustrated that I couldn't remember things and that parts of my life for all intents and purposes had "vanished". So things that have been automatic for me most of my life are now things I have to think about, concentrate on or are just inaccessible. 

I have been doing some "brain training to help recover my memory and get my brain back into working order and it is slowly improving. It is however going to be a long process. I realise and accept that now. Part of the problem I was having was that I wanted it to be fixed NOW or yesterday. There is no magic pill, band aide or wand to fix this. It will take time and work to repair. So I will take it easy, do what I can and the parts that can be fixed will be fixed and they parts that can't ... I will cope with. I am thankful that I am still here and that I was able to have the surgery done before the tumour took my life.

Sometimes a change of attitude makes all the difference. So I am back to looking on the brighter side of life and will be overcoming the challenges that come my way the best way I can 

Follow Up

I flew to Sydney for my follow up with the awesome neurosurgeon and it went pretty awesomely well. He is very happy with the rate of healing. Pathology came back on my brain lump and its absolutely benign and the got the whole thing out  I will have to go back every 6 months for MRI's and check up for the next 2 years and then every 12 months for 2 - 3 years after that to make sure it hasn't grown back.. The spotty memory is totally normal and will improve over time. It happened because that part of my brain was bruised during the surgery. It just needs some time to recover.  


So for now, more resting,  medications with my local doctor and generally getting life into better than normal 

Recovery

Its been 6 weeks since I had brain surgery. Some days it feels like it was yesterday others it feels like it was years ago. My memory is a little messed up since the surgery but it is improving all the time. There are some holes in it some really big ones that frighten me a little and smaller ones which are more easily explained by tiredness + recovery = forgetting things.

The big thing that disappeared down the rabbit hole was that during surgery I lost quite a bit of blood and ended up having a transfusion. I have no memory of anyone telling me about it at all until i was my local doctor a couple of weeks ago. It was quite a shock to discover how close I had come to not making it through the surgery at all. 

Anyway. Next week I fly back down for my post op check up with the neurosurgeon so we'll see how that goes and if there are any other things to be discovered that I don't remember  Everything seems to be healing up well on the outside at least 

     Day2 Week 6