Sunday, January 3, 2010

Brain Saga 2

I wrote about my first few months of this brain tumor in my post Don't Mess With The Brain, and I guess it is about time I wrote a sequel.



Last time on the Brain Tumor Saga: I was diagnosed with a brain tumor on December 1, 2006. I had an awake craniotomy to remove it a week later. Something went wrong in surgery and I ended up completely unable to talk (or write) and paralyzed on the whole right side. I spent the next month in the hospital learning to walk and talk. I still have vast difficulties but my recovery was far more successful then the doctors thought possible. I then went to live with my parents and get more treatment.

It took a while to get my treatment coordinated after returning home. I did radiotherapy and daily chemotherapy for six weeks, and then stopped radiotherapy and took chemo about five days a month. I finally got into neruorehab: speech, physical and a variety of other therapies. I loved most of them, especially the ones that directly challenged me and I could see progress on.

There were also two therapy classes. One was to teach us techniques to compensate for brain injuries, which I found helpful. But there also one to teach us to deal with the emotions associated with brain injuries and I thought it was below me. It took me a while to realize the value of that class. Of course, there were things in each of them that were not useful to me and things that were, whether I thought so at the time or not.

At that point my goal was to return to school that fall. All the doctors thought I would never be able to successfully return to school. Everyone thought that I was setting myself up for failure. But I went back anyway. I thought that I would most likely not make it though the first quarter, but wanted to test my limits and see how far I got. I made it thought the quarter with a B-.

Part 3 is at Brain Saga 3.

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