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Hi. How Are You?

Posted on 28. Oct, 2009 by Wes Comer in Health

Just a quick update to commemorate my two-week surgiversary. Recovery has been going great, and although there’s really not been a lot to it, I thought I would fill you in on what I’ve been doing, what my prognosis is, and where I go from here.

First of all, the surgery went fantastic (as we’ve written) and though the docs were hesitant to say it, actually did say that it was a best case scenario. Those are words you’re glad to hear when a team of surgeons has drilled through your skull. And probably the only time those words will be spoken regarding anything to do with my brain ever again. :) It’s to the credit of the excellent team at Vandy that I was up and walking around within hours of my surgery, and of course, God played no small role, either. He effectively guided their hands, tools, and minds…amazing. The rest of the stay at the hospital was a blur for me as I spent most of my time sleeping, and getting shots and having blood drawn. This wasn’t fun but it also wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I normally hate needles but being sleepy somehow made it more tolerable. Strange, I know.

Life at home has been pretty normal. I have a couple of lovely incision wounds (obviously on my cranium, and I also have an abdominal incision from my lipo fat graft) that I have to keep up, and which still have staples in them. These present some curious situations as I can’t get the staples wet, making showering…difficult. Luckily those come out this Friday courtesy of nurse Mom. Aside from not being able to get them wet, the incisions haven’t really bothered me. Only the abdominal one has ever been anything close to uncomfortable, but even that would be an overstatement.

In fact, I can say that so far I’ve had almost zero pain. I think I took half of a pain pill when I first got home, but that was it. Whatever headaches and light pain I’ve had are easily remedied with Tylenol, and I’m so thankful for that. I’m told this could change once I finish a line of steroids I’m on to keep the swelling in my head down (I need those all the time, right?). We’ll see what happens.

This whole thing seems to be a series of small adjustments, some of which are only just starting to make themselves known.

Hearing: I had expected complete, beautiful silence on the right side after surgery as I was told that 100% hearing loss on that side was guaranteed. And while it’s true that I can’t hear out of it, I do have a persistent and, sometimes, annoying ringing. Sometimes it’s really loud and makes it hard to concentrate, other times I don’t notice it all. My local doctor says that this may or may not go away, but over time I’ll probably just get used to it. We journeyed out for a field trip the other day and went to a restaurant to eat, which has been my first hearing test in real world conditions. It was difficult to understand the server, but he was also a soft spoken Russian guy. I seem to be keenly aware of ambient noise now and find that any kind of directional hearing I had is mostly gone. I’m sure this will get better over time, however.

My beautiful face: The type of tumor I had was a social one with many friends in my brain – mostly nerves. There was some risk that I could have some partial facial paralysis, and there was some concern over whether or not this would be permanent. The way it looks after the surgery is that this won’t be a permanent problem. I do have some minor, minor paralysis right now that is most obvious when I smile (right side is weak). It’s also a laugh riot trying to spit after brushing my teeth. My pucker is deflated on the right, so while my brain is saying “spit”, what I get from my mouth is a confused, twisted, drool of toothpaste. I’m told this will improve as all the nerves kind of work their way back into place, the swelling goes down, etc. I’m not really all that worried about it. The only other physical adjustment is that my right ear seems to stick out more now. Of course, when you see the pictures (working on it) you’ll see that they basically peeled my ear back to get to the skully goodness underneath and then stapled it back in place. It’s also numb and rubbery and fun to poke around at.

Singing: I’m a little anxious about this one. I’m a worship leader at my church, and they’ve been super accommodating through all the issues I’ve had both with my hearing, and more recently with my voice. For the past few months, whatever weakness I had on my right side was making itself mostly known through my vocal chords. My voice went out quickly, certain notes would just disappear, and I was generally fatigued after a worship set. I haven’t really pushed my voice in the past two weeks since surgery, so I’m not sure what’s going to happen. It could be that I regain all those things as the area heals up, and we’re back in business. It could be that I’m just not able to do that again. I’m hoping that’s not the case, but I’m encouraged by the fact that God has supplied a more than able worship leader that’s already doing a great job in my absence. Change can be a good thing, and I’d sure hate to miss what God has for me in a season of change by being overly distracted and emotional by what He moves out.

Energy level: This has been the biggest adjustment for me personally. My energy level is whackadoo right now. Yesterday I went for a big walk and was feeling like King of the World. Energy was high, my heart was racing along, and then Biff the Narcolepsy Fairy smacked me upside the head, because I slept four hours without really even remembering getting in bed. This is frustrating for me because I hate down time. Brooke, (The Ever Patient™) keeps reminding me I just had brain surgery. That this is recovery time, and it’s not a waste to rest, but I struggle with feeling lazy when I’m not producing something or contributing something. Brooke is right, however, and I’m trying (not always succeeding) to listen and heed good advice.

My first post-op with my surgeons comes on November 10, so we’ll see what progress we make on all these fronts between now and then. As always, thank you for all the prayers, notes, meals, emails, and warm thoughts you’ve sent our way. I’m humbled by your support, and our entire family thanks you from the bottom of our collective heart for all your kindness. God bless, and I’ll update again soon.