8 weeks post op!
14 December 2014
So I am 8 weeks post-op now and doing well. I came out of surgery with no major deficits and I thank Dr Teo for his incredible skills and resources. I am absolutely amazed at what a tidy job he has done. After surgery we were informed that he removed all of the tumors visible and that this was one of the best and most challenging surgeries he had performed. We were however told that there is the chance of regrowth as there may be some cells left over (the surgery went into very delicate territory).
The total costs so far have totaled around $115,000 NZD. Due to the surgery going so well this is a lot less than we were expecting. The huge efforts made by my family, friends and the One Dollar Warriors means we managed to fundraise around $85,000 of that! This money meant we could book the surgery just in time. Another few weeks and the tumor behind my right eye may have completely invaded my optical canal resulting in blindness (in the right eye).
Recovering from brain surgery is a slow process and I still have a way to go. I get exhausted quickly and get pretty nasty headaches some days. My sense of smell has not returned which of course affects my taste as well, time will tell if this returns. A super healthy lifestyle has been on the cards (Whole foods, juicing,vitamin regiment, exercise).
We returned from Sydney last week from our follow up consult with Dr Charlie Teo and my first MRI scan since the surgery. We also got the pathology report back and we are pleased and relieved to report that all is clear and healing very well. The pathology report showed Grade1(this means benign!) tumors which is the best outcome we could have hoped for as there was some concern over malignancy.
Here are some images and my pre-op MRI scans. These scans show just how big the tumors had grown since the initial scans I had in April when I was diagnosed.
Heath