Saturday, May 28, 2016

My Cavernous Malformation - Post Surgery

Apparently I was really funny after the surgery and was still under the influence of the anesthesia. I tried getting up off my bed and it took 5 nurses to keep me down. They had to use restraints to tie me to the bed. When I came to in my right mind, I wasn't restrained. But, I immediately did two things. I checked to see if I could still think and that I wasn't a vegetable. I thought, "I think, so therefore I am." I was thrilled. Then I wiggled my feet and my hands, and I was elated that I wasn't paralyzed.
The surgeon before the operation told us that it was unlikely, but there was a small risk of both of those things. I'm just super grateful that everything went well. Some people spent weeks in intensive care before and after surgery. I spent another night after the surgery, and I was doing so well that I was sent to a normal hospital room. I was doing so well there too, that after another day and a half, they said there was no reason to stay, that I could go home and recover from the surgery. I was so happy.

So many people came to visit me in the hospital, and it made me super happy to see everybody! I think I was supposed to be sleeping all the time, but it was much more enjoyable to interact with people. I was just happy to be alive.

My professor Jim, whose the Director of Undergraduate studies for the School of Computing came to visit me my first day in the hospital. That was the day that I was supposed to be presenting my Senior Project, and my Data Mining Project, both that I worked super hard on. It was really cool to see him and he assured me that everything would be resolved with this Semester after everything was resolved. I think that he felt responsible for me, since he told me to get checked out. I honestly doubt that he thought that my brain was bleeding and that I'd need brain surgery. I'm glad that he was so insistent that I get checked out. He actually came to see me again to check up on me, but I was already discharged.

My sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Josh and Justine were there for most of my hospital stay. I wanted to show them all the cool sights of Salt Lake, but they had to go back to the Seattle. We were in the middle of moving and we didn't finish. They packed up everything into boxes. I don't know what we would have done without them.

I finally got to meet Alia, my cousin Sean's new wife. It was cool to see them. My wife has been talking with Alia a lot, and I think that they make great friends. They came all the way from Stockton, California. They came before the surgery, and they had to leave before I was discharged.

My immediate family, parents and siblings, were on an epic vacation to Las Vegas, and a lot of the hot spots in California, such as Knotsberry Farm, Disneyland, etc... They were leaving the day that I checked into the ER. When they heard that I was going to have brain surgery, I think that they were going to try to make the day of surgery, which was like 5 days for them. Once they heard that it would be tomorrow, I think they drove all the way from California straight, to see me. They got there in the wee hours of the morning. I was thrilled to see them, but I had such a bad migraine, that I didn't really want visitors that night. But, it was amazing to see them after that, and we even spent a few days at their house.

My parent in-laws drove from Pasco, Washington, and it was awesome to see them. They took a whole week off of work to help us recover and to transition to our new apartment. They were with us at the hospital a lot of the time.

My Senior Project Group, came to visit me in the hospital after the presentation. They said that we did well and that we had a lot of interaction with our apps. It was good to see them.

My buddy Leland and his wife Valerie visited again. His calling was to pass sacrament in the hospital, so he gave us the sacrament that Sunday.

My Aunt and Uncle Gord and Rosario, my cousin Phil and his wife Arielle, and my Grandma all came and visited. It was crazy, because just the prior weekend, we all got together to visit my Grandma on her birthday and I was doing fine then.

Mark from my band came and visited and we had a great chat. Other members apparently came after I had checked out.

The most important person who was beside me the whole time was my friend, my wife. I'm planning on dedicating a whole blog post to her.

A lot more people visited after I checkout and it was such a great experience to see so many people that I love.

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