Surgery Two

Well, we had such high hopes for this surgery and so many people fervently praying and I should be offering more praise and thanks, but I’m just frustrated.

Erik drove me to the hospital at 5 AM for our 6 AM arrival. I was brought up to pre-op and Erik waited on floor above until he was allowed to sit with me. My surgery was scheduled for 7:15 so pre-op was a whirlwind of signing authorization forms, speaking with doctors and getting hooked up to all my equipment. I briefly saw Erik and then I was whisked away to the operating room.

When I woke up in recovery, I was thrilled. It was around 11:45 and I was so impressed with how quickly the surgery finished! I came out of the anesthesia and was in recovery.

I was very drowsy and about to fall asleep again when one of the nurses acted concerned about finding a strong pulse in my foot. I really thought nothing of her remark because I had no idea it was important to find a pulse in your foot. She was very good at keeping me calm and not letting me worry.

But, they were concerned enough that I took a sleepy trip to a CT scan and then waited for my results. My next visitor was the resident on the vascular surgery team who informed me they would be operating today on my leg.

Now, it was about 3 in the afternoon and I was only told so far that there was not a strong enough pulse in my right foot that matched my left foot.

When the neurosurgeon closes the incision from the angiogram with embolization, he uses a closure device that pulls the area closed from underneath and allows the artery to seal. Unfortunately, the device sealed a little too much. The closure device sealed off a few millimeters of my artery and was restricting the blood flow to my right leg.

Within 30 minutes of receiving the news, I was rushed back into the operating room to repair the area.

Thankfully, everything went well with the vascular repair and the only drawback was an ugly inch and a half incision and the inability to walk well. The area was closed with glue that would dissolve off. I sat with my legs up for a week on painkillers and relaxed.

The vascular surgeon reassured me that I would have no problems with blood flow in my leg in the future. They could’ve left the damage to my artery for a few years even, but it would’ve only caused problems in the future and was better to resolve as soon as possible.

I feel very negative of this surgery due to the complication, but I know there are so many things to be positive of:

• A successful neurological surgery.
• A successful vascular repair that I will never have to worry about again.
• No headaches again!
• Relatively speedy recovery with no further complications.

I have so many things in my life to be thankful for, life events to look forward to and things to accomplish. I know this is only a season and I’m trying to focus on the positives, but sometimes the negatives outweigh them in my mind.

Thankfully, I am a little over a month post-op now and almost can fully stretch out and even run! The incision is so much smaller, flatter and hopefully soon to be disappearing altogether! Yay!