One Parent's Busy Day: Undergo Brain Surgery, Coach Little League

Had the "water on the brain" surgery on Monday evening cause the doctor got behind on time. Woke up in ICU and Wednesday came home. Hurting yes. Two openings with staples in head and opening in stomach with stitches. Honestly still can't move like I did before surgery. Tired and don't feel good yet. Four weeks this coming Monday.

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I had the Cyberknife Treatment for lung cancer in the spring of 2007. I am now cancer free. My life returned immediately to normal activities following three outpatient treatments. For the naysayers who have posted here, go to the Accuray website and learn about this miraculous robotic surgery that is saving countless lives.

Kay

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My husband had surgery for an Acoustic Neuroma earlier this year. It was benign (non-cancerous), but would have choked out his brain stem and killed him had it gone untreated. We considered the cyber-knife, but opted for the surgery due to his age (42) and the size of his tumor. he had the surgery at Johns Hopkins (doctors Quinones-Hinojosa and Francis) earlier this year. It took 12 hours, as the tumor was wrapped around many of his nerves. The doctors were wonderful. He ended up staying in the hospital 17 days, and had to have a second surgery due to a cerebro-spinal fluid leak (and eventually a third surgery for a staph infection, and a fourth one to implant a bone-anchored hearing aid). Thank God we had such fantastic doctors and also that we have good insurance. Had he been released earlier, the complications would have manifested themselves at home, rather than in the hospital where he was able to receive the immediate care that he needed. He is now recovering well. We are very fortunate and would highly recommend Hopkins and our doctors.

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THIS WILL BE THE SECOND AND THIRD TIME THAT I HAVE TRIED TO COMMENT, BUT IT NEVER DID COME TO MY EMAIL SO I COULD CLICK TO PRINT IT. AM I DOING SOMETHING WRONG

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Cyber knife surgery is pinpointed radiation. No cutting. My dad had it for his trigeminal neuralgia.

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People, people, people...you must remember that there is more then one reason for brain surgery. Some is more invasive then others. Also, brain surgery does not always mean that they open the SKULL. My sister had a problem that needed surgical attention and they used an artery in her groin and scans to go in to do the repair. It was and is called closed skull surgery, in lay terms. So would say that unless you have not had the surgery or know the person that has had it, you know nothing.

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Kingbrian thanks for asking. Yes she is actually doing pretty good now. They said it was swelling of the brain and pushing against the scull that was making here forget and not be right. They told her just to take it easy and a couple days later she is back to normal and doing even better then before. She is walking a little better and all. Her story is quite amazing. When she had the first anurism burst she was bad. She had lost her whole left side and was pretty much brain damaged. After recooping a bit they had to put her in a nursing home. She was only 43. She was in the nursing home for almost 4 months when she was getting worse and they noticed she had alot of water on the brain so they did surgery to put a stint in. When she woke up from this, she was back to normal and last thing she remembered was the horrible headache she had. She had no idea that she had been in the nursing home the last 4 months or anything. She could walk and talk just fine like nothing happened. That was a miracle. Then now a couple years later they just cut the other 2 out like I said and now once again she is back to normal and doing great. At a time when I questioned Godbecause I lost my 28 year old cousin who just got pregnant, My aunt answered my prayers and showed me that there had to be a God to pull her through.

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Dorothy and me are still looking for my brain.

Myspace

Another Black Season

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About 18 years ago I had brain surgery to remove 2 tumors. While only one had been detected bt the MRI, another was found during the surgery....

I has no symtoms and only had the MTI cause I had a sudden loss of hearing which proved unrelated, but uncovered the tumor....when discovered it was 1/2 centimetre...in 2 years it grew to 3 centimetres and I opted for surgery at Hackensack Hospital. My skull was cracked open and I had 16 large staples which I eventually removed myself.

I was in the hospital for 3 days...2 weeks later I was bowling again in my bowling league and that first night I rolled a 702 for the night.....u guessed it, the guys jokingly said I oughta get my skull cracked more often...

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my 5 yr old daughter had brain tumor surgery and was out within 48 hrs.....she was up walking around the room coloring etc within 24 hrs,,,,cyberknife is supposed to be less invasive so maybe 24 hrs is possible

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Frank and those that are lucky enough to have surgery to have AVM removed-Yeah lucky for you, but Gammaknife/Cyberknife(radiation) is there to stay and is not new, but is sometimes the only option for others due to location size, etc of AVM, tumor.... No two patients are alike no two diagnosis are alike so your MD should know what is best if in doubt get a second opinion at University hospital. I was told I would never walk again with 60% of my cord crushed trying to rescue someone but world top neurosurgeon made me walk and gave me the ability to empty my bladder without catheterizing myself every 4 hours. To see patients like me in a wheelchair is just a reminder that no two patients can be treated alike and no one MD has all the answers> No one can appreciate these advances like those who had thoracic tumors treated which burned the left ventricle of their heart only to leave a teacher unable to teach, a ureter being damaged by radiation treatment on a man who was having his bladder cancer treated. The control that we have on treating the diseased tissue while sparing more of the healthy tissue in the process is never going to be appreciated by anyone like it is by those who have seen the progress in the last 20 years or those who have survived because of the advances

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Charlie-you are funny!!Recovery speed is also patient dependent and your attitude is Great!!!!!!!!!!

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People People People... this is about radiation surgery. I had it in March of this year for a skull based (inoperable) meningioma (brain tumor) and YES I had "brain surgery" in the mornings and went back to work as a school principal in the afternoons for 3 days. It is painless, non-invasive treatment with little to no side effects. It does not remove the tumor, only kills it. Please do some research on CYBERKNIFE (accuray) SYSTEM! IT is FABULOUS!!!

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Cyber Knife is definitely what they say..My Mother is currently going through it and it does work. It stops the growth of a brain tumor and over a period of time it disappears...There is no pain, no cutting and due to radiatiion within several proceduers it works....and yes you could be out playing ball an hour later.

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WELL I WILL TRY ONE MORE TIME WILL TRY TO BE SHORT. I HAD BRAIN SURGERY IN MARCH 2001, I SPENT 14 DAYS IN THE HOSPITAL, THE FIRST WEEK I DIDN'T KNOW ANYONE OR ANYTHING BUT THEY SAID EVERYTHING WENT GREAT. THE SECOND WEEK I STARTED TO WAKE UP. I HAD TWO BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS, I GOT OUT WENT HOME WAS ABLE TO WALK VERY SLOWLY WITH MY HUSBANDS ASSISANTS. IN JULY OF THAT YEAR I HAD 5 GRAND MAL SEIZURES, THEN IN AUGUST I HAD A STROKE. RIGHT AFTER THE SURGERY AFTER I GOT HOME I KNEW SOMETHING WAS WRONG BUT DID NOT NO WHAT. FINALLY I WENT TO AN EYE DOCTOR HE SAID I WAS SEEING DOUBLE. HE PUT A PRISIM IN MY GLASSES AND I COULD SEE AGAIN. NO ONE EVER TOLD ME WHY MY STAY WAS SO LONG. BUT GOING TO THIS STUPID NUROLOGIST I WAS HAVING TROUBLE SPEAKING MY WORDS AT TIMES, BUT EVERYTIME I SAID ANYTHING HE WOULD PAT ME ON THE SHOULDER AND SAY IT'S GOING TO BE OK. AFTER THREE YEARS AND FINDING OUT THAT MY WRITING WAS THE SAME WAY AND ON MY NEXT VISIT I SHOWED HIM THE WRITING. HE SAID OH IT'S NOTHING COME BACK IN TWO YEARS.WELL I SAW MY HEART DOCTOR THE FOLLOWING WEEK AND AFTER MY VISIT I SHOWED HIM THE PAPERS AND HE SAID HOW LONG HAS THIS BEEN GOING ON AND I SAID THREE YEARS. WHAT DID YOUR NUROLOGIST SAY I TOLD HIM WHAT HE SAID . AND HE TOLD ME I HAVE A WONDERFUL NUROLOGIST AND I THINK HIGHLY OF HIM. HE SENT ME OVER THE NUROLOGIST DID AN MRI, A 72 HOUR EEG AND AN 8 HOUR TESTING AND COME TO FIND OUT SOMETIMES DURING MY SURGERY SOMETHING MIGHT HAVE BEEN TOUCHED AND I WAS HAVING BRAIN OVERLOADS. I SAID WELL WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT THAT. HE SAID YOU MUST NOT MULTI TASK, STRESS TO MUCH AND TRY TO STAY CALM. AND WHEN YOU FIND YOURSELF GETTING STRESSED GO TO A ROOM BY YOURSELF AND RELAX AND YOU WILL LEARN TO HANDLE THEM. WHICH I HAVE THANKS TO HIM. I BECAME VERY DEPRESSED OVER THE THREE YEARS THAT OTHER DOCTOR YANKED ME AROUND AND I WAS SENT TO A SHRINK AND HAVE BEEN ON ANTI DEPRESSANTS TO HELP ME. I HAVE MANY PROBLEMS BUT I AM SO THANKFUL TO MY HEART DOCTOR FOR SENDING ME OVER TO SEE THE OTHER NUROLOGIST. ALL WE COMMOM PEOPLE WANT IS GOOD TREATMENT AND THE TIME AND CARE THEY ARE SUPPOSE TO SHOW. KEEP ME IN YOUR PRAYERS AND I KNOW WITH GOD'S HELP AND MY WONDERFUL FAMILY I WILL DO BETTER DAY BY DAY. SUE

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BS! I had brain surgery in 2004 to remove a cavernous malformation that was located in what the doc considered an easy location to remove it totally. After an 8 hour operation, I was on morphine for 2 days in the ICU so they could make sure I was alright before they put me in a regular room. Then I was in the regular room for another 3 days making the post surgery hospital stay a grand total of 5 days. Not to mention the fact that it was another 2 weeks before I could return to a somewhat normal schedule. Not to mention the fact that it was about another month before I could walk up and down stairs at a normal pace or hop or bounce or do anything active without feeling my brain rattle around in my head. There is no way in hell someone can have brain surgery in the morning and then coach a little league game in the afternoon.

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I had brain surgery this mornign and coached little league this afternoon, and my team lost 212 to 4.

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