This time, it went great! I was awake in post-op and I remember everything. I did have a small arrhythmia pre and post op and I could hear my hubby discussing it with the nurse in PACU. Hooray! And, they used a better technique so my voice was even better than before surgery. Best of all, the pain from them re-opening my 6 inch incision site was less severe or the same as the pain I had been living with from the mesh. I could smell recovery in my future. I was thrilled-in pain, nauseous, and tired but thrilled! This time, they closed it with staples, which hurt a little more than the sutures but I was only slightly upset by that-mostly just happy the mesh was OUT!
Now, we had some issues with the hospital this time also. It seemed impossible for me to get an order for a soft food diet even though I was instructed not to chew! The mesh had cut into my jaw muscle so it had to be remobilized. It is still healing...And, I asked for some nausea medication at 11:30AM and received it at 2pm. Not helpful. So, when the PA came in to check me on Wednesday afternoon, she acknowledged that my hubby could care for me just as well if not better than they were, so she let me be discharged. Back to the in-laws we went.
They had been kind enough to allow us to come back to their place with Trevor. The day after my discharge, I was still having a lot of nausea so we held off until Friday (Christmas Eve) to make the journey home. The drive was uneventful and we were soon back at home ready to put all of this behind us and actually begin the recovery process.
Hi Shelley,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your story! I had a craniectomy late last year for the purpose of severing one of my vestibular nerves. The recovery has been long and difficult and over the last 6-8 weeks I've had severe pain radiating from what became apparent was a screw. I finally went back in to a surgeon yesterday who looked at it and confirmed it was a screw and offered removing it and the titanium mesh as an option. I have to say that the thought of another surgery is awful to me, but I feel like I've hit a roadblock in my recovery that I'm not going to get over while that mesh is still in there. It sounds from your story that the experience of having the mesh removed was not too bad. How complicated of a procedure is it? Did they replace it with anything? My surgeon was planning not to replace it, which makes me nervous as I'm missing a section of skull about 3x2 inches around my ear, but from what he said it sounds like the bone starts to grow back. Anyhow, I just wanted to reach out to you since I have found very little information on the web about this and almost no discussion of mesh removal. I hope you're fully recovered and back to a normal, happy life!
Hello-I am so sorry that you are in that position! I know how horrible it is to be facing another surgery when all you want to do is get back to life. I can tell you that I was is such pain that I was so happy to finally have the option of the mesh removal. As you can see from my story-I was basically begging to have it removed. But, I was still nervous about going back under. My surgery to remove the mesh was an abbreviated version of my first surgery. They re-opened my same craniotomy site. It took about 3 hours (compared to the 8/9 of my first one). I remember lying in the post op room thinking "thank God the pain is gone!" Kind of a crazy thing to be thinking in that situation but for me the pain from the second surgery was nothing compared to that mesh moving around in my head. I was out of the hospital in two days and feeling much better. They did not replace my mesh with anything. I am instructed to not bump my head....ha ha...but I think the bone will strengthen in time. I have a dent in my temple where my mesh used to be that looks kind of silly. Most people don't notice it until I point it out but I sure notice it. It isn't that bad to me but some people might really be upset with this type of thing right on their face. Depending on where your mesh is-you may have a dent also. Also-because it took us so long to arrange the second surgery, they had to cut out a lot of scar tissue to go back in the same incision site. This meant removing more skin, so they didn't have a lot to work with when they closed me up the second time. Because of that-my incision site still is not healed!!! I am trying now to find a new surgeon to fix that-probably will be a plastics person? I went up to see my original surgeon and he was not very helpful. But, even with these complications-I still feel MUCH better having the mesh out. Just my words of warning will be-don't be surprised if you have a little dent in your head, it isn't that bad and if they do go back in the original incision mention to them that if it is too hard to close that they should do a graft and make sure that you are sealed up properly. You can email me if you have any other questions. Good luck and feel better soon. Shelley shelleysimp@hotmail.com
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