So, Sunday was a fun day with my family. We visited Pike’s Place Market and took the ferry to Bremerton, .
Monday was my MRI and CT scan, followed by a visit to Snoqualmie Falls, a pleasant drive around North Bend, and had a great dinner at Claim Jumper in Redmond.
Today was a day full of pre-surgery appointments. It was an interesting day because I found out when they remove a large circle of skull for my surgery, they have no intention of putting it back. They are instead planning to replace it with a titanium plate. I’m all kinds of curious about that whole plan.
Later today is my angiogram, which will involve them putting me to sleep so they can run a camera through my arteries and discover whether the tumor has any blood supply they should cut off. If so, they will embolize those vessels to prevent unnecessary bleeding during Friday’s surgery. If the angiogram finds no vessels that need embolization, I’ll go home on Thursday and return on Friday morning for the big day. If embolization is necessary, they’ll probably keep me until the surgery.
I don’t know whether to be excited or anxious. A little of both, I suppose. Mostly excited, though. I hate to wait for things.
All the Best to you Maria! Go git em! I hope Abe will keep us posted on your blog while you have more important things to do. Aloha nui loa, Dean and Susan
Turns out I kept Abe pretty busy after the surgery, too! Thanks for the good wishes!
Hey lovely lady! I hope you’re doing well. Time to kick some tumor butt. You got this! Sending much love your way! 🙂
Maigen
Hi, Maigen… I can’t take credit for kicking tumor butt – that goes to Dr. Ferreira, who is a tumor removing genius.
It was great to see you after the surgery! I hope things are going well for you, and hope we get a chance to catch up again soon.
Maria, I am fascinated with the idea that they will replace the bone flap with a titanium plate instead of putting the bone flap back. I’ll have to read more about how they decide which to do. Thanks for keeping us updated. Hugs.
That was kind of odd, because they told me that was the plan, but then they decided to go ahead and put the bone back instead. I wonder how they make those sorts of decisions. I guess I’m happy they replaced the bone – I didn’t love the idea that someone might just discard a big chunk of my skull. Although they are going to have to go back in later, so maybe a titanium plate with some sort of hinge and locking mechanism would have been a reasonable choice. It certainly would have looked interesting on the xrays.
Glad you had fun all around Seattle with your family. Thinking of you and hoping all goes well today and tomorrow. 🙂
Shawna
Thanks, Shawna. It was a really great visit, and I enjoyed it immensely. Thanks for thinking of me and for your kind wishes.
titanium?
I am thinking why not gold? Naw, too heavy.
Or platinum? Nice profit for today and a sort of an investment for REALLY rainy days. I mean, who can rob you without your knowing it?
It not that think of the absolute FITS will will give archeologists in millenniums to come. It could PROVE aliens were here!
It turns out they decided to skip the titanium and return that chunk of skull to its home, instead. There is titanium, though. They used what they called titanium “snowflakes” to pin the skull back in place. It looks very decorative in the MRI. Pretty!