I literally have a screw loose

4+ years later, I’m finally writing about my latest health issue relating to my brain surgery. In June 2020, my parents had all 3 kids at their house on Lake Norman for about 10 days after school ended. A couple days into that visit, I started getting swelling and pain at the end of my surgery scar. I was able to get an appointment with a neurosurgeon in Potomac at a Johns Hopkins satellite office since the director of neurosurgery at JH Hospital Baltimore who performed my surgery went to start a department in Italy about 2 years after my craniotomy. This new surgeon ordered a CT scan and MRI.

I went to see him after he got the results and it turns out that one of the screws they used to attach the plate at the “bone flap” came loose. That’s good news because it’s not something with my brain. The bad news is he can’t just remove the screws and plate in a simple procedure because this piece of bone they took out and put back hasn’t fully fused with the rest of my skull. He would need to take out the old plate & screw to replace it which would require opening up my scalp. He said with the bone not being fully fused, it’s a direct pathway to my brain that would carry risk of infection from the surgery itself. Plus with the coronavirus raging, going into the hospital for scalp/skull surgery wasn’t really a good idea. He said the pain and swelling was relatively new and my skin is still intact so we could consider doing the replacement surgery down the line if I have chronic pain. Thankfully after about 10 more days of pain, using ice, and taking ibuprofen, it went away. I still sometimes get dull pain but it’s nothing like that first episode.

 

It's amazing how much your scalp moves even with just expressions. I took that for granted before this. I guess I make a certain kind of expression when I talk about politics because that would irritate the screw and make it throb. Eleanor especially likes to say that my loose screw hurts when I talk about Trump. So not only do I have my cancer card but I can say literally I have a screw loose. So it's good news for now. No recurrence showed on the MRI. I will probably need another surgery to replace the plate and screws but that can wait until it's more urgent.

Anyway.... STILL ALIVE!