The Tumor That Changed My Life

Blurry

I don't have many memories from this part of my journey. What I know is mostly from what my parents have told me. The order of events may be off due to my lack of consciousness during this time. This lack of order may affect the order of the next few chapters, as well as this one. I'll start from just 30 minutes after I got out of my eight hour long surgery.

From what my dad has told me, I have a great sense of humor at the worst of times. Apparently, when the neurosurgeon asked me how many fingers he was holding up (he was holding up her fingers like an ASL three), I replied with two fingers and a thumb. The nurses started giving me looks saying "Not the time". 

My first memory after surgery is not a long one. I know it took place the same night  I first got out of surgery. All I remember is the first 30 seconds of an MRI.

For the first few days after surgery I slept a lot. I vaguely remember looking at the ceiling in the dark. It hurt my eyes to look at screens, so I didn't do much of anything. I didn't eat anything because I was on IV food and fluid. The nurses came in every hour or so to check my urine output, take vital signs, and take blood samples. Because of all of the blood they needed, I'm now convinced there are vampires living in the hospital.

For nearly my entire stay in the hospital, I had a lumbar drain in my spine. The nurses used it to drain my cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) from my back. In the beginning, they were draining too much fluid so I got terrible headaches because of the low pressure in my head. The worst one occurred about 4 days after I got out of surgery. It was bad enough that they had to give me morphine for the pain. At the same time, one of my good friends came to visit me. We had to send her away because I was in no condition for visitors.

I wasn't aware my friend had tried to stop by until later. All I remember from when I was given morphine is pain and then feeling like I was spinning in my bed. I remember my dad being there, but he told me he wasn't at the time.

From then on, the nurses drained significantly less CSF, so I seemed to perk up more than I had before. During this time was when I had my first real visitor. He is my friend's uncle (Uncle X) whom I have known for years. He brought a bag of lollipops, a bag of gummy bears, and a giant stuffed dog whom I have given the name of "bear".

I'm not sure how long after I was first visited by my friend's uncle I was visited by another of my good friends. I think it may have been the next day, but I am unsure of how well I was keeping track of time. It was great getting to talk to her, and she brought a bucket of candy and a normal size stuffed dog, whom I have named "Puppy".

Sometime between when I saw Uncle X and November 1st, My friend, JP, visited me with his parents. Uncle X is his uncle. When JP visited me he brought comic books. I remember his dad telling us about the story behind his wife's wedding ring. We also talked about D&D (Dungeons and Dragons), but I don't remember what was said.