dlbenz's Blog

Saturday July 5, 2008

 

 

 

Once again, I wrote a lengthy blog entry yesterday but didn’t get to post it until today.  I’m not going to add much today as not a lot has changed since yesterday. 

 

 

I will note that I am now in San Marcos where my wife’s family is taking good care of me.  I am glad to be settled in to my home away from home.  I should be able to now post my future blog entries on a more timely basis… though probably nothing more now until Monday. 

 

 

Enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend!

 

 

 

 

Friday July 4, 2008 – Independence Day

 

 

 

I have very mixed feelings today first and foremost because I have always loved the 4th of July.  It is one of my favorite holidays of the year.  And I was so looking forward to being able to spend this year’s holiday in DC.  I’ve never been in DC for our country’s birthday and thought it would have been so great… oh well, next year things will be better.

 

 

And it’s not as if I have much to be bummed out about here on the West Coast.  I met with my team of Doctors yesterday at the House Institute and have been cleared to leave the hospital grounds.   Doctor Derald Brackmann, who was the lead doctor on my case, removed the stitches from my head yesterday and told me he is very confident my operation will be a complete “home run” within the next few months.

 

 

Eight days removed from my surgery I definitely still have hearing on the left side of my head (which was the biggest concern going in).  The hearing is still cloudy and my ear feels a bit like there’s a balloon inside it.  Doctor Brackmann says that’s a combination of all the spinal fluid, blood and swelling still going on inside the ear canal.  Nonetheless, the hearing does seem to be getting a tiny bit better each day. 

 

 

Another good sign in that regard is an unusual popping noise in my ear I hear when I try to sleep.  I will continually hear, “pop, pop, pop,” every time my heartbeats.  While this is part of the reason sleeping has been such a challenge the doctors say this is very positive because it means my acoustic nerve is very much alive!

 

 

Unfortunately, not everything is positive right now.  I am now suffering from severe facial weakness on the entire left side of my face.  I cannot smile, scrunch my nose, raise my eyebrow or, worst of all, blink my left eyelid.  As a result my left eye is getting very dry and scratchy and I need to wear a patch over it or keep it shut most of the time.  I am also adding eye drops constantly. 

 

 

This is not an unexpected happening and I knew there was a very good chance this would occur post-op in doing all my research.  Again, this is the likely result of all that blood, spinal fluid mix in the ear canal, along with swelling of the facial nerve.  Doctor Brackmann is not worried about this being permanent as I was able to fully function all of my facial muscles for three full days post-op.  The weakness usually takes a few days to set in and then last 6-8 weeks.     

 

 

Due to my issues however, the docs put me on some new, stronger meds yesterday, so I awoke this morning to a breakfast of 10 different pills… yummy!  This is not good because the pills I was one before were already causing me trouble sleeping and these are only suppose to make that even worse.  Despite being given pretty strong sleeping pills I haven’t slept more than 5 hours in a night since last week.  The docs say that’s just the way it’s going to be and I have to grin and bear it. 

 

 

The other big hurdle for me to cross remains my dizziness.  As part of the surgery the balance nerves in the left side of my head were removed completely.  These nerves are not fully necessary for a person have normal balance.  However, it takes the brain a while (again 6-8 weeks) to learn to function without balance input coming in from both sides.  So for now, I walk slowly with a cane… but I do seem to be progressing.

 

 

So that’s pretty much the update on the health front.  As I’m writing this, Sacha is packing up our room here at the Seton Hall guest center which is, for all intents and purposes, a dorm type building attached to St. Vincent Medical Center.  It has been our home since Monday when I was released from the Hospital but needed to stay close by.

 

 

We met some many wonderful people here.  Especially a family from Medford, OR who was here because a 15-year-old boy named Dominic was in having a tumor removed from his larynx.  Three years ago Dominic had been here having the same surgery I just went through.  Dominic is a very sick young man who has a disease which allows tumors to grow all over his spinal cord. 

 

 

But his father, and 12-year-old brother could not have been more supportive.  Sacha and I were moved by their strength, love and support and realize how lucky I am to just have this one surgery to get through.  Despite a positive out come from his operation yesterday (yeah), Dominic will, almost certainly, be back here again down the road.

 

 

Others we have met include the people who work in and around the Hospital.  Always opening doors, asking if they can help, just going out of their way to make us feel like we were in the right place.  Hopefully, we left the same impression on everyone we encountered.

 

 

I’m getting ready to close this entry as I want to help Sacha finish packing.  Once packed, we will get in the car and drive to San Marcos, CA which is just north of San Diego.  Sacha’s Mom and Sister live there so we will be staying with family for the next couple weeks.  We will return to LA on the 17th and I will return here to the House Ear Clinic on the 18th for more testing. 

 

 

I am going to try and upload pictures this time as well, so be sure to check them out, but don’t laugh too much at the way I look.

 

 

Thanks again to everyone for all their thoughts and prayers.