Brain Surgery No. 4

The surgery happened at 8am on wednesday morning. The routine of putting on an open-back gown, being wheeled down the corridors to the operating theatre, seeing the big bright surgical lights above me and being given the injection that would send me into a deep comfortable sleep, was repeated once again.

The day before, Professor Poon and I had agreed that he would do a shunt revision, i.e. the less invasive, lower risk option. I asked him what the main risk of the other option was and he said it was brain haemorrhage!! The only brain haemorrhage I've ever seen was in a shot glass and even that was enough to put me off, so shunt revision it was.

He had expected my old shunt to have been blocked at the brain end, but once the surgery was underway, it became evident that it was actually the other end that was blocked (i.e. the part that goes into my abdomen). So he ended up having to pull out the entire tube, all the way from my brain to my gut and replace it with a new one.

When I woke up, I had sharp abdominal pains from the surgery, so they gave me a morphine injection to cheer me up. I've only ever seen people get morphine in war movies, so had no idea what to expect. The best way I can describe it is that it was like being slowly enveloped by a warm, fuzzy blanket, that leaves you feeling really snug and mellow. It certainly took the pain away and more :)

The best part is that I can discharge from hospital tomorrow. As nice as the people here are, there's really no place like home.