Got brain tumor and got it removed
Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2018 6:53 am
Very eventful past 2 months. My family was in Tokyo so kids could try going to school in Japan. I stayed in NJ to stay watch over my project at work. A week before my flight to Tokyo, I got a major headache. Smoke alarms had been doing the low battery blip 24/7 so I just took all of them down, and figured several nights of poor quality (or zero quality) sleep was the root of the headache. The headache was bad like I'd never had before. Like roll around on the ground and groan bad. I seriously thought I'd been cursed.
So boom, took the flight to Tokyo and told my mom about some lingering pain behind my right eyeball. Few days later I went to the eye doctor who whiped out 17 different gadgets to digitally CSI the hell out of my eyes. After lots of bipping and bleeping, the result is that my optic nerves were inflamed to the point of bleeding. And the Dr. urged me to go get a CT scan since having pressure on the optic nerve in both eyes usually means the pressure is coming from the brain, which is not nice. And right away the eye Dr. made arrangements to get a CT, I zip over on the train and get an array of CT and MRIs. That hospital happened to be my alma mater so that was kind of cool. I'm Keio univ., but didn't even know we had an impressive medical department. Apparently they're famous.
Impressively, the neurosurgeon was still around in the middle of the night to decode the CT and MRI scans. It's a tumor, high cranial pressure, and there's been some bleeding, which most likely was the source of the major headache curse. And the neurosurgeon was much more freaked out that I was, and he made it a point to let me know he wasn't going to let me out of his sight since I could drop in to a full blown coma at any time. I was like "uh, ok, if you say so" and just played along. No talk of surgery yet, but it was obvious that was the only real way to directly fix things. I'm started on some IV meds to drop cranial pressure, which didn't really have any tangible effect.
Basically I was hospitalized for all of October so the neurology dudes could keep an eye on me. I was in the room right infront of the nurse station in case the "coma at any time" really happens, but of course, nothing happened. I just got to know the nurses very well. 10/27 I had the surgery.. the strategy was pretty much "get rid of the crap", with a bit of live pathology testing to see how far the tumor had spread. The procedure went as planned and I woke up in the ICU, massive headache, and almost the entire surface of my head and face in pain. Japan's attitude toward pain management was very interesting. Drs and nurses would come around to ask if I'm in pain, and I'm like "this is living hell". The medical staff, instead of getting actual pain killers, would give me the equivalent of a tylenol and tell me "you just had an open brain surgery. The pain will come, and it will be very, very bad". Ya, thanks guys, that's very encouraging. The pain meds here are about as effective as tic tacs in term of doing anything about pain. It's like telling your wife something hurts. (no help, what so ever)
After about 2 weeks of battling with the hospital staff to get actual pain management, I think my body recovered, and the pain subsided on its own. Sleeping was much easier when the nurses weren't freaking me out by quietly staring at me from between the privacy curtains. (that image will stay with me forever) The winds must have changed, but the Drs suddenly started talking about discharging, and from there, it was only 2-3 days to being discharged. I think there was a final MRI scan, but all was fine and on the agreed upon day I was like "eff this $hit" and took a cab home. I was quite sick of the hospital environment after a month's stay, though I really appreciated all the hard work the nurses put in to make all the patients feel comfortable. (and less dead)
So boom, took the flight to Tokyo and told my mom about some lingering pain behind my right eyeball. Few days later I went to the eye doctor who whiped out 17 different gadgets to digitally CSI the hell out of my eyes. After lots of bipping and bleeping, the result is that my optic nerves were inflamed to the point of bleeding. And the Dr. urged me to go get a CT scan since having pressure on the optic nerve in both eyes usually means the pressure is coming from the brain, which is not nice. And right away the eye Dr. made arrangements to get a CT, I zip over on the train and get an array of CT and MRIs. That hospital happened to be my alma mater so that was kind of cool. I'm Keio univ., but didn't even know we had an impressive medical department. Apparently they're famous.
Impressively, the neurosurgeon was still around in the middle of the night to decode the CT and MRI scans. It's a tumor, high cranial pressure, and there's been some bleeding, which most likely was the source of the major headache curse. And the neurosurgeon was much more freaked out that I was, and he made it a point to let me know he wasn't going to let me out of his sight since I could drop in to a full blown coma at any time. I was like "uh, ok, if you say so" and just played along. No talk of surgery yet, but it was obvious that was the only real way to directly fix things. I'm started on some IV meds to drop cranial pressure, which didn't really have any tangible effect.
Basically I was hospitalized for all of October so the neurology dudes could keep an eye on me. I was in the room right infront of the nurse station in case the "coma at any time" really happens, but of course, nothing happened. I just got to know the nurses very well. 10/27 I had the surgery.. the strategy was pretty much "get rid of the crap", with a bit of live pathology testing to see how far the tumor had spread. The procedure went as planned and I woke up in the ICU, massive headache, and almost the entire surface of my head and face in pain. Japan's attitude toward pain management was very interesting. Drs and nurses would come around to ask if I'm in pain, and I'm like "this is living hell". The medical staff, instead of getting actual pain killers, would give me the equivalent of a tylenol and tell me "you just had an open brain surgery. The pain will come, and it will be very, very bad". Ya, thanks guys, that's very encouraging. The pain meds here are about as effective as tic tacs in term of doing anything about pain. It's like telling your wife something hurts. (no help, what so ever)
After about 2 weeks of battling with the hospital staff to get actual pain management, I think my body recovered, and the pain subsided on its own. Sleeping was much easier when the nurses weren't freaking me out by quietly staring at me from between the privacy curtains. (that image will stay with me forever) The winds must have changed, but the Drs suddenly started talking about discharging, and from there, it was only 2-3 days to being discharged. I think there was a final MRI scan, but all was fine and on the agreed upon day I was like "eff this $hit" and took a cab home. I was quite sick of the hospital environment after a month's stay, though I really appreciated all the hard work the nurses put in to make all the patients feel comfortable. (and less dead)