The Third Operation

Diary of Cranial Tumors, a Success Story
Third operation
My wife, of 18 years, was sitting on my bed. We were holding hands and waiting for the
orderly to come and take me to the operating room for my third cranial surgery. I had had my pre-op shot and was pretty relaxed and calm. I had done this twice before and was back at work in weeks each time. I thought, “This was not a going to be a big deal.”
I didn’t realize how big of a deal it was going to be! Soon my life would change
radically. Very little would stay the same. My goals, what I could do and couldn’t do, who I
lived with and even how I ate was going to be different. Nothing at all would be like it had been.
The orderly come and help me move on to the gurney. My wife and I tell each other we loved the other, kiss and I was off on a trip beyond my imagination.
Operating rooms are so… bright. Hospital gown and a sheet is all I had on. With all the
modesty I could manage I scoot myself from the gurney to the operating table. Which is cold and hard. There is no place to hide. But it doesn’t seem there is any reason to hide. No one seems to notice I am there. People are coming and going in and out and all over the room, all kinds of activity. I have the feeling I am here to watch some event, not the reason for it all.
Dr. Jones, the anesthesiologist, says, “Hi.” I had met him the day before. He had told me what he planned to do and asked, if I had any questions. Nothing different was happening, same old, same old.
Then I am surprised to see Dr. Tom Dodson. He was on the team that did my very first surgery. He has his camera and is going to take some pictures. I am glad he is there. He can point out the “signposts” from the previous operation. Then Dr. Frank Letcher and his assistant, Jennie Edwards, M.D., come in, say, “Hi. How are you feeling?” and we were ready to go. Very soon I’m out.
The surgery lasted 22 hours. I can’t imagine one person standing for 22 hours. There was a team of doctors, nurses and aides. And WHAT a team!
What about those waiting in the Waiting Room? My family, Rev. Bennett, friends and friends from church came and went. I am so thankful for all of these and their prayers. I’m thankful for the prayers of many who could not come because they had lives of their own.
One of the most difficult lessons I had to learn was to accept the help of others and to ask when you needed something important. Rev. Bennett had come to our home before the first operation many years ago. At that time I had been going to Fellowship Congregational Church 19 years. These people had known me since I was in college. They had seen me grow up, marry, and have children.
They were there when the tornado hit our house. It had been announced during “Announcements and Concerns” before the Worship Service started that we had damage because of the tornado the evening before. After the service they were at our home to help clean up and make minor repairs, so no more damage would be done to the house until the real work could be started.
Now he was in our home with a check for $1,000 and we are not a rich church. I know that many gave a little. One of my main goals has been to give back by giving my talents in every way I can think of as was given to me and my family.
All I remember of 8 months is bits and pieces. I missed my 41st birthday and Christmas. I checked in December 7, 1982 and out July 4, 1983. My oldest sister, Pattie, gave me a T-shirt that says “Independence Day” and the date. My birthday is December 23, 1941.
I remember once being awake in recovery and three or four times in ICU. There are times in “step down” I remember conversations and in my regular room. I remember being told I was going to the Cath Lab. I had had a stroke and they needed to see, if there was a blood clot that needed to be dissolved.
On November 10, 1982 I checked in for tests. On the 11th I had CT scans which showed “total occlusion of the right jugular vein at the C4 level.” Dr. Letcher’s Discharge report says this was a recurrent right glomus jugulare tumor found in 1978.
After first arriving in my semi-private room I had to take all kinds of tests. Just before the operation I had a procedure called arteriography. I lay on a table with a fluoroscope over my stomach. The doctor makes an incision on the inside of my right thigh and threads a catheter in the vesicle up to my heart. There he used the fluoroscope to move up the artery in the right side of my neck.
X-ray pictures were taken before a dye was released through the catheter. The dye was timed released, so the pictures could trace for movement of the dye. The heat and pain was the worst I have ever felt. I have had a couple more arteriograms since.
For me it is more painful than abdominal surgery that is the next worst. Head surgery without the headaches is the least painful of chest or leg surgery.