How many zipperheads?

[Shane99]

I was noticing some threads about people that are scheduled to have decompression surgery and it got me thinking; How many of us already have had it? We should make a list. Oh and by-the-by, the term for people that have had it is "zipperhead". I guess like they refer to people with heart surgery as having a zipper in their chest.

I know of a few;

Shane99 (me)
Lovemygirls (who, by the way is doing fine, but having computer problems)
Sissy

[selmaS]

   Bumping up for recently zippered to add their names.....

[lydelia]

oopss ..... lol. I meant Oct 18, lol. I will put it in my journal. Thanks for the tip.

[selmaS]

  U can post this here, but may I suggest u also put much of this on ur profile page in a journal and add to it as u go so it is easy to locate...that way other members can also find ur surgery experience by going to ur page : )

Oh and don't u mean Oct 18th of this yr???not Nov....lol....

   "selma"

[lydelia]

oops .... hit enter too soon. To continue .... after the surgery I woke up from anesthesia hard, and sick and had to stay in the recovery area for a long time waiting for a bed on my floor. They got the nausea under control and then when I got upstairs, the pain. The pain was the hardest thing to deal with. It took them the night to really figure out what was going to work for me, but when they finally did it was managable. Once I got to talk to my family, and Dr. Cheng, they said (and he said) that he was glad the did the surgery. My cerebellar herniation was not going down my spinal column a lot, instead it was pressing on my brain stem, so it was good that we did it when we did. He also said that it went text book perfect, so I was happy about that also.

Coming home was a little rough. I couldn't turn my head at all for awhile, and still (at five weeks out) don't have full range of motion but it is getting there. For the the first two weeks, I had a lot of trouble with nausea and pain. There were days I couldn't eat one meal or another because of pain and nausea. Those days weren't all the time, but good and bad were about 70/30. If I slept wrong, I woke up in a lot of pain. If the weather changed suddenly, pain, and a lot of it. Those first two weeks, were the most painful of anything I can remember even with all the pain meds, and I have had two c-sections. Dizziness and  a LOT of fatigue and sleeping was an issue too, but I was told to expect this. Dr. Cheng said the first two or three weeks would suck, and then after that I would notice a big difference, and he was right. The only thing I did not expect were the balance issues I had. I called my Drs office and they were sort of shocked about them too, since I did not   have them before surgery, but they started to wane.

I stayed with my grandma for two weeks, and then back home to hubs, housework and kiddos. Still taking it as easy as I can (did some things I shouldn't have and paid for them and learned, like no vacuuming). The first week back with hubs and kids was hard, but it's getting better week by week. I am at five weeks out, and I still get really really really tired if I do too much, but I just nap and that takes care of that. Balance is still a little off, but getting better daily also.

Slowly I am lessening my pain meds. I skipped my suppertime ones today, and have not had any issues other than a dull headache, and some neck stiffness due to skipping a muscle relaxer, which makes me groggy, but I can handle that. I have been having trouble getting off of pain meds due to to how much pain I was in at first. I have never really been a wuss, but I am afraid of that level of pain, so it is hard for me to cut down on pain meds. I am afraid of it coming back. It was so intense.

I feel like I am progressing well. I am scheduled to return to work 11/29, but that is not going to happen I am sure. I have a very labor intensive job and feel that I am going to need some more time off.

Having said all of that, right now I am glad I had it done. I could immediately tell a difference in my body, when the pain meds were working so I could think :D My body has felt more awake than I can remember. I don't think I really realized what all was going on with my body and for how long until I had this surgery.

I have a post-op appointment this coming Monday (Nov 21), and I will update again then. I still have some headache/head pressure pain, and some pain around my incision and some nerve re-working pain up the back of my head, but that is getting less and less.

Also, selma .... if this post does not go here, feel free to move it. I know there is a thread for operation stories, but I couldn't find it.

[lydelia]

As of November 18th of this year, I officially joined the zipperhead club.

I noticed my symptoms (numbness, tingling, head pains, headaches, and various other things) over a year ago. After seeing a few doctors, and settling with doctor Cheng, we decided surgery was my choice. So I started keeping a symptom journal and noticed that things were getting worse and then I started having trouble swallowing, so I went back to Dr. Cheng and we decided to do surgery.

I stayed in the neuro-icu one night and then was moved to a step down room in the same area, where I stayed for two more nights. My dr was Dr. Joseph Cheng at Vanderbilt Hospital in TN.

[selmaS]

  Welcome to the Zipperhead club : )