Hi again folks,
It has now been three months since my SCDS (superior canal dehiscence syndrome) craniotomy surgery. It has been a long time since I logged onto the SCDS Support site, so I thought I would give you a little update, including anyone out there who might be diagnosed with SCDS and considering surgery.
My surgery Thursday May 20th all day from 8:30 am until 6:00 pm….I was in the hospital (Swedish Hospital, Seattle, WA) for a total of 5 days. I was in ICU for a day and a half and finally got discharged from the hospital on Tuesday, May 25th.
I wrote a post on my blog prior to my surgery explaining the symptoms I was having and history here: http://www.chrishartzog.net/not-rocket-science-but-it-is-brain-surgery/.
I wrote another post that includes pictures taken during my hospital stay and you can find that one here: http://www.chrishartzog.net/superior-canal-dehiscence-syndrome-post-op-update/.
At the risk of being redundant, but for the benefit of anyone on the Internet reading this who might also have SCDS and had or will have the surgery, here are some highlights from my post-surgical experience:
• Everything has continued to heal steadily and the SCDS plugging and resurfacing was a success and is staying in place as intended. I have noticed since the surgery that I no longer have persistent sinus drainage which we now believe was a slow CSF leak, which is now patched. This is a big plus as well as a reduction of my risk of contracting something serious such as meningitis.
• I am have gone through many weeks of balance therapy and my immediate post-surgical vestibular issues have improved immensely.
• My pre-operative SCDS related dizziness and blackouts, foggy-headedness and fatigue are now completely, 100% better! Yeah!
• I have discovered since my surgery my musical pitch accuracy and ability to control my voice has improved dramatically. I can’t even tell you how excited that makes me feel! My guess is pre-surgery my brain was receiving two conflicting audio signals and now it is receiving only one correct signal which it likes much better.
• The spinal headaches are GONE. I had these from Day 1 post op to Day 5 post op.
• My vision has improved back to normal. Initially I was unable to see or focus on things steadily, especially things more than 5 feet away.
• The incision from the craniotomy has flattened out and is barely visible through my hair unless you are really looking for it. I think I am going to keep my hair short now since I discovered how much time I save getting ready in the morning. Besides, I could create an entirely new “bad” persona with my scar…..like Scarface but it would be “Scarhead” or something….
• I have been allowed to drive for the last month!! Woo hoo!
• I started back to work full time on August 16th. Work is still tiring me out pretty easy though, but I expect that to improve over time as I build more endurance.
• I am putting this at the bottom of my list because I don’t want to look upon it as some big nasty thing that has or will destroy my life or depress me or make people think pitiful thoughts about me because it is not going to do that and I don’t want anyone to feel that way. In fact, as ironic as it might sound I look upon it as a benefit: I have been unable to hear in my left ear ever since I awoke from surgery. I have gone through multiple audiograms and the ear is definitely 100% dead. But, the reason I look upon this as a benefit is because even though I lost 1 ear, at least now my brain is receiving one consistent source of audio input making my life as a musician much happier. I also will now get to meet, empathize with and counsel people living with single-sided deafness. It also makes it a lot easier to sleep at night….when there are noises that are bothering me all I have to do is roll over! I am testing out a newly released BICROS hearing instrument by Unitron (www.unitron.com) called the “Tandem” that helps me hear the sounds on my left side. Now at least I can be aware of when someone on my left is talking to me. It is not perfect, but it is a big help.
If you have SCDS and have any questions feel free to contact me and I am happy to talk to you.
-Chris
The Brain Surgery Three Month Post-Op Update by Chris Hartzog, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 United States License.
