Surgery--Again

I appreciate your trying to instill confidence in a worryer, bunny.

How am I today? The schmatte is gone from the head. The bandaids are gone from the holes. My hands are shaking uncharacteristically, and I'm making a shitload of reading and typing mistakes.

When I speak with the doctor about the prescription, I will report these things.

Otherwise, I'm not bad at all. Did a little cleaning last night, so my energy is there. No pain except at the back of my neck where I had to rest my neck on the very uncomfortable head thing. "It's only for 8 minutes." I agreed. It was better than the other position. I couldn't breathe--at all. Neck pain vs. not breathing. My neck hurts. Not bad though.

They messed with your brain yesterday - you've got to give yourself a tiny bit of recovery time. ok ok gamma knife is less invasive than the other messing-with-your-brain approach, but they still messed with your brain AND they messed up your wake/sleep routine. You're jet-lagged and they poked at you.

"Not bad at all" is pretty dang good for today.

How long til you'll be able to wash your hair? did Gilda's Place set you up with someone to wash/style it for you a few times?

Of course you're right, bethie. But if I wasn't worrying, I wouldn't be me.

My hair isn't ready for a cut or styling. Still too many spikes and short spots. I'll try Gilda's place for that. I admit that I didn't have much luck with them in other areas, but I'll check into the hair business. Thanks for the lead.

When you coming to Noo Yawk?

I don't think worrying's a bad thing - it's sort of a signal that all's all right with you - but take it easy on yourself - take it out on the pokers, prodders and noisemakers!

Noo Yawk is slightly on the agenda, once my work situation sorts itself out a bit more.

I've got another idea re hair that I'm looking into - but seriously, did they tell you when you can wash your hair? I always feel better with clean hair if I've been icky in some way.

They didn't mention washing my hair. I see no reason why not to, but I'll ask the doc manana, just to be sure.

My hair is clean and not ooked up that I can tell. The bleeding was mostly on my forehead. There may be some spots on the back of my head but I don't feel any clotting. The only liquid they put on my head was alcohol.

Would seriously love to get a new do once things have grown a bit more. Maybe when the spikes lie down.

Hoping you can get your tush to town.

Thanks mucho, kid.

Herbie update, I haven't seen the little voimin in a week--since Izzie's traps arrived. Maybe he sensed an international conspiracy and got out of town.

Not only have I not seen him, but I haven't detected any signs of him. He's probably reading this over my shoulder and laughing his diminutive ass off.

Grumble.

Somehow, I came away with the feeling that, "Oh, it's just a gamma knife". This was a bigger deal than I was expecting.

Grrrr.

Oy, stupid/careless is as stupid/careless does.

I've taken 9 zillion pills over the past few years. Never made a mistake. This time I made a mistake. Instead of taking 4 mg four times a day, I took 4 pills four times a day (double the required dosage!).

Glad the doc got back to me and straightened things out. She thinks the extra steroids caused the handshaking and typing problems.

She put in a call to my pharmacy so I'll have the right number of pills to finish the course of treatment.

Yaaaaaargh. Be careful, Roberta. Don't hurt yourself.

I asked if I had done any harm. She doesn't think so.

Throwing in another oy. Oy.

ooof. they don't drug test editors do they?

you know all the trouble A-rod got in...

Glad ya caught that...
Now you deserve some oreos.

If you tell me which steroid it was (here or PM), I can research it for you.

From what I just read about steroids in general, the worry is in long term overdosage. Short term overdosage doesn't seem to have any serious side effects.

They say to watch for increased acne or facial hair, menstrual problems, impotence, or loss of interest in sex. (At our age, those aren't side effects, that's a way of life!)

You might want to confirm what your doctor said and speak to the pharmacist about it when you pick up the order. I do that with BBB's medications. The pharmacist has caught a couple instances where she was getting too much acedamedifin with all the prescriptions given by her various doctors.

I've taken massive amounts of steroids in the past (asthma) and didn't think a thing of the heavy dosage.

Oreos are coming up in about 30 minutes.

If it is prednisone they have you on, that stuff is nasty. It's strong and very effective but can do a lot of damage to the body if on it for any long length of time.

When BBB had her severe reaction to fire ant bites, they put her on it for only 3 days.

Here's an information sheet on it from drugs.com:

http://www.drugs.com/prednisone.html

Thanks for being so on the ball, Butrfly.

No, not prednisone. Lord knows I've taken plenty of that. This is Decadron, 2 mg tabs. Never taken it before.

Oy.

Joe(and a couple of veys!)Nation

Here's the sheet on the Decadron:

http://www.drugs.com/cdi/decadron.html

And a little bit different version for Decadron tablets:

http://www.drugs.com/pdr/decadron-tablets.html

Glad you caught it.

Nasty damn things those steroids.

No wonder you felt awful.

My friend Helen got kind of paranoid and confused on the RIGHT dose after her treatment.

Don't know which topic you're collecting all your photos and info on big cats so I'm plunking this here for you. Thought you might be interested in this article from the Nature Conservancy about saving the North American Jaguar:

http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/mexico/features/art25012.html

Here's a photo from the article in case you're not yet up to reading stuff: