My Pet Head-Rock

My husband and I did not do all of the things I list here, but we realized after the fact that they would have been helpful. 1.      Cleaning. a.      Do all your laundry as close to your surgery date as possible. Make sure that your comfy, lounge-y recovery clothes are ready for you. b.      Clean your house, especially the bathrooms, and change your bedsheets the night before leaving for the hospital. c.      Take out the garbage! d.      If you live in a house, do all or as much of the seasonally appropriate yardwork as you can.   2.      Pay any outstanding bills. You probably have a stack of medical bills sitting around. If you are able, pay off everything you can before surgery because you are liable to forget such things afterward—and you don’t want to pile up overdue charges just because you’re recovering from surgery. This will also ...

Old-timey cane and bed-boot: Not a normal part of post-craniotomy care The morning of the eighth day after my craniotomy, I awoke (if that’s the right word when I had an obsessive and sleepless night, thanks to Decadron ) and got out of bed. Then I immediately leaned over to brace myself against the wall as pain shot up from the arch of my left foot and my calf tightened. Not only was I unable to put much, if any, weight on the foot, but I was flummoxed (okay, that’s a pretty common state so soon after brain surgery … but still): Why had my foot gone from completely fine to excruciating pain overnight? Now, I am a runner, and plantar fasciitis is something that plagues the running community, as exercise or overuse is a leading cause of the inflammation and micro-tears that develop in the plantar fascia ligament, which runs from the heel bone along the bottom of the foot. It is the main cause of heel pain. Wait… heel pain? Hmm. And the timing … WTF? I have been fortu...