Decompression Surgery

As most of you know I met with the Neurosurgeon yesterday. He advised me that in his medical opinion that the surgery was necessary and showed me the proof via MRI image.  When Dr. Bui (Neurosurgeon) showed me my image verses a normal brain MRI, I was amazed at the difference.  Below is a picture of a normal MRI and a picture of my MRI so that you can somewhat see the comparison.

Note in the first picture, which is a normal brain MRI, all of the black area around the cerebellum. That is the area that your cerebral spinal fluid flows and brings nutrients to your brain and spinal cord.

Note in this picture, there isn’t much of the black area around the cerebellum. Also note how the cerebellum isn’t in its tight little bundle, it is more sagging into the brain stem area. This sagging is causing my brain to not be able to get rid of the extra cerebral spinal fluid because, in an essence, I have a plumbing problem!

The surgery that I have to have is NOT BRAIN SURGURY as there is no manipulation of the brain. It’s simply making room for the sagging cerebellum. Decompression surgery is performed under general anesthesia. It consists of removing the back of the foramen magnum ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foramen_magnum  ) and often the back of the first few vertebrae to the point where the cerebellar tonsils ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebellar_tonsils  ) end. This provides more space for the brainstem, spinal cord, and descended cerebellar components. A tissue graft is often spliced into this opening to provide even more room for the unimpeded passage of CSF.

I know that this sounds complicated, but the doctor is very confident that it will be a standard procedure and that he anticipates no problems. He also stated that he believes that there will be no need for a second surgery. (YAY!!)

SO, the surgery date is….. FEBRUARY 21, 2011. Details on that to come!


As for recovery, the Dr. is confident that I won't be out more than 4 weeks! and THAT is awesome news!