Hi Everyone!

Just wondering if you'd mind sending up a few good thoughts/prayer or two for my surgery tomorrow.  I'm having another nerve stimulator implanted.  This time around, we're actually only implanting half.  He is putting in right supraorbital and right occipital leads with a small battery in the right chest.  In 6 months or so, he will do the exact same thing on the left, with a 2nd battery.  This is to simplify the surgery and reduce the risk of infection and complications.  I have been doing a number of things to reduce infection risk, including special surgical scrubs and so on, as well as drinking high protein supplements and taking vitamins.  Basically, I've done all I can, the surgeon is doing all he can, and the rest is up to God!

I'll let ya know what happens on the flip side when I can.  I have to be at the hospital at 530 tomorrow morning, and I am the first case of the day.  I'm meeting my parents at the hospital, and my mom is driving me home here after the surgery, and she is going to spend the night here at mine and Jason's apartment because the weather is supposed to be bad tomorrow night.  Last May, she just took off the day of the surgery and the day after, so that's what she is planning again this time.

With any luck, I'll be just fine by this time tomorrow!

Thanks in advance and hugz,
Carrie :)

Carrie, prayers for a safe and successful procedure tomorrow. No infection this time!!

Hugs B&A [smiley=hug.gif] [smiley=hug.gif]

I pray that everything goes well tomorrow Lizzie.

Lizzie
May the good lord guild your surgeons hands !
Prayers headed your way!
Happy Pappy

Big vibes to you. Prayers and well wishes from Montany.
the bb ;)

For sure - sending prayers your way Carrie.  Please let us know how you're doing as soon as you can.  

Hugs
Carol

I'm praying for you Carrie.  I'm also in your corner rooting for you!

Ray

Me too......for you and the sawbones.

Charlie

Carrie... you'll be in my prayers as I eagerly await to hear that all went well.

with warm regards,
Tony

"Hail Marys" coming your way!!!         Tuck

You bet we got your back....prayers going up all day!

Love ya honey,

Kimberly and Jeff

Thanks so much!

I'm just getting ready now, and I'll be leaving in about an hour.  I don't know if I will be up to posting tonight or not, but I'll check in as soon as I feel up to it.  The support of you all means more than I can say.

Love and hugz,
Carrie :)

Prayers are on their way.

Oliver

You are on the top of my list this morning Carrie.  Good luck hon...

-Dennis-

Good Luck, Carrie...update us when you can.  You'll be in out thoughts and prayers.

Much Love,
Jackie

Prayers and good luck vibes are headed your way, Carrie! :)

Hugs,
Sanna

Good luck with your surgery.  

Carolyn

Good luck.  Prayers and vibes coming at ya!!!

Good Luck with the surgery Carrie.  Big vibes going out to you today.  Update us when you can.

Beth

good luck Carrie!! hope to hear from your electrical self soon!

lots of love
Helen and Brid xx

I hope everything went well today! I can't wait to see how everything went.

Charlotte

Sending good vibes your way Lizzie!!

                                   HUgs

                                            Rosy

Since you moved, I'm only a few miles away from you now.  I also sent you my phone # so call if you need anything, k?

I'm glad to know that your Mom stayed overnight with you.  Things are icing up all over the place and shouldn't be much better in the morning till it warms up a bit.  Did you know that dogs can pee while sliding on ice at the same time?  Mine did and I laughed so hard that I think I hurt something.  Sheesh, I am bored.  ::)

Gimme a buzz when you are feeling better.

Sending healing wishes your way.

good luck Carrie!! and welcome to the club (again) of the "stimulated" CH’ers.

Michael

OK, Girly girl (am I dating myself by using that phrase?) ...

It has been long enough ...

Give us an update ...

Did you do it RIGHT, this time?  LOL ...

Chuck

Hope everything went well Carrie!

Okay Carrie - it's time we got to meet the boyfriend - and tell him what hhis duties are concerning your extended family and our need for news! Get him on here before the sin sets okay (and no - that was no typo!! LOL)

"Electrical Self"  -  Helen you always crack me up!  lol

So how is Carrie?  Did anybody hear from her yet?  

Langa

Bump.

Love and prayers from our family Carrie, so hurry up with the update!!!!!

Joe

  OK did you get a charge out of the procedure. Or is the boyfriend still trying to figure out how to hook up the accessories? Enquiering minds and all.
[smiley=smokin.gif]

Just got off the phone with Carrie. All went well but she is a bit more sore this time than the last time, probably because the place they put it was different. She isn't quite up to getting onthe boards yet so I read all of our messages to her and she was glad to hear them. Keep her in your prayers for a quick recovery! SHe said she will post when she is up to it.

Charlotte

Thanks so much for the update! Keeping the prayers coming!

Joe

HEllo all.  This is JASON, Carrie's boyfriend (aka better half).  She told me that she just got off the phone with someone on the board who said that a lot of people were wondering how she is doing.  Surgery went well yesterday from what the MD reported.  She is recovering well, but remains in a fair amount of pain.  She just finished eating some chicken noodle soup and probably will be heading to bed soon.   The surgeon this time implanted the battery on the side of her chest, in the axillary (armpit) region which is a more sensitive area, accounting for some of the increase in her pain levels.  He also had to deal with more scar tissue this time due to the previous surgery which can lead to more pain.  She thanks everyone who is thinking of her.  Goodnight everyone.   :)

Thanks for the update Jason.  Tell Carrie that she's loved here too and prayers continue to go up on her behalf.


((((Carrie))))

Thanks for the update Jason.  I didn't see this thread in time, but like I said in Cash's other update thread - I had it on my calendar so she's been in my thoughts and prayers.

Carrie, I am so glad to hear all went well!  Bummer about the additional pain.  I'm keeping up the vibes that you heal up quick with no complications!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  More  [smiley=hug.gif]

Laurie

Thanks so much to all of you!!!

I am finally feeling a little bit better today!  My chest is still pretty sore, but I have been able to get up and move around a little bit more today without feeling like total hell.

Charlotte, Thanks so much for calling me last night and for reading me all the messages on the board!  It was so nice of you and definitely lifted my spirits a bit!  I felt bad that I hadn't been on the boards yet to update anyone.  Jason now knows that he has to update everyone ASAP in the event that I cannot! haha  Charlotte, I don't know if you  have talked to Matt or his mom at all recently, but I learned that Matt also had only one half of the stimulator implanted in his last surgery and will get the other half implanted (so will have total bilateral supraorbital and bilateral occipital and 2 batteries in each side of chest) 6 months from his last surgery.  We decided to do the same for me to reduce the risk of infection and reduce risk of other complications from the surgery.

As Jason said, they had a little difficulty with scar tissue on the right side of my forehead from the previous surgery.  Also, my neurosurgeon wanted to get that supraorbital lead as close to the center of my forehead as possible, so I have a few little incisions on my forehead this time.  He shaved a LOT more hair this time, but once things are healed up and my hair is down, you really won't be able to see it.  Right now I have a "Pebbles" hairdo with a ponytail standing straight up on my head to keep my  hair out of the incision areas!  haha...  I haven't yet been able to see what the battery looks like positioned in my chest.

My mom did stay with me on Tuesday night because of the bad weather here, and Jason was kind enough to sleep on the couch so she could share the bed with me.  That way she was also able to help me take my pain meds throughout the night.  In the recovery room, they gave me several doses of fentanyl and morphine for the pain, and then back in the short procedure unit, they gave me 2 percocet for pain, but after about an hour and a half, I was in excruciating pain again, so the nurse got some IV morphine ordered.  I fell asleep and when I woke up, the morphine had helped to take the edge off!  I was definitely in a lot of pain Tuesday through this morning, but as I said it's started to get a bit better today!

With the last implant, the battery was in my right abdomen, and it was a larger battery that stuck out a decent amount.  Looked kinda odd!  This time, they decided to basically tuck the new, smaller battery in the right side of my right breast.  (Extra padding, and all! lol)  All modesty has basically gone out the window with this one!  I think because of where the battery was implanted, it has been a more sensitive area, which has been why it's been more painful.  The surgeon and company rep feel that this area will actually be more comfortable than the abdomen though in the long run because of increased padding there, smaller battery, less tension on the wires, and so on.

The stimulator is actually off right now because I'm still a little sore from the insertion.  The company rep did turn it on on Tuesday on very low settings, but we're meeting at my headache center appt on Wednesday to put in more programs.  As I said, in 6 months I'll likely get the other half implanted, although the company rep said to my dad that they are hoping maybe the right side will be enough to do the trick.  Not that I *want* to go through this again, but I kinda think I'll need the other side because my headaches are about 80% right/20% left.  We'll see though!

So that's that!  Sorry for the length of this update!  Jason is at work now - he's working 1pm-8pm today.  Last night after my mom left, he made me some soup, and this morning he got me some oatmeal.  This evening, my parents are coming back over and my mom is going to help me remove the bandages, get a shower, and put fresh bandages on.  They said to take the bandages off today, and we want to do this to be sure no infection from any drainage.  I go to the neurosurgeon on the 19th for suture removal and my first follow up visit!

Thanks so much again for the well wishes, and I'm sorry I didn't get Jason on here sooner to update you all!  I was definitely thinking about everyone, but I felt like total crap so I just couldn't even think about getting online!  Better now, though!

Thanks again!!

Much love and PF wishes!
Carrie :)

Glad to see you're on the mend Carrie.

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Charlie

Carrie,

Don't worry about updating!! Use me, that's what I'm here for. Jason is doing a  great job taking care of you too.  

Your surgery details are incredible. This whole procedure is so amazing to me. I hope things go better for you and Matt this time.

Charlotte

Jason, thanks for the initial update and taking such good care of my cluster sister.

Charlotte, thanks for picking up the phone.

Carrie, you continue to amaze me.  I hope this one sticks.

(((HUGS))) and high fives all around...

-Dennis-

Carrie, it's so good to "see" you!  Your family sounds wonderful.   [smiley=heart.gif]  You take it easy and make sure you get lots of rest!!!!!!

Laurie

Take good care of you, ya hear?  Glad you have support!  As I have said before you are a brave woman and I really admire you:)

Kimberly

Carrie, thank you so much for the update! :) Keep us posted when you're up to it.

Jason, thank you for taking care of my cluster sister! And being a great supporter. :)

Hugs,
Sanna

Thanks for the update.

Glad it's over for now.  Now, take care of yourself.

Love ya,
Jackie

Hi all,

Thanks again for all the good thoughts and prayers!  Today's update is that things are still going okay.  Still pretty sore, though things continue to improve day by day.  My head has actually been really really sore this time, mostly with the migraine, but with clusters not as frequent.  Usually after my surgeries, I have very low level of migraine and no clusters for the first 7-10 days.  Probably having CH about 2 times a day right now, and the migraine is actually quite painful.  I think this is because there was so much scar tissue above my right eye that they had to really push the lead through all that, and he also wanted to position the lead very far towards the center of my head, so there is definitely some soreness there.  I've started using the stimulator at low levels.

This coming Wednesday, I go to the headache center for an appt and will meet with the company rep to work on some programming of the stim, so we'll see how that goes!  I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do with this thing!

My mom came back over this morning to help me wash my hair and change the bandages again.  The other night, changing the bandages was actually really painful as we were pulling all this sticky tape off my sensitive skin, but today was much much easier!  So far, the incisions are healing well!

So overall, things are moving in a positive direction!  I'm hoping the pain will start easing up even more here shortly! :)

Hugz,
Carrie :)

Glad things are "going the right direction," and hope Wednesday goes REALLY REALLY well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just keep sending PF vibes.  Hope the migraine lets up, those meds for it kick back in, and the ONS WORKS - even better than last time and without the complications.

[smiley=hug.gif]

Laurie

hope things continue to improve.  Great job

Glad to hear things are progressing pretty well, Carrie.   :)

All the best,

George

PF thoughts from Montana.

      Potter

Carrie:

I'm so proud of you and your bravery to get this done (again).  This time, I wish you complete success!

Ray

Carrie, been wondering how you're doing and have kept you in my prayers and been sending the vibe.....  Are things going OK?  Sure hope so.  !!

Laurie