Treating the Infection at Home

It was a nasty complication.....infection had set in and would have to be treated intravenously. After three days in the hospital Jack was given a choice. I could remain in the hospital to have the infection treated or Jack could bring me home and treat the infection himself under the supervision of the Hospital Pharmaceutical Inc. Health Services which is a private home health service. They would supply the training, the medicine bags, the tubing, the needles and everything that would be needed. Jack elected to bring me a home. He would have to drive me back to Columbia every week to pick up another supply of medicine and to have a new Heparin lock inserted in my left arm which would allow him - to inject the bags of antibiotic medicine.

His instructions were:

1. Get bag out of refrigerator and warm it up

2. Replace old bag with new bag

3. Get rid of old medicine in tube before you let new medicine in.

4.Let new medicine down in tube- get rid of air bubbles in tube

5. Change tube each day new medicine in bubbles in tube

6. Use saline solution to clean out rubber end of IV

7. Put needle in IV.

8. Put heparin solution in IV.

9. Put saline solution in IV

Use 4 needles a day.

He makes a note to himself: Every time I put needle in rubber end of in, I wipe it with alcohol

This procedure every six hours, 2 PM, 8 PM, 2 AM, 8 AM, would take about 20 minutes and after eight weeks finally knocked the infection out.

We were both so glad to get back to sleeping through the night.

Complications from the Skull Replacement Plate

About a month later, because I was unable to see the top of my head in the mirror, I asked my daughter Sally, who is a nurse (on one of her many visits home to be of help to me) to please look at the incision and see why it continued to itch. She took a long look at my scalp....... and then told me she could see the plate.

She scrutinized the incision further and saw that it was oozing.

It hadn't healed. Evidently, some stitches had popped loose making it possible for Sally to see the underlying plate. So, back to the hospital again to restitch my scalp. But due to the scarred tissue left from the removal of the first brain tumors the scarred tissue left from the removal of the second brain tumor and scarred tissue from the plate just put in, it was terribly hard to pull the two sides of the incision back together. The surgeons had not been able to catch but one of the layers of skin.... which leaves a hole in my scalp.

Skull Replacement Plate=Slightly Less Paralysis

Dr. Paysinger seemed bewildered as to why I was showing signs of improvement in my right arm after the plate was put in. Instead of it just hanging limply by my side, I could now lift it slightly. I told him I was sure I knew why... Because, before the plate was put in, my scalp lay flat on my brain due to the large amount of diseased skull bone that had to be sawed out (making me look like a cone head) and was, evidently, putting a little pressure on my brain. But after the plate was put in, the plate lifted my scalp off my brain and the pressure was relieved.

The Plate that Protects my Brain

Even though the edges of the skull bone had been waxed during the removal of the tumor, the bone still felt sharp under my scalp. If I tried to sleep on my left side, where most of the skull had been sawed out, it hurt . If I tried to sleep on my right side, my paralyzed right arm would be cramped and send pre-seizure sensations. So since it was so hard to get comfortable, I had to take a sleeping pill and then sleep in the one position , on my back, for the twelve months until the neurosurgeons saw fit to go back in and put a plate in as a protection for my brain .

It was February, 1984, one year after the removal of the second brain tumor and about time for my birthday again. I would be 56. My head was being shaved for the third time and a plate would be surgically inserted. At last I would have protection for my brain. Because of the incision being slow to heal, I ended up having to remain in the hospital for nine days.......

Finally, Jack could take me home from the hospital to recover and to let the incision finish healing.

The Move and Surgery

By the time they had gotten me downstairs at the Baptist Hospital I was in a state of exhaustion. Jack suggested to Julie (our 20 year old daughter) that she and I ride in the back seat of the car so I could put my head in her lap while he drove to the Richland Memorial Hospital. She and I got in, and I lay my head in her lap. Julie told me later it was all she could do to hold back the tears. She said she was sure if she were to break down it would frighten and upset me, so she tried desperately to stay calm and reassuring in spite of fearing the worst. So many thoughts went racing through her mind: Would the tumor already have caused permanent damage? Mama was showing signs of dementia! What about the nine shock treatments? Would the tumor be malignant? Would Mama even make it through the operation?

When we arrived at the Richland Memorial Hospital and they finally got me settled in my room and in the bed, a sweet hall nurse could see that Julie was upset and about to cry, so she motioned for Julie to come help her get a pillow from the linen closet. She then tried to calm Julie’s fears by convincing her that she was sure her mother would be all right.

That night I asked Jack what I was doing in this other hospital. He told me that I had a brain tumor that would have to be removed in the morning and that we were just going to trust the Lord and the neurosurgeons.

The next morning, Thursday May 30, my head was shaved and I was taken in for surgery. The tumor was in the best possible location for removal and was known as a meningioma, which is a tumor growing from the dura or lining of the brain. Mine was the size of a tangerine and wasn’t malignant! After the removal of the tumor a cranioplastic plate which substitutes for the diseased portion of my skullbone, was wired in place with a #28 stainless steel wire before my scalp flap was returned to its normal position. Then a sterile dressing was applied. With the tumor out of my head I was on my way to making a quick and complete recovery.