{Happy Anniversary} It’s Been a Year! – Dr. Bahman Guyuron, Migraine Surgery

Wow really, it’s been a year?!  I remember a year ago today like it was yesterday.  I was in Cleveland and Steve was with me.  It was cold and dreary but somehow, we managed to make light of a situation that was very stressful to me.  Around 11am I checked in to the American Migraine Center, had my pre-op appointment, met with my surgeon Dr. Bahman Guyuron one last time…and so it began.

In the surgery center (because you know that no surgery takes place at a hospital anymore) I met the kindest, nicest nurses.  I told them I was pretty nervous and told them I always wake up with extreme chills after surgery – afterall, I was about to have my head cut into.  We got through all the surgery prep and then I walked into the operating room.

Can I say how much I hate operating rooms?  I’ve been in a few now and really, they are the coldest places on the planet!  I’m usually shivering before I even get on the table.

There was a HUGE surgical team there that day…I guess that’s always good.  I remember lying down (and this I can’t honestly recall) — but I either said or thought in my head “this is exactly what it looks like in Grey’s Anatomy”.  For some reason, I think I said it out loud because I do remember hearing chuckles. I remember meeting my surgeon and one of his partners – one would do my left temple and one the right.  I had muscles removed on both temples and had a septoplasty on my nose.

They finished prepping me, putting all the little wires, monitors and what-not on me and then told me I’d start to feel sleepy….oh the joy of an IV of anesthesia.  I guess I took a long time to wake up, but I was fine.

I need to stop here for a minute.  We had to leave the girls back home as they STRONGLY advised not bringing them with us because of what I would look like post-op.  I tried explaining that the girls would be more upset with me gone so long (just over a week) but they were pretty insistent.  I know now there was a good reason for this.

I was finally discharged and Steve and I went back to the hotel (afterall this is where I’d spend my next week recovering, a hotel).  He was (and always is), the perfect caretaker when I need him.

I don’t remember much of that day as I was pretty drugged up (he’ll tell you I was COMPLETELY out of it).  But the next day I finally looked in the mirror at myself.  I can say with 100% certainty that so much of this surgery was more mental than physical.  I saw a very large bruise just under my left eye, my nose was bandaged up and bleeding continuously and there were tubes that were inside my head extending out about 2 feet which were draining into a vial (ok super gross, I know).  And I had very fresh stitches on the sides of my head near my temples.  It was bad.  I know by about the 2nd day post-op I just cried because I looked such a mess (and I wanted a shower so badly).  I had to keep telling myself that I did this for the right reasons, that I would be ok and that I can get through this.  It was not easy.

Fortunately at my first post-op (about 3 days later), I met with the surgeon again and had the tubes removed from my head (that was a good day).  Everything was going beautifully and I could finally shower (guess how long I stood in there?!).  We decided at that point that it would be best if Steve returned to NC and be with the girls and I would stay in Cleveland for another 4-5 days until the tubes in my nose were removed.

Then I was alone.  The first day or so was nice…but one can only watch so much TV and I wasn’t supposed to drive.  Fortunately the hotel staff was WONDERFUL the entire time.  I explained what was going on when they delivered my room service and they were very kind and compassionate and helped a lot.  It’s amazing what the complete kindness of strangers does to your outlook on life.

Fast forward through a few (very boring) days.  Finally today was the day I was set to have the tubes out of my nose and COME HOME!  I went back to the surgeon, feeling pretty good but very anxious about the tube removal.  I’m not going to go into details but I can tell you I know a LOT about our noses and sinuses now and I didn’t need to know all that

Coming home.

Yes, I know I should not have driven 6 hours home a week after surgery.  Not the smartest idea but I really wanted to be home.  I made it, so that’s all that really matters (and I honestly think I may have called every person I knew to get me through the drive – so thank you to all of you).

Fortunately for me, after getting home, my girls, my awesome husband, everyone was just wonderful.  My initial recovery was much slower than I thought and I definitely felt it if I over did it.  But that’s all in the past.

Prior to the surgery I was having between 2-4 migraines a week.  And these weren’t 1-2 hour migraines either.  These were spend-the-entire-day-in-bed kind of migraines.  Right before the surgery things were so bad that I couldn’t even drive to the pharmacy to pick up my medicine (and it was only a few miles away).  I know I was depressed and marginally suicidal (I can say that now because I’m fine).  I was having panic attacks all too often (which I now realize was a side effect of a daily medication I was on prior to surgery).  Honestly I was a mess and somehow I managed to pull through most days.  Prior to surgery I woke up every day and just thought “what time will it start today”. Because it did.  Literally every day I had some type of headache.

And now, I’m fine.  I’m all better.

I know this surgery saved my life.  It sounds very cliche but I know where I was – physically, mentally, emotionally.  This surgery and the success that it was, it gave me life again.  I didn’t have life before, I had existence.  And for anyone who saw me when things were bad, thank you for getting me through my dark days.  Thank you so much to my incredible husband who never, EVER complained when I would tell him (yet again) “I have a headache”.  Thank you so my sweet girls who took care of their mommy, instead of me taking care of them.  Thank you to all my family & friends who helped so much.  And thank you to all my colleagues and clients who didn’t give up on me.

Yes, I still have migraines.  I knew I always would given how severe mine were.  But from 2-4 a week, I’m now at maybe 1-2 a month.  For me, this was seriously my best case scenario.  And even now, I think I’ve had maybe 3 in the past year that were enough that I had to lie down and kind of stop what I was doing.  Now, I can usually just get through them without stopping (I’m sure some of it is that I have a crazy high pain tolerance so it’s all relative).

So happy anniversary to me!  If you read through all of this, I’m giving you a big hug for reading it all.  And for those that suffer from migraines, know that I’m here for you if you want to talk about medications, treatments or just vent about what you are going through.

And to Dr. Guyuron and his team, thank you.