Surgery Eve

Godzilla the Asshole tumor is in light blue

These past few days, I’ve the concentration levels of a coked up cheetah on a Sugar Smacks high. Of course I do. Tomorrow morning I need to be in the pre-op department of MGH at 5:45AM.

I’m finally having the new bean surgeon open me up (great rep and highly recommended but still…a new cutter to me) to remove Godzilla (or take out as much as he can) from my prefrontal lobe. The procedure is new too—Doc Curry invented the technique being used mañana.

He’s going into my skull through my forehead—just above my right eyebrow. This will be my first obviously visible scar. My other 14 surgery tracks are, more or less, covered by head hair or are on my back or torso (normally covered by clothes). No, I’m not getting (more) vain—this is just new and different. An adjustment. I wonder if I’ll look at all piratical—pirates are scarred and they’re sexy…RIGHT?!

So, I’m facing all this new, new, new, new, newness. Stressful enough that I’m headed in for MORE brain surgery (fifth in the past four years and eighth overall), it’s also gotta be done by a dude who’s never rooted around in my bean before. Yes, he’s got a map (MRI done last week), a killer CV AND he looks just like Obama but still…new is unsettling.

Death (blowing bubbles), Johann Georg Leinberger

Dr. Curry is a graduate of Harvard College, attended Cornell University Medical College in New York City and trained in Neurosurgery at Massachusetts General Hospital (with my hero Doc Barker, AKA Son of God). He has been on the neurosurgical faculty at Mass General Hospital since 2004 (20 years—he's no flash-in-the-pan neophyte). He is a national leader in the neurosurgical care of patients with tumors of the brain, skull-base, and spine. He is highly skilled in both open and endoscopic/minimally invasive techniques and is known for his ability to handle the most advanced surgical challenges. (source)

Impressive, no?

I should probably set out tea and cookies to, ya know, welcome him into the hellscape of my head. Maybe cupcakes instead? What would best communicate "Welcome, please be careful in here—it's the only brain I've got." Maybe carrot cake would be more appropriate?

Here in Blogville? I'll be offline for, dunno, at least a few days or so. If possible, Jen will stop by with an update—did the old broad survive OR WHAT?!