The Head and The Heart Vol. 7

CT Scans and Santa

Hi friends,

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas celebration! We had a quiet Christmas which was exactly what I needed at this moment of recovery.

I started off Christmas Eve with a CT Scan - my first since I was in the ICU. It’s felt so weird not having daily routine scans or ultrasounds of my brain. It’s also been a challenging mental exercise to convince myself that every headache I have is simply a headache that’s normal for recovery vs. another aneurysm. The daily checks and teams (yes plural teams) of neurosurgeons telling me daily that my brain was okay while I was in the ICU was, in some ways, a luxury.

Onto the good news! The CT scan looked great. I’m healing according to plan and there were no signs of hydrocephalus or fluid buildup in the brain. The neurosurgeon reassured me that my level of inactivity and low energy was also normal for this stage of recovery, but encouraged me to keep doing walks as I feel able. One of the hardest parts of recovery has been that I can’t lift over 10lbs and so, can’t lift up Raine. This is hard for me emotionally, hard for Raine to understand, and hard to be a co-parent when you can’t lift a toddler! They confirmed that I should still stick to the strict 10lb maximum for a few more weeks…I’m counting down the days.

Christmas Eve I needed a day of rest. I was up early for my appointment and caught a little cold so was in bed most of the day. Later on, when I had enough energy, my mother-in-law kindly cooked us a festive Christmas Eve dinner, Raine opened some of her presents, and we watched Home Alone.

Christmas Day we woke up Raine and were excited to show her the presents that Santa had left! I didn’t grow up in a family that did Santa (so much so that when Santa was mentioned during my younger sister’s kindergarten class, she raised her hand and said, “Who’s Santa?”) so Hans had to lead the charge and did a great job instilling awe and wonder.

All in all, I’ve been healing, I’m resting, I’m sleeping, I’m eating delicious food that friends and family have delivered, and I’m grateful.

Thank you for your continued love, support, and prayers! I appreciate each one of you.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, and Happy New Year!

XO,

R