Tuesday 15 July I was admitted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham at 8pm ready for my operation the following morning.
Yes I was more than scared and not just for me but for my family. The consultant had explained that due to the position of my tumour I would need to be awake for part of the operation – an awake craniotomy. As if having your head opened was not bad enough but to be awake whilst they carried out this procedure was even more nerve-wracking.
I was told the operation would take approximately 8 hours in total.
I was down as the first operation of the day and before the op I had to drink a pink drink called 5-ALA that actually highlighted the tumour pink under UV light so the surgeon could get as much of it out as possible. The downside was I had to be covered from sunlight and curtains had to be drawn as the drink could cause 2nd degree sunburn if I was exposed to any kind of light. I also had to be wheeled down to the operating theatre totally covered by a white sheet, sorry to anyone who thought a body was being taken down to the morgue, I assure you I was far from dead.
The consultant spoke to me before I went into theatre and explained that I did not need to be awake after all as he could do the surgery without waking me up, so the operation was going to be shorter than first envisaged. Great for me but imagine my family’s concerns when they were told after 4.5 hours I was back in recovery instead of the 8 hours they still thought it was going to take.
I was covered up again after the operation and taken back to my darkened room.
After the op my surgeon, Professor Colin Watts, told me he was happy and all was good from his point of view. He said they would monitor me but could see no reason why I could not go home the following day for convalescence.
Fate deals a cruel hand because at 9.30pm that night I Facetimed my wife to say I love you and that I was looking forward to coming home, then a nurse came round with my meds and ten minutes later, boom!! Pain in my chest and my head felt like it was being stabbed with a knife.
An ECG was done and a doctor was called. He thought it was indigestion and gave me some pepscan and liquid morphine and by midnight I was calm again.
The next morning a second ECG revealed my left heart ventricle was irregular and they thought I’d had a heart attack.
Cardio thought the heart pains may have been related to surgery but the Neuro Team had not seen this before. So the following day turned into another week of observations and I was unable to go home.
This was unreal. I was climbing the walls.
Brain Man 