One month ago tomorrow..
I was having brain surgery. I know, I know. No one cares anymore, get over it already.
But I sneezed again today, heard / felt another alarming POP and am getting increasingly worried. My head is also becoming increasingly swollen. Like - it wasn't at all swollen a week and a half ago when the nurse was removing my staples. Now, I'm swollen out to my right ear (the side where they cut) to an inch from my left ear (no incision except for the one down the center of the back of my head).
It doesn't hurt (unless I sneeze or make sudden movements), but when I push on it it feels like a water balloon. Of course I don't push on it hard, I just touch it and it presses in. There's obviously liquid in there. But is it a cerebral spinal fluid leak? Is it an infection? Is it blood? What else can it be that I don't know is a possibility?
My scalp also itches. I've read that this means it's healing, so I'm ok with it. But it's annoying. And the scabbing is annoying too. And quite gross.
I am just so worried about this swelling and I don't know what to do. I do not feel any fluid outside of the skin. But about a week ago I did feel some cool liquid sensations under the skin - like, I was being rained on from inside. The nurse talked to the surgeon and neither thought it was anything to worry about. Then wham-o, my head is twice the size it was before.
Hopefully I just need a steroid and it'll go away. Keeping my fingers crossed...
***UPDATE*** So I talked to one of the neurosurgeons, and he said it's likely a pseudomeningocele. Nothing to worry about if I can talk to my surgeon Monday (which I already was scheduled to do). Too bad I can't find any information on this online...maybe that's a good thing. But I'm still worried, just a little relieved I don't have go to the ER. I'll still cry myself to sleep though. I'm tired of all this bullshit. I want my biggest problem to be an asshole client, or a report that went out wrong. Not whether I have too much spinal fluid leakage and if I need to have surgery again to seal up the scalp. Which means more time in the hospital, more staples, and starting over with recovery.
