Good Bye to the Overstuffed Chair

Hurray, Becki has completed three weeks of recovery! This is important because for the first three weeks she has had to deal with various restrictions, including always sleeping upright in an overstuffed chair to minimize brain swelling. Starting Friday she began sleeping in a bed. She had been looking forward to that day for some time! She also had her 3 week review with the Skull Base Institute and had her 5 pound restriction upped to 10 pounds. With her lifting restrictions she has not been able to pick up her cats, and it still might be a couple more weeks until she can pick up Simon, not that he has a weight issue!

Becki's energy and strength continues to increase. On Wednesday she was able to shower and dress herself for the first time. She is also able to tolerate longer walks, in fact she is up to 2 miles on sidewalks daily with small inclines. However, she still continues to enjoy her regular cat and bunny slipper naps. Overall, her recovery is progressing well.

Becki's tumor was located in a very sensitive area of the brain. Her recovery's biggest challenges are the stabilization of her various senses that were impacted by the tumor and the effects of the surgery. She continues to experience significant sensitivity to light, with double vision and blurriness that fluctuates in intensity. She has hyper-sensitivity to smell, taste and to sound. She needs to wear ear plugs to tolerate basic household sounds. She also experiences some difficulties with swallowing which requires that she focus on swallowing when eating. We anticipate that these symptoms will eventually improve during her recovery. Due to Becki's heightened senses, she is not able to go out into the public yet. She does miss her friends and is able to talk briefly by phone. Becki's recovery is coming along but she has a ways to go for a full recovery. She enjoys the encouraging words by her friends during her recovery and looks forward to eventually seeing them in person.