anosmia
-
Imagine having your skull opened up for a few hours so a surgeon can dig out some invasive tissue, the opening glued, bolted, and drilled back together, and the skin re-affixed with a long row of staples…and then having a (mostly) cogent conversation a couple of hours later. I’m absolutely in awe of what Dr.…
-
To recap my journey so far, my first opinion was with Dr. Idiot, who only found out about my tumor when I told him I had one and then said it was no big deal. My second opinion was with the team at Vanderbilt. They had been great, but I believed they were limited to…
-
As my next MRI approached, I was smelling everything I could get my nose on. Stopping to smell the roses took on an urgent, somewhat existential meaning. I know that in terms of tumors, I’m very lucky. Everyone who has looked at my MRIs has concluded that the tumor is likely benign. Too many friends…
-
That’s all I can think of right now…
-
I’m very good at compartmentalizing. For most of the next six months, I didn’t worry much about my looming brain surgery and loss of one and a half of my five senses. Well, maybe a bit. I realized that between the neuropathy and my age-related hearing and vision issues, smell and taste were the only…
-
In one of my follow-up visits with the brain surgeon – who I really like but I swear to god looks like he’s 14 years old – he described the procedure he would use to remove the tumor. He called the surgery “transnasal” and it’s exactly what it sounds like. They go through the nostrils.…
Just Breathe 