I am curious to know what your recovery was like and if you had young kids to care for during the entire recovery as soon as you got out of the hospital. I have a 5-year-old at home as well as a 7-year-old I homeschool via an online public school. My biggest help while my husband is at work is my 10-year-old, but I have to get him up and on the school bus in the morning and he is not home until 3:30. I have worked it out with his soccer coach to get him to and from soccer practice, so that has him gone from 5-7:30 Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Husband is gone from 4:30 am to 5:40 pm M-F. This has been my greatest concern if the NS decides to move forward. We are so far out from the one source of family support, it is about an hour drive for him and he is usually caring for my niece while my brother-in-law is at work.
I have a neighbor who has offered to help, but she is also very busy and has MD which limits her in some ways and I honestly cannot expect her to spend all day here and certainly not expect her to homeschool.
I had considered waiting till summer, but my husband works for DoD and they are being put on mandatory 12 hour shifts 7 days a week for a minimum of a month.
I wish I could say it would settle down at some point, but this is how busy our life is all the time ;-)
HI ANDREA. YOU DO HAVE A BUSY SCHEDULE. THIS IS SOMETHING YOU WILL DEF. HAVE TO WORK OUT BEFORE SURGERY. EVERYONE'S SURGERY AND RECUP ARE DIFFERENT. HOWEVER, BRAIN SURGERY IS NO JOKE AND IS GOING TO REQUIRE THAT YOU REALLY TAKE IT EASY AND HAVE HELP. YOU ARE GOING TO NEED IT, TRUST ME. EVEN IF YOU DO SUPER GREAT, DON'T LET THAT FOOL YOU. YOU ARE GOING TO BE CHALLENGED AND YOU WILL HAVE LIMITATIONS. THOSE LIMITATIONS COULD TAKE WEEKS TO MONTHS OR LONGER. I DON'T SAY THESE THINGS TO DISCOURAGE YOU, BUT TO PREPARE YOU. YOU ARE GOING TO NEED HELP WHEN YOU GET HOME FROM THE HOSPITAL. YOU WILL BE IN THE HOSPITAL ANYWHERE FROM 3 TO 7 DAYS BARRING NO COMPLICATIONS. WHEN YOU GET HOME, YOU WILL NEED TO BE TAKEN CARE OF. THIS IS THE TIME WHERE YOU WILL NEED THE MOST HELP AND LOTS OF REST. DOES YOUR HUSBAND HAVE ANY VACATION TIME OR PERSONAL DAYS. SEE IF HE CAN STAY HOME WITH YOU THE FIRST 2 WEEKS AT LEAST. ANYWAY SOME FAMILY CAN COME IN TO STAY WITH YOU TO HELP OUT? I DO HOPE THIS CAN HAPPEN, YOU ARE GOING TO NEED SOMEONE. HOPE THIS INFO HELPS. GOOD LUCK AND KEEP US POSTED.
CHRISTINE :)
I have two children ages 6 and 8. My brother in law came to help from out of town. He stayed with us for a month, but I was capable of doing pretty much everything after a few weeks. My husband also took time off from work while I was in the hospital and my first couple of days home. I was able to take care of most of my own needs, but not my kids for almost 3 weeks. I was very weak and slept a ton during this time. I didn't cook or anything like that. Good luck, hope you can find some help. It is a must and not just a suggestion.
Crystal
After my lumbar surgery as well as my three extensive foot surgeries, I was pretty much left on my own after a day. Non-weightbearing on my foot for 3-5 months with two of them and despite being directed otherwise, we cooking dinner two days after my back surgery. I am freaking out at the prospect of this as I know the brain is no joke. I took care of plenty of patients postop, most were inpatient for months. I appreciate your candor and will see if I can pull in more help. I have a few friend who have offered, but I know their schedules are incredibly hectic as well. I will have to work hard to get my boys up to speed on some self sufficient care. I may be able to have my adopted mom over for a short while. Of course she came over for my back surgery and was basically no help,lol.
My surgery is scheduled this Friday and I am kind of in your same boat. I have 4 kids ages 1-14yrs old. I have had to request help from many sources for the 1st 3 weeks. They are all taking shifts, so no one person has to take all the burden. I would have your hubby request at least a few days off after you get out of the hospital and then even if you have to have you kids go stay at other's houses get the extra help. you don't want to compromise this type of surgery with over activity. This will be my 22 surgery and I too played superwoman with all the others, but this is the brain you are talking about and you want to make sure to protect it. If the kids to on-lime home school then they could do that at a friend or relative's house... right? I am a school teacher myself, so I know what it takes. I am in the process of writing sub-plans and it is not fun. Just please don't over do it!!!
I would definitely call in all the support you can get. My husband was home for 6 weeks, and my friends coordinated on a website ( I think it was called takethemameal.com) so that for the first 4 weeks, almost every day someone would drop off food so he didn’t have to worry about cooking. Definitely find someone…church, PTA, local groups (woman’s groups etc.) to volunteer a little time each day. You will need to rest so you can heal properly. Best of luck to you.