I met with Dr. Ellenbogen yesterday. I was VERY impressed by him…He is brilliant and compassionate, which is something all of us Chiarians need and deserve.
My surgery is scheduled for June 28th. I now understand how everyone felt, when they said it feels more real now that the date is set.
I also have to quit smoking before the surgery, so I’m starting Chantix tomorrow. He won’t do the surgery if I have any Nicotine in my system!
Thank you everyone for the thoughts and prayers:) It means a lot:)
Thank you:) I’m not sure what other NS say about smoking…You should ask your NS. Dr. Ellenbogen said, in his experience, he has found that smoking leads to more complications, which is a risk he is not willing to take. However, I do know others that smoked pre-op and post-op without surgical complications. At this point, I’m just glad to have a great doctor doing my surgery…I will do whatever he says! I need to do this anyways…I smoke way too much! I have to admit it will be REALLY hard to quit right now. He was very happy about my 40 pound weight loss:) He also said that the weight gain I’ve had in the last couple years is not my fault…What is someone supposed to do when they are in constant excruciating pain and can’t be active. It was nice to have a doctor acknowledge all that we go through and how much our lives are affected. He gets it:)
Fantastic news!! I took the same approach with my surgery, whatever the surgeon tells me to do I’m doing with a positive attitude. 7 weeks post op and couldnt be more happy or better…
Will be thinking of you and best of luck with it all xo
Best of luck with your surgery too. Will be thinking of you also xo
Becki Bowling said:
That’s awesome! I am glad you have a NS you feel comfortable with. Mine is wonderful as well. I am scheduled for my surgery on June 14th. I was wondering about your quit smoking comment though. We have never discussed my habit so I am not sure if it is an issue for all docs doing this surgery or just the preference of your NS.
Congrats!!! Good luck with the smoking. Take it one day at a time, I know from personal experience. This Sunday will be one year smoke free for me. Oh and keep your hands busy…it will help alot
Thank you! I’m glad to hear you’re doing so well:) That’s awesome! I love to hear success stories like yours:)
Melkay44 said:
Fantastic news!! I took the same approach with my surgery, whatever the surgeon tells me to do I'm doing with a positive attitude. 7 weeks post op and couldnt be more happy or better.. Will be thinking of you and best of luck with it all xo
Thank you so much for the advice:) I need all the help I can get!
Lorie Hernandez said:
Congrats!!!!! Good luck with the smoking. Take it one day at a time, I know from personal experience. This Sunday will be one year smoke free for me. Oh and keep your hands busy...it will help alot :)
A date is so important but kind of scary too. I know for me I was put on a no garlic diet. Had to stop taking multi vitamins which meant no red bulls :( Apparently these can lead to blood thinning and my NS did not want to chance anything. Another thing I did was...I have been on norco for 4 years for my pain so a week prior to surgery i stopped taking everything. This was very hard but it was worth it. My NS said that pain control after surgery can be somewhat hard because they do not want to medicate you to the point you are drowsy as these are signs of a hematoma in the brain so in order to have the dilaudid and morphine work better i stopped pain meds 1 week prior. This is just me. Also I slowed down smoking every day and quit just a few days prior to surgery. I had smoked for 22 years. This was Hard BUT I FIGURED THIS SURGERY WAS A NEW BEGINNING AT LIFE FOR ME AND IN THIS NEW LIFE I WOULD NOT SMOKE. Everyone finds their niche. This worked for me. I have not smoked in 6 weeks and every day gets easier. Yes keep your hands busy and I eat hard candy when I want to smoke like jolly ranchers. I hope everything goes well. Keep us posted.... Good luck. Find what works for you.
It's great to hear about your NS! With so many people having problems with Surgeons it's great to know there are some out there who respect you and your time enough to be familiar with your diagnosis.
Best of luck with your surgery and know that we are all praying for you!
Vanessa- Thank you for all the tips and advice:) I finally started Chantix today, so I will quit smoking one week from today. The Nicotine should be completely out of my system by the time I go for my pre-op appt on June 18th. I’m also on a healthy eating plan that I plan to stay on through my recovery. I’ve lost over 40 lbs in about 2 months:) I’ve been a little worried about pain control after surgery. I had to have a Laparotomy for Endometriosis a couple years ago. Between the surgical, Chiari, and Syringomyelia pain they couldn’t get my pain under control at all. It was horrible! I will talk to Dr. Ellenbogen about cutting back on my meds prior to surgery. If it will help, I will just suffer the week before surgery. Thank you again for all the pointers…I really appreciate it:)
Nessa said:
A date is so important but kind of scary too. I know for me I was put on a no garlic diet. Had to stop taking multi vitamins which meant no red bulls :( Apparently these can lead to blood thinning and my NS did not want to chance anything. Another thing I did was...I have been on norco for 4 years for my pain so a week prior to surgery i stopped taking everything. This was very hard but it was worth it. My NS said that pain control after surgery can be somewhat hard because they do not want to medicate you to the point you are drowsy as these are signs of a hematoma in the brain so in order to have the dilaudid and morphine work better i stopped pain meds 1 week prior. This is just me. Also I slowed down smoking every day and quit just a few days prior to surgery. I had smoked for 22 years. This was Hard BUT I FIGURED THIS SURGERY WAS A NEW BEGINNING AT LIFE FOR ME AND IN THIS NEW LIFE I WOULD NOT SMOKE. Everyone finds their niche. This worked for me. I have not smoked in 6 weeks and every day gets easier. Yes keep your hands busy and I eat hard candy when I want to smoke like jolly ranchers. I hope everything goes well. Keep us posted.... Good luck. Find what works for you.
Thank you:) There are great doctors out there…I’m very lucky to have found one of them. Believe me…Before I met Dr. Ellenbogen, I was starting to have my doubts!
Kajosmom said:
Crystal,
It's great to hear about your NS! With so many people having problems with Surgeons it's great to know there are some out there who respect you and your time enough to be familiar with your diagnosis.
Best of luck with your surgery and know that we are all praying for you!
