24 May 2005
Tuesday, 10:30 PM (ET)
HIGH-LEVEL SUMMARY: Numbness in my scalp.
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One thing I did not mention in my 5/23/05 journal entry is that I have numbness from surgery. Quite a thing to leave out from my overall checklist of things "I have and do not have" at the moment.
The area of my body that is completely numb is a certain section on my scalp. Photos are starting to come out in the New Photos tab, and I am beginning to put explanations of each photo (it takes a few days to accomplish this). So, there will eventually be photos that show these parts of my head that are numb.
To describe it, there is basically a 4 inch x 2 inch rectangular section that starts in the middle of my head and goes towards my left ear. All this is 100% numb. It is the section of my scalp that was peeled away in order to drill two (yes, two) 2" holes in my skull for surgery. The skin was just cut and pulled out of the way.
It's sort of easy to understand why I am numb. All the neurons that were positioned next to my skull since I was born were all of a sudden ripped away. Those connections were removed, so I will be numb until they reconnect.
In talking with other survivors of brain surgeries, this appears to be a fairly common thing, and I hear numerous reports of people who regain feeling in situations like mine. But for now, it is really weird. Totally strange to have parts of my body that I can touch and I feel ZERO. I have only experienced that in the past when I have had novocaine.
So, add that to the checklist. I have NO idea when it will go away. I am going to guess that it will be many, many months. We'll see.
