I can now officially say that I have a sparkly brain!  On Wednesday I had my brain aneurysm “coiled” with platinum, so I’m feeling pretty swanky!  The surgery went smoothly for which I am very grateful.  I only had to spend one night at the hospital and I had the loveliest nurses.  But, my God almighty, I have never experienced headaches like that!  I spent the night riding waves of intense nausea mixed with the most brutal headaches.  They gave me morphine which helped the pain – a bit – but made the nausea worse.   And as with all my recent medical experiences, there was an absurd quality to it: the patient next to me had an odd, bedazzled female visitor who was blasting Celine Dion while performing a weird interpretive dance – in an ICU style recovery room – r u kidding me?!

The doctors wrote me a prescription for Percocet to help with my headaches, which are supposed to last for a few days.  For some reason I felt deep shame picking up the drugs – I felt like a low-life!  I was paranoid that I would become addicted and that I would end up like Nurse Jackie, doing anything to secure my next high.  Once home though, the drugs were a godsend and I spent most of the day in a loopy sleep dreaming of Iron Maiden – who were dressed like Wizards! – flying through the sky.

Editor’s Note:  A special thanks goes out to my cancer!  Had I not been in the hospital being treated for Mesothelioma – where I ended up with “Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome” after a bad reaction to the drug Haldol – I never would have had my brain scanned and my aneurysm would have gone untreated.  So thank you Mesothelioma!