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Linda’s Story
Site created on August 15, 2018
As many of you may or may not know Linda’s story, she had a large brain tumor called an acoustic neuroma back in 1969. She had a very invasive surgery to remove this tumor, which left her with paralysis to the right side of her face, deafness to her right ear, the inability to blink her right eye causing an ulcer and very poor vision to her right eye,. Because she had to have a portion of her cerebellum removed, her balance has been greatly affected as well. But the worst residual effect of her brain tumor removal is the horrible nerve pain she has had for over 49 years to her face. Anyone who knows Linda, would never know she was experiencing this kind of pain, as she takes each day smiling and with a positive attitude. Linda was presented with an amazing opportunity to have a new procedure to mimimize her pain at the Mayo. They will be doing a left craniotomy to place specialized electrodes to her cerebral cortex. They will then stimulate the pain receptors to find where they can “trick” the brain into alleviating her pain. There are many risks involved with this surgery, but she is willing to make the attempt in order to improve her pain and quality of life. She will be in the intensive care unit for approximately 7-10 days where they will monitor her very carefully as well as continue to “fine tune” the pain control. She will then have a permanent grid placed to her brain that is threaded to a battery pack/stimulator. We hope and pray that this will help her live a more fulfilling life with less pain. We will be adding updated info as she has her surgery this morning and throughout her journey. If you have any questions or thoughts, please use this page to do so and we will try to address them as soon as we can. Linda has so many family and friends that love her and are concerned, so we thought that this would be the best way to communicate her condition, yet give her the time and space she needs to recover.
Mom was discharged from the Mayo today. She is very weak in her legs and arms from being immobile and on strict bed rest for so long. She decided she would benefit from getting some inpatient rehab. She was admitted to Benedictine this evening for physical and occupational therapy to regain the strength she lost. Very happy she is back and she gets to b where I work!! Thank you for all your continued prayers!
