January 5, 2021

First Month Post Surgery

Right After Surgery

4th of January 2021

I woke up in the surgery room and went into the ICU. The first assessment was by a neurologist making basic tests; one key was my legs. They were all good.
What happened right after that was that I met my wife, so I could be given CBD (this was arranged by the Neurosurgeon before this). I was also given and approved of the Bromelain that I had and took as per the protocol that Michelle Gerencser set. I committed to Bromelain for a week.

The next morning, I was given different medications to ensure the pain was minimal.

In the morning, all the tests showed that I was doing well, and they walked me to my room at 11 AM (earlier than usual for other patients, as they said I was doing better)

First 5 Days (at hospital)

4th–9th of January 2020

Below are the medications that I was given by the doctors in the hospital:

Day from surgery	Pain killers	Enoxaparin 5 days	Omeprazol 15 days	Dexamethasona 15 days
1st day	Took it	Took it	Took it	Took it
2nd day	I replaced one for another	Took it	Took it	Took it
3rd day	Stopped second type	Asked to stop	Took it	Took it
4th day	only Paracetamol and Ibuprofen	Asked to stop	Took it	Took it
5th day	same as below	Asked to stop	Took it	Took it
Notes	I’m hallucination because of these.	I arranged it with the doctor too.	Stopped it on the 6th day after asking the doctor	Stopped in 10 days instead of 15, after asking the doctor to do so.

I asked the doctor whether I had any antibiotics, and they said that I had them for three days only.

The below shows the symptoms I was suffering while I was in the hospital:

Day from surgery	Headache (higher means more pain)	Comprehension What’s Heard (higher means better)	Reading/ Writing (higher means better)	Hallucination (higher means worse)	Sleeping (hours)
1st day	1 to 3	1	1	9	6
2nd day	1 to 3	1	1	9	5
3rd day	1 to 9	2	1	8	2 + 2
4th day	1 to 9	3	1	8	3
5th day	1 to 9	3	1	8	4
Notes	More than half the time, headache are around 6	I walked out poorly after leaving	I could read the mobile, read e-mails or respond	Mostly weird characters that move “away” from me.	They do not have melatonin in the hospital

On the third day, the doctor was surprised, and he said that I am ready to leave on the third day and that I can remove what’s on my brain. However, he felt that it’d be better to stay at the hospital until the five days were over.

The images below are from a few minutes before it was removed

Pathology is Out!

9th of Jan 2021

The outcome turned out to be Grade II Oligodendrogliomas

I was shocked (and so was the doctor!)

So it was two good news outcomes. ONE: 90% resection took place, TWO: what I had and the 10% that remained were on Grade II

The 1-page report came on the 14th and has been shared with me.

He mentioned: “Sections show a neoplastic glial proliferation composed exclusively of cells with cytoplasm clear, and round central nucleus with slight hyperchromasia. Cells are arranged in delimited groups partially by a multitude of capillaries. Multifocal microcalcification is also observed. It is also observe fragments of cerebral cortex focally infiltrated by tumor cells creating images of satellitosis“

You can download the document here.

Dr. Oliver: Future Options

Here is what Dr. Oliver recommended after discovering Grade II Oligodendrogliomas:

Radiation

It is not recommended to give Radio when one is in Grade II.

Chemotherapy

It is good to consider chemo. However, he said it is best to wait, and to first wait for 3 months and see what the MRI looks like, and then make the decision. He asked me to share the MRI at that point in order to give me the recommendation.

When we spoke about Practice for Human Genetics Tübingen, spent time reviewing what they do. He told me that the concepts exist in Spain, but what they are doing is more advanced. His recommendation was that going for chemo is best taken with Dr. Saskia Biskup.

Another Surgery?

So the doctor said that he believes that there is a high chance that the remaining 10% can be resected with another surgery.

Why didn’t he do the remaining 10% now? One part was not right to be cut because it would affect memory, reading, and writing, while the other part was in a different area that required more time, and it was too much on my side during that surgery.

3 Weeks Post-Hospital

From the 9th of January 2021 onwards

After leaving the hospital, I stayed in Spain for 9 days and then left for Amman, Jordan. Before leaving for Spain, the doctor informed me it would be best to do a CT Brain to ensure I’m safe (and that took place, and I was safe to travel).

Pain Control and Sleep

I took Paracetamol and Ibuprofeno as per the doctor’s recommendation. I tried not to take them on the 10th day of surgery, but that gave me difficult pain, so I continued on.

I stopped both of them on the 17th, two weeks after the surgery—one week earlier than the doctor had originally recommended. I was happy to find out that I had no pain anymore.

I am writing on the 30th of January, and I have not had any pain.

Sleeping became better. Especially when I arrived back to my house, I started sleeping 7 to 8 hours per night (without any supplements for that purpose)

Diet

Well, when I knew that I was in Grade II, and when I was tired all day, I thought I would be breaking all the diets for those three weeks. I set a target to add more carbs, and that made a difference in the first 10 days.

My birthday is January 27th, and I decided to go back to the diet when I feel better.

So that’s about three weeks of not following any diet. Eating anything that is known to be impossible for me (e.g., lentils or cheese), I surely had bloating that I hadn’t had years ago.

I was originally planning to go back to the ketogenic diet. However, I thought it was easier to start on the AIP diet until I heard more about what’s best for me.

Symptoms Remaining

After leaving hospital	Comprehension What’s Heard (higher means better)	Reading/ Writing (higher means better)	Hallucination (higher means better sleep)
1^st week	4	2	5
2^nd week	5	3	4
3^rd week	5	4	3
*Notes*	Way worse than before surgery	Way worse than before surgery	It is improving

Seizure Control

I had some confusing outcomes before and after the surgery. Here’s how…

I was given Dexamethasona days before traveling from Amman (before the surgery). I noticed that when I started taking that, I had better seizure control. Basically, no auras took place until my surgery.

Before the surgery, I was taking 1.25 ML (116.7 MG CBD per ML) twice a day.

While in the hospital (for 5 days), I was feeling so good (on the seizure only) to the extent that I got the number gradually from 1.25 ML to 0.5 ML in three days. The outcome was: All feels great!

The next 5 days post-hospital, I continued on Dexamethasona. Then I stopped.

10 days later (3 days after arriving in Amman), I started having seizures again (auras). I had them on three different days during the last 10 weeks.

I had to move back to 0.75 ML, hoping that this would work.

Remains the question in my head: is this the Dexamethasona? hard to figure out.

(A week later, like I will explain later, things change dramatically.)

EEG

So, I thought it was probably a good idea to do an EEG and see if there is any outcome—to compare the outcome with what I did in December 2020 (a month before surgery). The doctor back then said, “Abnormal EEG with focus of epileptogenic activities in Lt front to-temporal leads” and the doctor recommended taking Lamictal (100 x 2).

I didn’t back then, as I explained the full details

Why the EEG again? It is to figure out if I actually got better post-surgery.

At the end of the third week in Amman, I did the EEG, and the doctor was happy (and I was shocked). The outcomes were actually near perfect!

In the report, the doctor said, “Left front-temporal slowing due to previous surgery. No epileptiform activity was seen.

The full report, with 26-page details, can be downloaded here.

This was dramatic, and I was very happy. The next day (the 4th week after surgery), this whole thing change dramatically, and I’ll explain it soon on the next page

Vision Issues After Brain Surgery

These include how the five days in the hospital were, what I suffered from, and what I was doing well.

Most importantly, the Pathology was out and I’m sharing here

Clearly, given that my left temporal lobe surgery is on the left, this means that possibly the right side is going to be affected.

The image on the right side explains how the area that will be touched during the surgery will be touched.

That’s what the doctor explained to me before the surgery, and he explained I may not be able to see things that are right far away from my right side, and accordingly, with time, I will be starting to physically see what I want to see.

The doctor was in fact surprised that I was seeing things clearly on the right before the surgery, given that the tumor is significant on the left side.

After surgery, a basic test by the doctor showed me clearly that I did lose my ability to see the “far away” right side without moving my head.

Double Visions

In the first week, I used to see most of what I read shown doubled next to each other. With time, that has become far less, but it is still happening (3 weeks later). However, if I look at the right side, I still see the double visions for the first 1 to 2 seconds, and then they improve.

Supplements During the 3 Weeks

After leaving hospital	1st week	2nd week	3rd week
Vitamin D	Y	Y	Y
Resvero Active	N	Y	Y
Turmero Active	Y	Y	Y
EnzymixPro	Y	Y	Y
Brain-E DHA 1200-TG	N	Y	Y
BDNF Essentials	N	N	Y
Complete E	N	Y	Y
EnteroVite	Y	Y	Y

All the things that I did not take on the first week of walking to the hospital were because I did not have them with me while I was in Spain.

Did Pathology Arrive Safely?

As planned weeks before travel, we had communicated with the hospital in Spain and we planned to execute right after surgery. The outcome was as follows:

Tumor Diagnostic: By Saskia Biskup, MD

That one worked successfully! It was one week after it was prepared in the hospital, and then it was shipped on January 11th and arrived the next morning in Germany.

I will be waiting for the outcome in 4 to 6 weeks to see the results!

Nagourney Cancer Institute: By Robert Nagourney, MD

The hospital did a great job preparing it during the surgery in order to send it to the United States. Sadly, the 4th of January until the 7th of January were not good days for them to deliver to the United States. At least four different shippers said that it can be delivered in 5 days, and in reality, that is too long (it won’t arrive in good shape)

Therefore, we lost the opportunity with Nagourney Cancer Institute, and they were informed.

NEXT: Second Month with Surprise
Click here to see how the second month went with difficulty