2-Month & 3-Month Post-Op Updates

Since I covered POD 4-33 in my "1-Month Post-Op Updates" post, I wanted to continue to log my recovery in months 2 and 3 after my surgery. 

Even though I don't anticipate/hope for a bunch of crazy updates in month 2 of recovery, I wanted to keep up with how I'm feeling for all the lovely people who asked me to keep them updated as I'm healing! 

I had my 3-month in-person appointment with my neurosurgeon on February 18, 2025. So I'll have my recovery notes here, and how that visit goes and my brain and spine MRI results in this post!

Since I've been lucky enough to have so many green days, and we've entered a new phase of recovery where I am no longer routinely taking medication, I thought of a new way to record my post-op recovery! Each time I experience enough pain to take medication, I will log it. Unless otherwise noted, "pain meds" on this diagram means 400 mg ibuprofen :)

POD 34

I put a shirt over my head for the first time! When taking a tighter tank top off, it touched my scar and I was worried I had messed something up back there, but after a brief freak-out and a confirmational photo, I knew everything was totally fine. I think it’ll just take some time for me to get used to feeling something back there.

POD 36

When I woke up, my dad was shocked and said “You look awesome.” He told me that the “sparkle” was back in my eyes, which made me want to cry. I have been gradually starting to feel like myself again, but it feels like my healing has accelerated so much in the past few days. I feel even more “me” than I felt when my symptoms started worsening in Fall 2023. 

POD 38

I felt a little worse than the day before but still good, I started hearing a cracking/crunching sound in my neck at the site where my operation was performed when I turned my head, especially to the left. The crunching isn’t super loud but freaked me out at first since it was a sound I’m not used to. Despite the weirdness, I’m taking it as a good sign that my mobility is increasing and swelling is going down. If I had to guess, this is most likely crepitus coming from scar tissue after the procedure, so I am going to keep doing my stretches to increase my mobility.  

To help with the crunching and to avoid stiffness, I started doing head-turning stretches. I would turn my head fairly quickly from shoulder to shoulder 10 times, take a break, then do another rep. This will also be good practice to get used to before I start driving again!

POD 40

There’s noticeably less tension in my neck compared to last week which is a huge win. 

In the evening, I started my acetaminophen taper to 500 mg every six hours (from 1000 every six).

POD 42

This marked six weeks after my surgery, and what a great day it was! This holiday panned out much better than Thanksgiving. I’m enjoying feeling so “me” again and it was so exciting to have my first holiday in a while where I felt like I was fully present.

I took my 500 mg of acetaminophen in the evening, marking 2 days of doing this, so I will now taper to 500 mg of acetaminophen every 18 hours instead of every six (I originally planned on doing every 12 hours but I forgot the first dose haha).

POD 45

I completed my next puzzle of the Augusta National Golf Course with my sister!

Fun fact: Bobby Jones, the individual the Bobby Jones Chiari & Syringomyelia Foundation is named after, was the founder of the Augusta National and the Masters Tournament,  is still the only golfer to win all four majors in one year, and he also had syringomyelia! 

POD 46

After three days of taking Tylenol every 18 hours, this was my first day only taking ibuprofen every 6 hours!

POD 52

I started taking ibuprofen every 8 hours instead of 6 and I finished another puzzle with my sister!

POD 56

This was a very exciting day for multiple reasons. 

Chiari flare improvement?

Prior to my surgery, I used to get these debilitating Chiari flares about 6 days out of the month where my daily symptoms were heightened, and along with them came nausea and vomiting and intense aversion to any light or sound where I would have to lay for the entire day in the dark silently. There were some days where they would occur without any apparent reason, but almost every month in the days leading up to my period I would experience a flare lasting for about 2-3 days. This officially marked the second menstrual cycle I have had where I didn't experience these flares and I am so beyond excited. This could just be a lucky break because of everything my body is going through in recovery but I am very hopeful and I am going to celebrate these! I am still having headaches on these days, but they are infinitely more manageable than my flares were, so manageable that I have started taking ibuprofen every 12 hours now. 

Accommodations Meeting

I also had a meeting with my school’s Director of Student Disability Services where we discussed what accommodations I could have for my future exams and rotations. It was so empowering to learn that I have so many options and that she and the rest of the faculty are willing to work with me on everything, even down to giving me control of the lighting in a separate room with more space during my tests in case I am experiencing pain and/or need to move around. I had no idea there were so many ways to get support, so if this is something you are eligible for with your work or school, I cannot recommend it enough to reach out to learn your options. I’ll update you all once my accommodations are confirmed to let you know which accommodations I received and what it feels like testing and working with them!

POD 58

I finished my next puzzle, which was of Harbour Town on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina! 

POD 61

This marks two months since my surgery! Here is a progress picture of my incision site! You'd never be able to tell when my hair is down, you can only see the site when I part my hair down the middle. The swelling around it is completely gone and I only feel tenderness when something touches the area suddenly (like when pulling a shirt over my head). 

This was also the first day where I went a full day with NO medication!!! I still had a bit of a dull headache, which makes sense for where I am in my menstrual cycle (and I just had brain surgery, which is a notable added variable). Often post-menstruation I have migraine-level pain, so now feeling just a little discomfort that doesn't necessitate medication is life-changing. 

POD 63

I had a bit more of a headache today, but nothing crazy. I took just one 400 mg ibuprofen dose instead of the 600 mg doses I was taking post-op, and it worked! In the evening, I had some retro-orbital pain that I hadn’t experienced in a while, but it was nowhere near as painful as pre-surgery.

I also finished this very fun puzzle!

POD 71

This was the first day where I have really felt how insanely improved my concentration is after surgery. I sat for practically 10 hours in a row working on a research grant, which I NEVER could have done probably in my entire life before surgery. I’ve heard people talking about “getting in the zone” when working on something, but I had NEVER experienced that and figured I never would. Even before I got sick, I needed to get up almost every 10 minutes. But today, I was IN. THE. ZONE!!!

POD 72

Today was the second day I got to help out again with admission interviews (virtually) for my medical school, and it was so much fun to get to meet applicants again and talk about my school. I remember how nervous I was going into interviews, so I love getting to hype applicants up and keep it light to show them this process, and med school as a whole, are SO much less scary than people make it seem.

POD 73

I randomly had an episode of Raynaud’s on the middle finger of my left hand while I was just eating lunch at my kitchen table (no inciting stressor or temperature change). I have hyperhidrosis and my hands are pretty much always cold (so I’m not the ideal hand to hold even at baseline) but this episode of numbness and cold was new. I’ve never had this happen before, but it went away after about 45 minutes and I’m not concerned about it, so I thought I’d just make note of it! 

POD 77

This was the first day I had driven since surgery! I just drove a quick 5-minute trip from the house a couple of times to get practice again, but this is a HUGE win! 

When I first got up to 45 mph I felt a floaty feeling like a far less severe version of the feeling I had when first getting in the car after surgery, but my head equilibrated pretty quickly after. This was a massive first step toward feeling independent again, and I feel like driving will be a much more enjoyable experience now that I don’t have the constant headaches, photophobia, and eye pain that I had before decompression.

POD 83

Post-surgery, it seemed like the nosebleeds I had been having were shorter and less severe, but still more frequent than what’s considered normal. So after an endoscopy and MRI review from my ENT doctor, he cauterized the blood vessels in one of my nostrils to see if it decreases my nosebleeds and I’m optimistic that this will help. We’ll be doing the other one in April!

POD 84

I didn't have a headache this day, but I took a little ibuprofen for my nose discomfort, so I left the color coding for this day as dark green because I did take ibuprofen, but not for any head pain! 

POD 94

This was another AWESOME day. I used to love running before I got sick, but post-surgery I haven’t gone faster than 3.5 mph on the treadmill because I didn’t want to overexert. 

This was my first time going to a gym post-surgery. While walking on the track I decided to start running to see if I could tolerate it since we were past the 3-month post-surgery mark, and I could!!! It wasn't my normal running pace of course, I would "run" for a few minutes and then walk for a few to make sure I wasn’t pushing too hard. I also did a plank for about a minute which was super exciting, I strained more doing this than running though, so I won’t overdo planks in my recovery. I kept waiting to see if I’d get a headache after the gym, but it never happened, which is insane!

POD 97

Dad and I thought we’d turn my 3-month appointment into a fun trip, so we had a big Washington, DC adventure the day before. This also made for a much shorter drive on the morning of my appointment! 

It was so cold, but we absolutely crushed the day trip! First, we went to the Jefferson Memorial, FDR Memorial, and MLK Jr. Memorial. They each had some amazing quotes, here are a couple of my favorites:

My favorite quote at the Jefferson Memorial!

One of my favorite quotes at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial:

For lunch, we tried fry bread at the National Museum of the American Indian, then went to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. For dinner, I had a good burger and the best cornbread of my entire life as an appetizer and then again as dessert. Afterward, we explored the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial. We were only out until about 9 PM, but when we were walking downtown, DC was completely quiet. No sounds from cars, or people, or anything. It didn't feel real. I walked 10 miles that day and didn’t have a headache at all, which felt even less real. Pre-surgery, my head would have hurt way too badly to even do one-tenth of the activities we had that day.

The gorgeous Kogod Courtyard at the Smithsonian American Art Museum!

POD 98: 3-Month Post-Op Appointment Day

For my full write-up, including my post-op MRI results, read more HERE!

Glossary

Crepitus: the sound and sensation of crackling most often associated with air bubbles around joints, but it can also be seen in other tissues (such as scar tissue)

Raynaud's syndrome (also known as Raynaud's phenomenon): a condition where the small arteries, most often in the hands, spasm, leading to decreased blood flow to the area that presents as numbness and coolness