Performance Review
31 March 2009, 10:14
I don’t know why I was nervous going into my 6 week surgeon’s review – it felt like my work performance was being evaluated and those 6 weeks of sitting on my arse watching Dr. Phil were going to catch up with me.
In fact, the surgeon didn’t actually do anything apart from remarking that I was “looking well”, admiring his handiwork on the incision (it was a mighty fine job) and was really only there to answer my questions (I had a lot, here is an abridged list):
When can I drive? At 3 months, so one more month.
When can I stop taking Dilantin (anti-seizure drug)? Start weaning myself off them now (hoorah!)
What are my chances of having another aneurysm? Possible but not likely – at present I have no other aneurysms in my brain but if one has a genetic predisposition to them, they can form but usually take 20-30 years to do so.
Will the headaches go away? ”Dunno” (always a reassuring response from a top neurosurgeon). They should get better over time but it takes some people (hopefully not me!) 6-12 months to be fully rid of them.
What are the chances of the clip coming out? Rare – 99% of clips say “We’ll stay”!
Should I get Scout checked out? This made me sad – he said yes, she should be checked as a precaution in her 20’s. I was kinda hoping he would cry “Get outta here!”
When can I go back to work? Up to me, but most subarachs go back gradually at first on reduced duties (2-3 hours a day or 2-3 days a week) at around 3 months until they go back full-time at 6 months. He said I wasn’t to push myself too hard, but I’m really trying to balance my wish to go back to work to stymie the intellectual atrophy one usually gets from watching too much Dr. Phil and the need to take it slowly (patience not being something I am renowned for). I can’t use a computer for longer than 15-20 minutes at the moment before I feel like throwing up and my work is computer-based, so that’s going to be an interesting conversation with my boss!
He also showed me some of the angiogram and CAT scans which I’ll get on a disk and share with the world at some stage.
So overall, my performance is definitely Top 10-worthy – not many people who have a subarachnoid haemorrhage come out of it with basically no residual deficits.
Now, where’s my performance bonus?
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