length of stay when traveling out-of-state for resection?

Aimster · Regular Joined: 03 Jan 2008 Posts: 35 Location: Nebraska

Hey all,
Sorry I have been absent lately. Much has been going on but I don't have the energy to tell the whole story right now - promise I will update with more details soon.

We are looking at going to MD Anderson for surgery this summer and are thinking about the logistics. If anyone here has traveled to a major brain tumor center for your surgery, could you please share your experiences? I am particularly interested to know how long you had to stay at or near the center before you could return home. My best guess is maybe a week, but I've no idea if that is realistic? The surgeon here in my home state said the typical hospitalization is 3-5 days but I have no clue if you are required to be there well before and after for tests and followup.

Thanks so much for your help Smile

_________________
Amy (39)
*presumptive low-grade glioma in right frontal lobe (first observed Aug. 2007; diagnosed Jan. 2008)
*watching & waiting, but anticipating resection in the next year or so

http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?p=28526

artaran

We had to travel to San Francisco for my son's surgery. We planned for a week, but we also asked the manager of the hotel if he could extend the reservation for longer just in case. Knowing our situation he just asked us to give him a 24 hour notice as to when we were going to leave and gave us an indefinite reservation. It worked out well, because our son did have to stay in the hospital longer than expected because he had brain swelling.

Good Luck, Arleen

soxfan · New User Joined: 27 Mar 2008 Posts: 6

Hey Amy,

My husband was told 3-5 days. We ended up with about a week in the hospital and a week in an acute rehab hospital. He had an awake craniotomy. That way the surgeon was able to resect as much as possible without causing any deficits. It is the safest option available for his tumor location. As you can imagine the brain was a bit aggravated by the surgery and because it was in close proximetry to the motor plate and speech areas he had some right sided paresis and difficulty with speech after the surgery. As the swelling went down his movement and speech returned. He is now at 100% but had some pretty intensive PT to get there.

Hope this helps.

Alisa

Derek

Aimster,
It should only be a week, but my wife was in hospital for 9 weeks.
This was a result of severe acute haemorrhage, meningitis and the insertion of a Extra-Ventricular Drain due to CSF drainage.
Three general anaesthetics were involved (not including the initial induced coma), and many more weeks of recovery involving Rehab Specialists, Occupational Therapists and the works .
Although most brain surgery is "routine", you can never assume this is going to be the case.
Derek

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