I was very anxious and didn’t sleep much the night of. I prayed alot and slept a little and woke up with a peace over me, it felt like. Don’t get me wrong, I was still nervous but I felt God’s arms around me which was a great comfort! i just felt a calmness around me. The gamma knife team and doctors were wonderful, I ended up with some different ones as remember , this had been rescheduled twice before and this was the 3rd. time. I think I was there last gamma knife of the year. I had a different radiation oncologist, Dr. Chen who I talked to the day prior and the radiation, Dr. was the head of the hospital and I had never met or spoken with him. The procedure was painless. Linda and Tom were excellent nurses and Linda was my escort all day. Very sweet gal and perfect at what she does. I talked with Dr. Duma and Dr. Chen prior to entering gamma knife and off I went. I was in the gamma knife for 70 minutes at 18.5 gy. Doctors felt that it was the highest dose that would be safe due to location of the AVM. I felt good with that. I asked them to let me know when I was half through so I prayed up until that time and then I had asked them to play Tom Petty so when Linda asked me how I was and told me 38 minutes to go, she asked if I wanted the music switched, they had the Police on when I first went in there and I was put in the gamma, “If I ever Lose my faith in you” was playing ironically. Anyway about 1/2 way thru, they put on Tom Petty, great soundtrak and ironically a few songs that were played were, " Even the Losers get Lucky sometimes (LOL) and just before the procedure ended the song called,“The Waiting is the hardest Part”,not sure if you’ve heard that song but it goes like this, you take in faith, you take it to the heart, the waiting is the hardest part. Just shortly after that I was exiting the gamma and me and the staff were laughing about how cool it was that that was the next to last song trak before ending. Mind you, I chose that CD from the top of my head as Tom Petty is one of my oldest son’s favorites and I thought that would be cool to keep him close with me thru this. He almost died 4 years ago in car accident and had a TBI among many other and prayer, faith, God got us through it so this is why it was even cooler that these were the traks from this particular CD as it was there CD, not mine. I just felt that everything went very well. No headaches or anything. We got a room near Hoag, me & my husband as he had been up for 24 hrs prior since he works nights and got home at 3:30 in the morning and we left directly for Newport Beach and arrived at 6:00 am. I was released at 4:00 pm. We went to hotel and I kept ice on my head and stayed elevated all evening. Finally went to sleep around 11 pm I think. I was very tired but my adrenaline just kept going. I am so relieved that part is over. I will post pictures later if I can get the off of my phone 
. Thanks so much for all of your support and prayers, words of encouragement, I will keep you posted.
I know it is good to be done !!!
I was very sleepy for the first two weeks, not sure if you will be, just in case youare,
I wanted you to know most are very sleepy for a while. I was for two weeks, some say they were longer. You may not be sleepy at all:)
Peace,
Ameenah
Peace,
Ameenah
okay - thanks Ameenah~
Congratulations. The waiting IS the hardest part. Now time for some R&R.
Your Welcome Dawn !!!
Get your rest now !!!
We are having the shower this weekend, 1-2-10. She is 1 centimeter and the baby is down real low. Her due date is 1-22-10, she may not make it, all she has to do is make it to the shower lol.
Peace,
Ameenah
Hi Dawn
I was reading your blog and I thought it was funny they played Tom Petty. I had Gamma knife 2 years ago and they also played the Tom Petty cd. Everytime I hear him on the radio I think of the procedure. I think it’s true “The waiting is the hardest part” Now that I have reached the 2 year mark, showing some progress, I am thankful things are happening, and I didn’t have to have surgery. I wish you much luck and patience.