[Sgrath]

Had been having hearing and balance issues for the 4 to 6 weeks before November and had decided to not wait any longer for an AHS MRI and had booked myself one for the 7th Nov.

Nov 4 I collapsed at home. My wife called 911 and they took me in.

Into unit 112 at Foothills and one MRI later the found a very large non-malignant tumor, an acoustic neuroma lodged in my cerebellum. With all the meds they had me on I don't think I fully understood the doctors comment about if they don't operate I probably wouldn't see my next birthday (Jan 14). That only hit after surgery.

And what a surgery it was, I was under the knife for just over 12 hours, how the surgeons and the rest of the staff coped is beyond my comprehension. The follow up care from the nursing staff was absolutely amazing, especially when I had a setback and they had to put me on horizontal bed rest for best part of a week and a lumbar drain in before I was ok to leave.

So the short version, the staff at the neurosurgery unit 112 at Foothills are absolutely awesome and I can't thank them enough for giving me a future with my wonderful wife.

Apart from losing all hearing in my left side which I'm learning to cope with, I'm recovering well but slowly and it
will take a while to get my balance back to what it should be.


PS lost nearly 15kg over my 3and a bit weeks in hospital, yea I was overweight but it's not a weight loss plan I'd recommend.

PPS Thanks also to everyone at CP for keeping me somewhat sane with all the Flames talk and Oiler bashing.