Meningioma: Anyone else? I'm frightened

It wasn’t super painful, just wasn’t myself for a while after. At 6 weeks I was quite a bit better, and at 8 weeks I actually went on a vacation to Nashville with my son. I took it pretty easy. The first couple weeks were the worst because I had a splint up my nose and had to breath through my mouth. You don’t realize how much you need the nose to help with pressure and breathing when eating! I am very glad I didn’t have to have a craniotomy like the first neurosurgeon was saying. The risks and possible complications were much higher, and no big incision. It was considered minimally invasive despite being surgery next to your brain. Crazy!

That’s where mine was. Pushing the pituitary gland over a little, pressing on my optic nerves and on the internal carotid arteries. My surgeon got 95% through my nose then sphenoid sinuses. He left a little “cuff” around the arteries because removing that would have been risky.

I hope you are better. I have 2 meningiomas. One is bigger and one smaller but they aren't going to do anything unless they are bigger at my next MRI which I will have done in November. It is a worry and I wish I understood everything better or how I even got these. I never would have known except my sodium went really low and the kidney doctor was trying to find out the cause. I believe my meningiomas are near my pituary gland. I just wish they were gone but then the surgery scares me more.

Was the sinus route very painful? Were you under general anesthesia?
How long before it healed?

ponce1991: I had a craniotomy on Oct. 17. Two weeks later I was passing out Halloween candy. My scar went from my left ear to the top of my head. (I had like 45 stitches where they sewed the skin flap down after removing it for surgery.) I have 2 other meningiomas that we are just watching with yearly MRIs. I know what the surgery is like, having gone through it, and I refuse to worry about the other 2 in my brain unless I have to; and that would be if a follow up MRI shows the meningioma has grown to the point that something needs to be done about it.

Yes, I’m at the point I’m trying to rehab hard. Lifting, riding the bike, etc. It’ll be a year in a little over 3 weeks. It takes time, don’t be discouraged or hard on yourself.

Thanks. I understand. I hope you are getting along well from your surgery.

I’m certainly not a neurosurgeon, and each situation and area is different. Bone takes 6-8 weeks to heal even in someone without health issues. It’s a brain surgery as well, so I would say yes. But again, I’m not the expert and didn’t have a craniotomy. They went through my sinuses.

Does a craniotomy require a lot of time to heal?

Welcome to the group today and, just going to give you my opinion from
past experience. Im 68 and last year was diagnosed with cancer in the lung
and a brain tumor that was cancerous. The lung scans over a period of time
went unchecked instead of every 6 months. I let it go until the dots in my
lung had one break loose and went to my brain. Needless to say that mass
grew until it dropped me. And here I am, scans every 3 months on chest,
stomach and pelvis, every 6th month one of the brain. The emergency
surgery and radiation treatments with chemotherapy mix got rid of the
cancer. That was last march and April. Still have no cancer back but wish
I would have stuck with the 6th months check up. Maybe they could have
headed this off at the start. Hope this helps you.