Here’s the turban they put on Todd’s wound after surgery. It was nothing but a bunch of gauze wadded up to protect the wound.
Todd had surgery for superior canal dehiscence syndrome on Thursday, January 8, 2009, and I cut off the turban on Sunday, January 11. The staples will remain in until Thursday.
This photograph was taken on Sunday, January 18, 2009, several days after Todd had his staples and stitches taken out. Pretty nice wound closure by Dr. Gerard Gianoli, eh?
This is what Todd’s head looks like after too much Percocet.
Beth,
My favorite is the last one! Is that an armadillo?
Dor
Yes it is! I was so excited to see one alive–the only other one I’ve seen was roadkill.
My head never looked like an armadillo. And it’s healing up very nicely now. It’s been 3 weeks since the surgery, as of today.
Well, you never got a good look at your head right after surgery. 🙂
A doctor has recently suspected that I have SCD; what a relief, I thought I was going crazy! For the past four years, I have been told there is nothing wrong w/ me! Now it makes perfect sense, it is the sound waves that are making me dizzy, visually impared, etc.
Was your husbands surgery a complete success, or is it too early to tell?
JT,
so far it seems to have been very successful. He says his hearing is better in the right ear now, and the autophony is gone.
It’s too bad that doctors put it all back on the patients when they can’t figure out what’s wrong. If you want to talk to Todd about it, his blog is http://www.toddbradley.com. You can also try http://www.scds.org, which is a support forum.
Beth Partin’s last blog post..Native American Trading Company in the Golden Triangle Museum District
Beth, so now that a Lot of time has passed since the surgery, how is his hearing? How is the scar? I finally saw my third ENT and he was the only one that took me seriously when it came to this and after a CAT scan and a bunch of other tests I am going in for the same operation. Any info would really help ease my tress about the surgery…
Thanks in advance!
TP
Tom, his scar is hardly noticeable unless he cuts his hair really short. His hearing is fine; that was never an issue. He doesn’t have the autophony in his right ear anymore, though he does have some problems in his left ear. He’ll probably have to get the left ear done someday. If you want to read the story of Todd’s surgery in his words, try scdssupport.org. He should be on there under Todd Bradley, and you could talk with other people who have had the surgery.
Hello, I know this section of your blog is almost three years old, but thanks for putting this together. I’m getting ready to have SCDS surgery myself, and I have been trying to find a picture of someone post-op online for a few weeks now. Thanks again for putting this together. I’m going to check out the SCDSsupport forums as well.
Stephanie,
good luck on your surgery. The pictures may not be completely applicable to you, depending on what kind of surgery you have. But I’m glad they helped.
Dear Beth: Thanks for your blog. I believe that someone sent me a video done by Todd a long time ago — is that possible? If so, thank him. It really helped me explain to my co-workers what I was going through.
I was diagnosed in 2005 w/SCD, but have put off surgery because it was a bad time in my career for a lengthy recuperation–I was in my late 50’s and was afraid that too much time off would result in losing my momentum and then just sliding into retirement on the downhill. Anyway, my SCD is getting worse and now I’m on Medicare! YIKES! I think I could get along if it never got worse than it is now, but do you have any idea what’s to come?
I know that this has been something I’ve had since childhood, but it never really kicked my butt until 1997 when I was just getting over a cold and the autophony was getting problematic. Fast forward to 2005 and I finally found a Dr who could diagnose the problem. Now at 65, both ears seem to be affected, the autophony is horrendous, all internal sounds have gotten louder — they sound like rolling thunder when I’m sitting still. Walking and even mild excercise makes the sounds just that much louder, and eating anything even mildly crunchy is torture. The dizziness, too, is naturally getting to be a problem. But, I’m now retired and don’t have to function as I was did. (I used to be in Sales and was having difficulty talking without getting frustrated and losing my train of thought. Also, talking loud or singing is out of the question).
If I’m alone, it’s really no problem at all — don’t know if the surgery is worth it?
Beth and Todd, thank you so much for all of this information. I’m having surgery July 7th, 2015 but still don’t know which one… I’ve been trying to get real answers for all of my questions but there isn’t a lot of information out there. I’ve never suffered so much in my life with anything. 11 doctors telling me nothing is wrong. I had about given up. Dr Hoffer in Miami is doing my surgery. My symptoms are mostly pain , pressure, deafness and cognitive dysfunction. Any way, thank you for sharing your journey.
If it makes you feel any better, Beth Tabachka, I counted the number of medical professionals who either said they could help but didn’t or tried to figure out what was wrong but failed. By the time I was diagnosed, there were 18 people total. I hope things would be better today, but we still have a ways to go. By the way, everything you could ever want to know about SCDS surgery, recovery, how to prepare, etc. is all on the website SCDSsupport.org.