Cranioplasty

i had 2 blood clot removal 2 cranioplastys and the last one is done recently 6th otc i met with an accident i hit coma this march 7 2020 and post surgeries i am 20years old and all my motor functions are fine just my right hand ring and little figer feels numb and there is slight weakness and now after cranioplasty i hear a cracking sound from the operated area while i walk sometimes or touch it basically poke it and i am into bodybuilding and contact sports and till what time i should avoid contact sports and lifting weights i am too young i am worried about my life

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Your last surgery was a week ago? Is that correct?
“…till what time i should avoid contact sports?” This is something that you very much NEED to talk to your surgeon about. But from my experience, at the very least, approx. 4mths minimum and that would only be for the healing of the bone flap to properly meld with the existing skull. The brain itself can take much longer to recover.
BUT (and I cannot express this loud enough)
You have had some MAJOR brain surgery. Recovery from such surgery can take a lot and I mean a LOT longer than 4 mths for the craniotomy to heal. Some people can come through surgery relatively unaffected, but then for others they can have lifelong effects. There is no ‘exact gauge’ that says the extent to which an individual maybe affected, nor for how long. Some symptoms can fade over time, some we can learn to manage, but then some don’t fade and can linger.

I was a couple of years older than you are now when my neurosurgical journey started and initially I pushed myself to get back into life. I pushed myself too hard, too soon, doing myself a greater injury, which required further surgery. Ever since I have been on one hell of a rollercoaster which (so far) has required 6 neurosurgeries in total and a symptom regime from hell. My last surgery was back in 2013 and yet still today I have symptoms EVERYDAY. Some are manageable, some symptoms are just unbelievably excruciating.

I completely understand you wanting to get back to the life you knew. COMPLETELY.
BUT do not, DO NOT be testing nor pushing your limits now. This is NOT the time to do so. I understand this this was a big part of your life BUT push your recovering body now and you could be paying for it for the rest of your life.
Just DO NOT do it
I am not saying this because it’s what some medical textbook says or what some dr has told me, but because I didn’t listen and I pushed my own limits and I’m paying for the consequences of doing so. I’ll say it again Just DO NOT do it

Merl

i totally understand what u mean sir my accident took place like march 7 2020 and the clot removal surgery happened and they fixed the bone back and the next day they noticed another clot on the other side and then the bone was kept inside my abdomen from 8 march to 6 otc and then the next surgery took place recently and yes i understand 4 months of rest thank you so much but yes ill not be pushing my self but ill can brisk walk ? can i ? and like march to oct my brain was all resting and ive noticed no Seizures and all touch wood thanks for the help if u dont mind we’ll connect on whatsapp or facebook or instagram just becuz u are the person id look to take guidance from
thank you sir

and i wanted to tell you u are unbelievably strong i respect you a lot

"…but ill can brisk walk ? can i ? "
There is no ‘Yes/No’ answer to this. Your body will give you signals, it’s up to you to read these signs. A brisk walk maybe OK, but if you have ANY signals DO NOT ignore them. Initially my signs were subtle and I ignored them, pushing myself that bit more. I convinced myself I was building stamina by pushing my limits, the reality was I was in fact doing myself more harm than good. As I often say “My body was telling me ‘Laydown or I’ll put you down…’ I didn’t listen. I pushed too hard, too soon, doing myself a major injury and it put me down HARD. Ahh, don’t be doing that…”

Now, I said ‘4 months minimum’ but this MUST be in consultation with your neurosurgeon. No 2 brains are exactly the same. No 2 surgeries are exactly the same and because of this no 2 recoveries are exactly the same. Your neuro is far better placed and has your personal records to be making any such assessment.
With bodybuilding pushing your limits is normal and as you say you are young and your body has some resilience at a young age. But by pushing your limits now, you can severely damage that resilience to a point where some things will never recover. I’ll say it again Just DO NOT do it

You are more than welcome to connect here, you can even send private msgs by clicking on my avatar and in the top right corner of the dropdown menu is a blue ‘message’ button if you wish. I’m not on WhatsApp nor Facebook nor Instagram so connecting via these apps is not possible. But I am more than willing to offer what ever advice I can.

Merl

thank you so much for advising me so good i will not harm myself and go fall down to zero
we all know how is it like to be there thank you thank you so much :cherry_blossom:
regards and respect to you

Listen to Merl, he is very smart about this

yes sir totally i am not gonna risk my life time just for sometime thank you all for advising me so nicely :cherry_blossom:

hi there how are you? hope you’re doing just fantastic :heart::cherry_blossom: i had a doubt that after cranioplasty does the bone gets fixed and heals the removed part and just be normal like no movement or pop sound :heart: hope u reply

Hey Varun,
My understanding/experience is that the bone flap does ‘meld’ back around the edges, but the actual contours or shape of the bone flap does not change. When they replaced my bone flap they secured it with plates and screws, but many years on I still have the holes in my skull. I jokingly say 'When some people go bald they are smooth link a bowling ball. My heads like a bowling ball. It’s just mine has the finger holes too :smile: "
My bone flap is square and has 3 plates securing it in place so it had no movement. But initially the CSF was leaking from inside my skull to just under the scalp. If I exerted myself I could hear this noise like someone blowing bubbles through a straw in a glass of milk. It was a real shock the first time, scared the bejeezus out of me. But the medicos told me it would settle and eventually it did.

But I must still remind you here, you are VERY early on in your recovery, less than a year. This recovery thing from neurosurgery can take a LONG, LONG time. It is nothing like any other injury, like a broken bone, where 6-8 weeks later it’s all healed. This can take years.

One thing I have been reluctantly forced to accept (as much as I tried to deny it) is that my life has changed and I can never get back to where I started. This has not and is not easy to accept at all, but it’s a reality that’s right there in front of me. Will things improve? Yes, it does get easier. Will it get back to ‘normal’? For many of us, No. But we can learn to adjust to a ‘New normal’.

Look, some people can come through all of this relatively unaffected, but for many of us there can be lingering ongoing symptoms. For some, symptoms can be fixed or constant, for some symptoms can fluctuate. We need to find ways to manage the best way we can for ourselves. There are no set rules on how long it will take, there are no set rules on how far along in recovery we will reach. We ALL hope, pray and beg we recover fully, but that isn’t always the case.

Merl

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i understand merl i really do understand but i have full faith my brother was having 7 clots and he is a bodybuilder now he is 23 now and me i started jogging with the decompressive cranioplasty earlier the thing is we cannot understand each others dna if i am here it is for a reason we all are different in the genetic scene i have two brothers one had a bad accident and a tap road side tap just passed thro his skull and he now is all good he is a judo player he is now coaching students doing back flips jumping high that is what i am trying to say tha tbi idk y is running with our family :joy: but it eventually goes like nothing happened,
regards

Hey Varun,
As I said earlier

Again as I said earlier, I’ve been down the neurosurgical route a few times and none of my own recoveries have been the same. Not in duration, not in type of symptoms and not in side effects. Even trying to compare for myself was difficult, so trying to compare two differing individuals, even being that you are brothers, is near on impossible in my humble opinion. None of us are ‘wired’ exactly the same way, so to be saying that the same neuro networks have been disturb in your brother, in exactly the same way as yourself, is beyond unlikely. It’s impossible.

I say all of this because I tried to compare my recoveries with others too and I was a mess trying to meet those same levels. I have a niece, she too has had neurosurgery and she’s OK (Well, she’s more OK than me). I was pushing myself to be able to get back to work. I was questioning myself “Why can’t I. If she can then I can too…” Only, I couldn’t and that frustrated me, so I pushed more and something went POP and I found myself back having further neurosurgery. And NOW that frustration hasn’t just added up, it’s been multiplied 10 times over.

Our bodies give us signs when something is wrong, some can be obvious like pain, but some are subtle. One I had a super bright flash of light or other visual disturbances. Initially, I didn’t recognise them as signs. Thought ‘Ohh, that’s a bit odd…’ but it disappeared, so ignored it. That was until it didn’t disappear, but I’d gone too far in ignoring it all by that point. Even those subtle signs are signs we must listen too. I now look for a progression of symptoms. For me a headache is normal, if that headache progresses and I get tingles and then nausea. I need to act. But those are some of my signs that I have learnt and as time progresses you too will learn yours.

Our recoveries are all VERY individual. Trying to compare is impossible.

Merl