Mum’s 14 brain surgeries
A thin scar at the nape of Michelle Cave’s neck reminds her of how lucky she is to be alive.
The Hamilton mother of two has undergone 14 brain surgeries over the last 10 years at Waikato Hospital – the latest a couple of weeks ago.
And nobody knows how many more there will be.
It began 12 years ago with nine-day migraines, undiagnosed strokes and blurred vision.
Cave, 42, has idiopathic intracranial hypertension, a condition with no clear cause which causes brain fluid to fluctuate, causing crippling headaches and loss of vision.
But after a botched surgery in 2008 that was supposed to drain the excess fluid, Cave was left with a second condition called Chiari malformation – a defect of the cerebellum.
‘‘[It] over drained and sucked my brain into my spinal column. When that happened, I was the first person that they knew of who had ever survived it.
‘‘If they couldn’t control [the pain], I wanted to die. That pain was so insane.’’
When the surgeons showed her the MRI scan, her cerebellum was the shape of a banana.
‘‘[My surgeon] said, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to find, I don’t know if I can fix it and I don’t know if you’re going to survive. But you’re going into theatre in 20 minutes.’ I would have been dead, they reckon, easily in about a couple of days.
‘‘I didn’t even get a chance to ring the kids and say goodbye. That was hard.’’
But Cave doesn’t hold a grudge and she doesn’t want pity.
‘‘Even though they put the [magnetic] shunt in, which over drained, [the surgeons] have saved my life so many times.
‘‘I’ve been blessed in making lifetime friendships out of the staff up there.’’
On bad days, Cave finds it hard to remember things and stays in bed. That might last for a week.
‘‘There’s not a lot they can do about it. ‘‘They say all the time that I’m really lucky that I still have everything. And I am, I’m blessed with it.’’
The fluid in Cave’s brain continues to fluctuate and while the 14 surgeries have helped, they haven’t fixed the problem.
‘‘This time around, I was sleeping a lot, like narcolepsy. And it’s the first time it’s ever happened like that.’’
The worst part is not knowing what will happen, she said.