Home for the Holidays!

Over the next few days the wait for the stitches to be removed seemed like an eternity. I had a cast placed back on my right foot. It seems it had not healed properly. I got released from the hospital on December 15, 1977. A couple of days later I awoke and scratched at my recently formed scar and a little crusty material broke free. Concerned I walked into my parent's bedroom and said to dad, "I think I have an infection.he looked at me and saw that the entire side of my scalp had ballooned out. Since I had not looked in the mirror I had not seen the disfigurement that presented itself to him. Startled by my obvious situation, dad jumped out of bed and said, "We need to go to the hospital. We got to the emergency and while dad parked the car I checked into emergency. I was wearing a touque when the nurse queried me as to what my problem was. I explained my recent brain surgery and how I thought I had an infection. She asked me to remove my hat so she could have a look. She was quite taken aback when she saw me, and within seconds Dr. Cameron was being paged. It was like a t.v. Emergency show. The page was, "Dr. Cameron to emergency, stat!" Emergency staff grabbed a wheelchair, scooped me up and rushed me into an operating room. Seconds later Dr. Cameron showed up, examined my head. He asked a nurse for some novacain and froze the affected region. Moments later, he grabbed a larger needle and began draining the fluid off my scalp. He ordered up some antibiotics and sent me home. He informed my dad that he would try to get me back into surgery if the infection didn't abate. They felt that the skull would have to be removed. A plastic plate would then be inserted at a later date. Fortunately the infection cleared up, but left a sizable dent in the top of my head. A small price for being here.