No place like home

The hardest part of the hospital stay for Sada has been sleeping on the hospital bed… and tonight she gets to play Sleeping Beauty in her own castle! We’ve been playing a little more this morning and making presents for all the kids at home so they’ll understand what happened this week.

But for the adult version, we’ll turn the time over to Dr. Wright for “Brain Stems 101.”

The brainstem affects 10 of the 12 cranial nerves. Some of the functions the nerves control include eye movement, facial sensory, tongue movement, jaw movement, facial expression, acoustics, and the cardiac and respiratory centers. The brainstem is divided into 3 parts – midbrain, pons, and medulla.

Midbrain – involved in vision, hearing, eye movement, body movement/balance. Nerves from other parts of the brain go through the midbrain and control voluntary motor function.
Pons – controls gross motor skills and sensory analysis. Involved in different levels of consciousness and sleep. Some structures within the pons are linked to the cerebellum, specifically involving movement and posture.
Medulla – maintains vital functions like breathing and heart rate. Controls the cough, gag, swallow, and vomit reflexes.

Almost any pressure on the brainstem affects the cerebellum, which is located in the lower back bulge of the skull. The cerebellum coordinates movement, balance, and posture.

Put a little lump between the two and balance is shot, coordination is gone, and there’s a high likelihood that at least one sensory function will be compromised. In Sada’s case, swallowing went first, with vision changing last Saturday. Since surgery puts pressure on other parts of the brain as well, the original problems may improve immediately due to the pressure relief, while other symptoms develop because of mechanical pressure – surgeons holding back areas while the tumor is removed. Most swelling takes a good 2-3 weeks to decrease enough to determine a baseline for long-term recovery comparisons. Check out http://www.waiting.com/brainfuncthree.html for a few diagrams if you’re a visual learner. And pamper your brainstem today – find a soft pillow or get a neck rub. It works hard for your benefit with very little appreciation!