rbrychckn

Have you ever thought of "going public"? I say Reddit should lobby for you to be a guest on The View.

I feel like a bigger impact would be made if she stood next to Jenny McCarthy

Let's find a way to make this happen Reddit

I'm in this field, so I thought I'd try to simplify the proof document that the OP supplied.

The Progress Notes section just lists the multiple procedures that were performed. The class of procedures this falls into is Endoscopic Skull-Base Surgery. A not-quite-the-same but conceptually accurate video is here.

The "Stereotactic image guidance" is pretty new and takes a CT scan of the head that was taken before surgery and we place that on a computer screen in the operating room. Using bony landmarks on the head (tip of the nose, bones around the eyes), a set of many electrodes are placed on the face. A probe is used to point at a specific point and the computer shows you where that probe is on the CT scan. A good real-world view of what they look at is here.

"IMAX ligation" has nothing to do with 3D movies. It stands for internal maxillary artery ligation which means that this artery was tied off. This almost certainly means the OP's tumor was being supplied blood from here.

As others have noted, this is benign so it is not cancer. Staging of benign tumors do not have the same connotations as a stage IV terminal cancer. Nonetheless, this is dangerous mostly because of where it is (next to the brain) and any mass that continues to grow will erode into nearby structures even if it doesn't invade into them.

Last, the numbness that the OP is describing make sense as the tumor and the surgery was near the nasopalatine nerve that come through the inside of the nose down toward the roof of the mouth or palate. The lip numbness is tougher to explain anatomically but still make sense from what he went through.

Great story OP. Glad you're doing well.

What device is that? Stereotactic endoscopy? A robot?