Me after Brain Surgery

This painting shows the stages of my recovery from brain surgery for an acoustic neuroma from immediately after operation in December 1996 to full recovery 18 months later when I was able to paint again. I had surgery for an acoustic neuroma on the right side, although benign, the tumour had developed along the auditory nerve becoming the size of a golf ball in the middle of the brain in the cerebellopontine angle, an awkward position. To access the tumour the surgeons had to drill a hole in the skull and remove the inner ear completely. As a result, I lost my balance and hearing on the right side. It took over a year to recover. Immediately after the walls were sideways, my son and the windowsill. I couldn?t walk at first. I was a vegetable, a zombie as my son remarked for months afterwards.