The Halo Brace

*Little warning: there are some gross pictures at the bottom*

The halo is what I most often get asked about. I can't remember being told about the decision to fit me with the brace, it was a couple of days after the accident whilst I was still in and out of consciousness.  I can only imagine how scary it would it is to be told that you were going to have four screws put through your skull. I'm thankful that I wasn't completely aware what was about to happen.

 My first clear memory of anything to do with the halo, was the actual fitting. I was lifted to another bed in an operation room without about six people in. A nurse told me not to worry and sat by me and held my hand, I didn't really understand why.

The scariest thing about the fitting is the fact that you will not be knocked out for it. As the screws go quite far in the skull, the need you awake to see if they hit anything they shouldn't (i.e the brain, I know, it's scary). They give you local anaesthetic on the four points in the skull where the screws will go (two on either side of the forehead and two in the back), but this does still hurt, a lot. If all goes to plan, it should just feel uncomfortable when they put the screws in. Unfortunately in my case, the anaesthetic that was applied to the point on the left of my forehead didn't quite take. When the doctor started screwing I felt it. I can assure you that it wasn't pleasant. Of course as soon as I started screaming they stopped and re-applied the anaesthetic. I can't imagine this happens a lot, and my intent is not to scare but I guess this is always a risk.

I'm not much of a crier, I'm usually rather good with physical pain but I sobbed the entire time. It hurts, there's no way to dance around that fact.

I was in a lot of pain for the next few days, both physically and emotionally. I think I'll write a separate post on my emotional reaction to the halo being fitted, as it ties in to a lot of other things I want to talk about.

I can't remember if it was the following day or the day after that, but a doctor arrived at my bed with what looked like a spanner. The halo's purpose is to keep your head completely still so that your neck can heal itself. So the screws need to be tightened rather regularly so that your head can't move. Not going to lie, it's fucking painful. They're tightening a metal bolt and screw that it is your skull, there is no way that it isn't going to hurt. I THINK I was given morphine before each time they tightened it, but I was on a lot of medication so it's hard to remember what was for what. After I went home we had to travel back to Newcastle every week (to begin with) to get it tightened. After maybe the first month, it was reduced to every two weeks.

The screw points need cleaned two/three times a day. It's an open wound to your skull and brain, it makes sense they need kept very clean. I can't remember the names of the products that were used, but basically an antiseptic liquid was used to drench a bit of fabric that is wrapped around the wound and left for fifteen mins. After that it is used to clean to the wound and then a gel is applied and left to harden around it. My mum was great at this job, I do have scars but it's thanks to her and her cleaning skills that they're barely noticeable.

It's super important to keep them clean. As the wounds are close to the brain, it can be very dangerous for them to become infected. The wound at the back of my head became quite badly infected, we had to go and get that screw replaced. Knowing that I would have to go through that pain again was terrifying. It hurt a lot but I dealt with the pain a lot better. Maybe because I knew it was only one.

Mum and I have a delightful memory of her asking the nurse who was showing her how to clean the new hole in my head, what was the white she could see. The nurse simply replied with 'Oh, just her skull'. A person with a strong stomach is handy to assign to clean your wounds.

The reason the wound ended up getting infected wasn't to do with the cleaning. Unfortunately I had very long hair, and it's very very hard to keep hair clean with a halo (again, I'll do another post on the more mundane issues of life with the halo). The hair was dirty and covering the wound, and then as it was at the back on the head it was a prime spot for sweating too. After this we started trimming the hair around the screws, which broke my heart but was definitely beneficial.

I'll write another about the removal of the halo, as this is getting a little lengthy. Hopefully this answers some questions.