Melinda asked me to try to explain what they did—as best I can, you know, being non-medical personnel :-).
First, because people have asked—no, to our knowledge they did NOT put a shunt in. What they explained was that they were going to go through her nose and deep into her sinus cavity. From there they planned to drill a small hole through the bone in the back of the sinus cavity and into the petrous apex, where the cyst is located.
The plan is to keep the hole open in order to give the fluid a better place to go rather than gathering in the cyst. To keep this hole (or tunnel) open, they planned to use a small piece of tissue and/or cartilage from the incision inside her sinus cavity and kinda push it through the hole so it heals that way and supports the opening. They said they’ve found this method to works better and heals faster since it’s using tissue already present and attached in the area.
They also hoped to remove other “obstacles” in the area to make this tunnel as clear and open as possible but without creating an overly large hole. I think that means removing bits of bone and “stuff”. They did however, warn us that there’s always a chance this tunnel will clog or grow shut.
Melinda will be going back in a couple weeks for a check up and probably more MRIs to see what’s happening up there.
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