The Tattoo

This may not be my mom's favorite thing, but to commemorate the whole vestibular schwannoma journey I got a tattoo.

It's on my left ankle, the same side as my tumor, and is roughly 4.3cm, which is the average of the two tumor lengths noted on my operative report (it said the tumor was 5.5cm x 3.1cm at surgery).

I chose a labyrinth because I think it's a good representation of the whole experience. You go in one way, get spun all around, keep going, and end up coming out right where you went in.

This particular design I picked initially because it was the top rated amongst the friends I asked. Plus, it's a good representation of the massive dizziness that came along with surgery!
But also, it has a deeper meaning than other labyrinth designs. This particular one is a Chakravyuha, which is a defensive formation. According to Wikipedia, the king of all sources, "The formation is likened to a blooming lotus, since when viewed from the top, the warriors at each interleaving position would be in an increasingly tough position to fight."

It's good to remember that when you're at the heart of it all is when you need to be the toughest, so you can fight your way back out.

Credit to Charlie Foos at Read Street Tattoo in Baltimore!