Welcome, gringosid, to the Club and to our forums! And thank you for making your first post. These forums are where we can help each other by sharing our experiences which, while they may vary from person to person, are still very helpful to the ANA community.
When you said that your MRI showed a 5x5 tumor, I'm assuming that was in millimeters and not centimeters? A 5mm acoustic neuroma (or vestibular schwannoma) would be small enough that many specialists would advise watching and waiting to see if it is going to grow any further. If, in another six months, the next MRI shows significant growth, they would probably recommend treatment. If it does not grow at all or grow very little, then they would probably recommend waiting since treatments all have potential risk.
I know what you mean about being disappointed and not being able to select a treatment. My ENT doctor and my neurosurgeon at Emory in Atlanta both said I need to watch and wait. I will be having my six month MRI next month to "see how much it has grown," as my neurosurgeon said. I told him that I didn't want it to grow at all!
But there is another option if you don't like to wait (as I don't). You can get a second opinion. I did. If you are in NM, there are a lot of AN experts out west, especially in California. You might check the forums for recommendation on House or UCSD or other places out west with an excellent reputation. Some of them will do a free video conference with you and give you their opinion. If they are willing to treat your AN, then it might be worthwhile to travel there for the treatment, at least as far as your peace of mind goes. If they, too, recommend waiting and watching, then at least you know there is a consensus among the experts. Some on these forums have had multiple second opinions. It's perfectly okay to do that.
It's interesting that you describe your tumor as 5x5. Usually, acoustic neuromas have more of an ice-cream cone shape and are not perfectly round. I'm not saying that yours is not that way. It's just not as common.
As far as what your wife said about daily aspirin shrinking the tumor -- there was some hope that aspirin could be helpful for it, but my understanding is that the clinical trials with the aspirin ended up showing no benefit. I think I read a post here in one of the forums which stated that.
In my case, while I was watching and waiting, I lost almost all hearing in my ear with the AN. Now I wear a CROS hearing system so that I can hear from my left side (my bad side) in my right ear. The distortion for me is mostly gone, but so is my hearing in my bad ear.
Again, thanks for posting and sharing your story! Please post again and update us on how your journey is going.
Best wishes for your future!
Don
