Hello, Friday marks my one year surgery removal for a 1.7cm AN. This past year has really flown by and just want to update my progress. I spent 3 months researching all options before I came to the decision to have surgery to remove the AN. I live in Minnesota and traveled to Los Angeles , House Ear institue for surgery with Dr. Brackmann and Dr. Hitzelberger. They made me feel very comfortable with my decision. My surgery was 3 and a half hours long, 100% removal of the tumor and recovery was fairly uneventful. Balance issues were the biggest hurdle to overcome. I still have to be careful walking a night, not sure why but feel alittle tipsy. This message board was a powerful source of information. I felt that reading messages was helpful, but I found great comfort talking on the phone to others who have gone down this path. I felt very informed with what to expect, as well as what to bring to the hospital. I would encourage new AN patients to contact the ANA as they will send out a list of people who have had surgery/radiation and are comfortable taking calls from others. I spoke with at least 15 people, more post surgery, but some who had radiation therapy and were happy with there choice. It was very confusing to read some of the posts on the message board in the early stages of getting information, lots of comments bashing one way of treatment of another. Seems like that is still happening to some degree. Passing on information to others is important, but we all need to remember it is vital to keep all things in proper order and make informed decisions for ourselves. Bless all of us who have been through this, and bless the ones who are just new to this form, as they need us to support them. Julie
