Dear Friends,
Just want to share another good news with you; I had my first annual follow-up with Dr. Vrabec last Thursday. The MRI images were all normal, nothing unexpected. As mentioned in my previous posts, I am very grateful for the success of my surgery as well as the recovery. It, however, does not mean that I am 100% back to what I was before the AN.
I think it is worthwhile to share with you what have been different for me and how they affect my daily life and work.
1) It was a given that I would loss my left hearing after the surgery. Without the left side hearing, I have to take a strategic seat in a meeting or gathering, whenever possible. Even with a strategic seat, quite often, I still have difficulties to follow group discussions. Consequently, I try to make my colleagues/customers know about my situation at the beginning of a meeting or before my turn to talk. Most of time, people are very understanding and patient to me. So far, it has not really affected my work performance. Hope it will never.
2) I often had a full ear feeling on my left (AN) side. When I tried to blow hard (like on the airplane), air would only went through my right ear, but not my left ear. Dr. Vrabec examed my ear structure and found nothing unusual. Hope it would improve as time goes by.
3) My short term memory seems to be worse than before. In the past few months, there were many times my brain just went blank. I could not remember my colleague's name or a frequently used terminology. It would then come back after a few minutes. This could be embarrassing during a technical meeting when people expect you should have known the terminology. The only thing I can do, again, is to make people be aware of my special situation. I have to thank my colleagues and customers for their understanding and kindness.
4) I am convinced that I have developed the so-called congnitive (?) dysfunction. There are certain words, I always type in wrong order unless I pause and slow down before typing that particular word. For example, instead of typing "the ", I will type "th e". Or, type "nad" instead of "and". This is a real difference but, luckily, does not have a real impact on my life. Loss of short term memory and congnitive dysfunction are kind of unexpected to Dr. Vrabec. According to him, translab approach should have a much less tendency for such issues than the midfoss (?) approach. He doesn't have a good explanation why I have these issues.
5) I still feel dizzy/imbalanced whenever I made big/fast upper body movements. Dr. Vrabec wants me to keep practicing such movements, but expects the recovery will reach a plateau (i.e., not 100% back to normal) sometime. After all, I am using only one set of never to do the job for two. I am no longer (at least for now) able to play ball games and need to avoid quick body movements for safety sake. For my age, this is a rather minor loss. I have no problem to drive or to work on my yard. It has a minimal impact on my daily life.
6) Shortly after my surgery, I noticed a hair loss about quarter size near my right ear (the opposite side to the surgery). It recovered by itself after 4-5 months later. At the beginning, I thought it was caused by some external pressure exerted to my head during the surgery. Last week, Dr. Vrabec assured me that it was not the case. We don't understand the cause of it, but we are glad it recovered by itself.
All in all, my life has not changed much, even with all these real differences. Nobody would know I had a brain surgery if I don't mention. On the other hand, I found it is better for me to tell people that I have difficulties in some situations. After loosing my left hearing and some balance, I found myself even more grateful than before. It reminds me what God said to Paul: "My grace is sufficient for you ... ". I am grateful.
Good luck to those who are new to AN and,
Merry Christmas to everyone.
David(707)
