,just saw your post on the web site....I had my surgery on May 27 2005...I had Retrosigmoid Approach..my tumor was about on the small side of middle...2.5 cm...My surgery was done by Dr Alan Boulous with the Albany Neuro group at Albany Medical Center College in Albany NY....excellent group,,people come from Boston to have it done...My ENT doctor was Dr Stephen Parnes...my surgery was about 9 hrs long,,which included 2 hrs to set up the Halo...Neuro Dr removed 70% of tumor first, then ENT Dr...removed the tumor from my ear...then the Neuro Dr Boulos PLANEED the rest of the tumor mircroscopically from the nerves..they took some fat from my back, and put that in where the tumor was,,,then glued it...to prevent Any Cerebal Spinal Leakage...the results were remarkable..usually the room spins for a few days,, not in my case..my only ordeal was the headaches which lasted a little over a month...was on Loritab,,2 pills every 4 hrs. AND Fioricet every 4 hrs 2 pills also...I would overlap so I was taking one or the other every 2 hrs...(had to drink warm Prune juice and stool softerners Avery am..) lol...other than that I only lost some taste buds,,not to bad..and not with everthing..on my left side....my first MRI...was great...they usually want you to have another mri in 6 months...and they told me to have it in ONE year..Dr Boulous told me that if I opted for Gamma knife Radiation, which would be ok...but if the tumor Started to regrow again,,then surgery would be VERY difficult because of the Scar Tissue created from the radiation...he would not be able to remove the tumor from the nerves,,so I opted for his advice and had surgery...
Any question..
Email me please..
Ron Trischetta
scoop@nycap.rr.com
