almost 2 weeks postie

[sbrn]

WOW!!! it has been an interesting ride for the last 2 weeks with surgery and recovery. I feel good as far as pain limits go but have other questions. One is sleeping. I take my pain meds at night only to try and help me sleep but I seems to wake every 2 hours and have hard time going back to bed if at all.( any one else have this problem) I hope that is just the swelling and bruising but its hard to say at this point. Other things I find I have issues with now are my own self doubts and second guessing the treatment options. I guess what I mean is now I wonder if I should have had them try to save what little hearing I did have. The SSD threw me much worse than I expected. Prior I had 20-30% hearing left right side. While not great I could at least tell direction of sounds. Now I get "spooked" when someone comes at me from my right side cause I cant hear them and all of a sudden they are standing in my face. Not a good feeling. Other issues are the typical it seems numb no taste sore all over. BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! on to the good things my balance is better than I even expected it to be. I still like to have wall close (fast turns suck ) but over all I walk OK. Took trip to SAMS and Walmart with my wife and walked around store. Had to hold on the her and cart a bit but not to bad. Lots of movement makes me jumpy cause I know my eyes are trying to pick points for balance now and just a learning curve which will get better. My wife is  Saint as she tries to slow me down but with me being a solid Type A personality she just watches and waits to fix the issue instead now. I figure the harder I push my body the better I will be down the road.

[Cheryl R]

You are way ahead of most people 2 weeks post op.    The body only heals so fast so don't push it too much.    Rest helps as much as being very active too.     I have had more than one AN surgery due to NF2 and had trouble sleeping for a good 2 weeks every time.                 You will adjust in time to the SSD to some extent and in others we never do and just deal with it. 
We know how it is to want to know it is going to be better in time and it will.     The time can vary so take it easy and know you really are doing good!                                    Cheryl R

[Funnydream]

I'm a bit over a month postie. And I would say going back and reading whats vets have told other posties helped me allot.

I still can't taste anything sweet. Suppost to be a surgery thing from the antibiotics IV. Not a AN thing.

I tried pushing it and my body pushed back. So I'm taking it slow.

As for as hind sight. Its almost always 20/20 haha. Its normal to go over in your head everything. Thats how we learn to do better in the future.

As far as sleeping. I was 6-8 hours 2 times a day for first 2 weeks.(Yes about 15 hours a day) But I was given Valium which I was very happy to stop taken. Because it stopped my REM sleep as a side effect on myself. The Hydroco I used it to sleep with and didn't really have any pain either. I stopped taken it 2 weeks postie. Had some good dreaming going on when I got off those drugs and was back to my normal 6-8 hours of sleep a day.

The only time I kept waking up every 2 hours was when I was put on some sleeping pills about 8 years ago called sonata. And I threw em away after a week of that crap.

Best thing I learned to control the balance issue is to use your eyes for balance as a crutch. And practice the exercises, that the vets have listed in the past, when ever I can get around to it. Mainly the exercises give me a headache which some vets said it will. But I think it is because I push it.


I went to Wal-mart too about 2 weeks out alone. Totally had to hang on to my cart.

Voting the other day was fun too. Because I spun around after I voted and almost lost my balances.

I wish a speedy recovery for you.

[CHD63]

Greg .....

It sounds like you are doing well at two weeks post-op!

Cheryl is right about the sleeping issues.  It took awhile to restore normal sleep patterns.  Are you still taking steroids?  If so, that can be a big cause for insomnia.

As for second guessing the treatment option, I know you did your research beforehand and you were probably assured by your doctors that the location of your tumor would most likely result in you being SSD ..... so the surgical approach may not have mattered as far as hearing preservation in your case.  I did not read all of your previous posts, but a BAHA or transear may be options for you.

On pushing your body ..... during this post-op time, it is equally important to give your body time to heal as it is to push yourself to exercise.  As we frequently say on here it is walk, rest, rest, walk, rest, rest, walk, etc.  Be sure to listen to your body and take frequent rest breaks, as needed.

Best thoughts for a continued good recovery.

Clarice

[pjb]

Sounds like you are doing great and only a 2 week postie I was just wondering if the surgeons suggested to do some Vestibular Therapy ? I found it to help me or others on the forum have used the WII with their balance and that to has seem to have helped... So glad that you have a Saint by your side and just remember take it one day at a time it does get better.

Best Wishes,

Pat

[Jim Scott]

Greg ~

Thanks for the update.  It's encouraging to learn how well you're doing at this relatively early stage of your recovery.  The SSD is undoubtedly a difficult adjustment but possible to live with (I do) although the BAHA option remains.  That your balance is 'serviceable' at this point is a very good indicator that you'll do well in that area.  Your sleep pattern should eventually stabilize as you wean off the meds and re-establish what will be your normal sleep cycle.  The second-guessing is as common as it is futile.  I recommend accepting your decision with confidence, keep pushing forward and be thankful for the relative lack of complications you have as well as a supportive, loving spouse...an invaluable source of encouragement. 

Try to keep us updated on your progress.  Thanks.

Jim   

[Kathleen_Mc]

sbrn
sleep......consider that u aren't likely doing as much as u usually do and your body doesn't need long sleep periods, on the day following a really bad sleep maybe an hour nap is in order
"buyers remorse" id completely normal, if you had chosen another treatment plan you'd likely still be feeling this. Trust that you made the best decision for you and try to forget "what if I'd....."
balance gets better over time and there is physio that can help with this if need be. I personally wasn't offered the physio when my initial tumor was removed and was when they removed the regrowth (which makes absolutely no sense at all 'cause the removed the balance nerve the first time around and it was over 10 years later). Anyway the physio did the assessment and concluded I had helped myself as much as they could have just living my daily life.
Funny balance story about shopping, about a month after my initial surgery someone took me shopping and set me loose in Shoppers Drug Mart, neither of us realised what an issue that would be.......needless to say the person who had taken me there found me in the store by listening to the announcements of which Ilse needed "clean up" (I was knocking things all over the place, panic set is and I began roaming the store quickly to get what I needed done and get out so it took a few announcements for them to find me!)
Hearing.....I am unsure how much I had left pre-op, not much, but I did find the adjustment to knowing where sounds were coming from difficult, especially since I tended to quickly turn my head to try to locate it and that would set my head spinning......it will get easier.
The way my surgeon put it to me when I fell apart in his office at my six week check 'cause I was so depressed and frustrated with my progress "The tumor didn't grow in six weeks and you body won't heal that quickly either"

[cobbler]

Great point Kathleen's doctor made that the tumor did not grow in 6 weeks - I needed to hear that!
It can be a depressing frightening thing to deal with but it is encouraging to hear that this to shall pass. It is very hard to keep us "A" personalities down! Especially when everyone else seems to go on with their lives around you. I guess we all should be thankful that it is a treatable tumor and not something worse. It is major surgery and thankfully our bodies tell us what we should and should not do - We just need to listen 
Misty

[Syl]

Sbrn:

It took me over 1.5 yrs to sleep straight through the night. It may take your body a while to adjust also. As for your choice of treatment, don't second guess yourself. Even though you had attempted to save your hearing, there's no guarantee that it would've worked. I wanted to preserve my hearing. It went from 60% pre-op to 20% post-op voice recognition. Many sounds were difficult to recognize--some still are. I lost directionality, but regained some of that with the help of a hearing aid some months later. It's taken a while, but my brain is adapting to what it has to work with.

Our recovery is a long one. At almost 2.5 years post-op I feel that I'm still recovering. A great deal of it has to do with just learning to deal with & accepting the new you--the emotional & psychological part of the recovery, I guess. Be patient & maintain a positive outlook. It will get better.

Syl