Being called a "newbie" sounds so funny, since NF2, MRIs and trips to the specialists have been part of life since 1989. It is great that there is now a forum, there wasn't when I started out. I got the newsletterfor awhile, but didn't feel like I fit in with the people who were writing in. Everyone only had one tumor and they were much older then me, when the their tumor was found. I was a 19 year old college freshman, who had to wait until after Christmas and New Years, to have a CT that showed to two spots. The left side spot was bigger. April 1989 when my specialists went in to remove the tumor on the left, they found that it had it's own blood supply.
Because of that I was under for 15 hours, not 7 like my specialists had planned. In 1994, I was part of the FDA study on the ABI. It was placed on he left side. I also started having dry eye that year. I still have the tumor on the right, which hasn't change much over the years. My hearing on the right has been getting worst, but way better then they said it would be back in 1989. They said I would have five more years hearing on the right. Ha, I showed them. Losing hearing and balance on the left as a teenager, before the tumors were found, was much easier then it has on the right, as an adult, because as teenager I didn't know what was happening and my body learn to deal with the lost on it's own. I still have dry eye on the left, but wiithout the need of weights to close it.