I agree with Dave. While your situation was like mine, same size tumor, and loss of some hearing, I would not wait the year without doing a lot of research in the meantime. You may decide to take one of the options way before the year is up. My intention was to wait 6 mo.s , but I noticed my hearing getting worse so I decided on the Cyberknife route and had treatment 3 months latter. You may want to check out the CK web site at
www.cyberknifesupport.org just to become familiar. You can also ask the doc's specific questions including locations near you.
Remember this is not cancer, and the tumor grows very slowly (2mm's per year), so don't get into a panic. You just need to spend time checking out your options, weighing the pros and cons of each, and go for the one you think is best for you. That's the hard part. Once you decide most of the battle is over in my opinion.
I had only 44% word recognition (non-usable) when I was diagnosed, after CK rad. and 7mo.s latter it is 0%, although I can hear loud noise but for the most part - dead. The rad. made me feel tired for a long time ( 3 mo.s) and I still have mild balance issues. Also, after 6mo.'s CK I developed a left facial muscle spasm that lasts for only a minute and developes while shaving as a rule every few days - temporary I hope. So rad.s have side effects as well as surgery, but not as many as from what I learned. The ANA has some great literature you can request. One is a survey comparing surgery symptoms and rad.s symptoms, before and after treatment. It's hard to do a direct comparison because the rad.s sample of patients is small, but it is informative.
I wish you well and try not to get too depressed and upset, you will see by reading other responses that everyone seems to meet this challenge and becomes a helpfull gaurdian angel for a future patient. You will be O K , take good notes so you can talk and understand your doc's. That always helps. Bob P. at bpartak@tah-usa.net
