Racer,
Mind if I ask who you're seeing in Raleigh? I'll be going down there for my 3 year follow up next month (wow, is it really coming up on 3 years?
). Just curious.
Lori
Dr John McElveen, of Carolina Ear. (he trained at House Ear Institute)
he has a partner, Dr Calhoun Cunningham, (who ALSO did his fellowship at HEI).
they will (interestingly) do the craniotomy (1st part of the surgery), all the way to dissecting the facial nerve off of the tumor.
at that point, he has a neurosurgeon (whose name i forgot) remove the tumor,
Dr Hitselberger, (from HEI) will be guesting, in March, and assisting with the neurosurgical part of the procedure.
Dr McElveen says he does about 50 ANs / year
~25 of those are trans lab,
~15 are posterior fossa
~10 are middle fossa.
he says no more than 5-10% cahnces of facial nerve injury,
he anticipates 40% chance of hearing preservation
- as mine seems to be located on the INFERIOR branch of the vestibular nerve. based on my VNG results.
I am OFF te schedule for March, at work completely.
just anxious to find out WHEN in march it will be.
sister coming down from NY to keep the rugrats
kennel the dog,
and while this isnt exactly how i would have planned on a week away with my wife . . .
she'll be there.
still feeling weirdly melancholic about it all,
glad 95% of the decision making is over with.
