Sorry I'm late to this thread.
JO, please try not to torture yourself about having surgery that resulted in residual tumor and regrowth. There is no way to predict outcome for any type of procedure treating an AN. We place our bets and must live with the consequences. As for your protein shakes possibly causing the regrowth, I doubt it. There is no established link between protein consumption and AN growth. I was on a low-protein diet for 5 months while in W&W, and my tumor grew 5x faster than normal! Since having CK, I've been chowing down a lot of salmon, and my tumor has shrunk much faster than normal! So I doubt there's any correlation between protein intake and growth rate. What I would be careful about is eating sugar. Although I haven't read any studies that correlate sugar consumption and AN growth, some research indicates that tumors in general are thought to grow in a hyperglycemic (high blood sugar) state. And radioactive isotopes used in imaging are often given with sugar in order to locate tumors, because the sugar (with the isotope tagging along for the ride) goes straight to any existing tumor in the body.
As far as the practical differences between CK and GK, as Marianna stated, you wouldn't see any benefit with one over the other as far as hearing preservation goes, because you are already SSD. But I would inquire as to whether your residual AN is encircling your facial nerve or only sticking to one side. If the latter, then there would be no difference between CK and GK. But if your tumor encircles your facial nerve, CK may possibly better preserve your facial nerve function because it would deliver less radiation than GK to the nerve itself. CK delivers only 15% higher radiation dose at the center of the "radiation cloud" than at the periphery, whereas GK delivers fully twice the dosage at the center compared to at the periphery. With both types of treatment, no attempt is made to avoid irradiating any cranial nerves that are in the way.
Hope that helps...
Best wishes,
TW
