Hi, Sue - and welcome.
Your concerns are perfectly normal. As you've apparently learned already, an acoustic neuroma may be tiny but due to their location, surgery to remove them is necessarily complex and because of all the adjacent cranial nerves, the surgery is a challenge for the doctor and the AN patient. The good news is that the majority of AN surgical patients do just fine, although there can be some 'bumps in the road'. I assume you're confident about your doctor and the surgical team that will perform the surgery. As you know, AN resection is major surgery and you'll probably be hospitalized for 5 days, barring any complications. The average recovery is 6 to 8 weeks, but of course, that varies with the individual. Some folks are gung-ho and back to work in a few weeks while some need a few months to fully recuperate. At 63 (and in otherwise good health) I was in the hospital for 5 days following my 9-hour debulking surgery, driving within 2 weeks (with my doctor's permission) and felt recovered by four weeks, post-op. I'm retired so returning to work wasn't an issue. On hindsight, it was probably close to a year, post-op, before I was fully recovered but now, four years post-op/radiation, I'm doing great. Many other AN patients have had experiences similar to mine...some recovered even faster, although you shouldn't consider your recovery as being a race.
My advice is - prior to the surgery, try to keep busy and get your stuff in some kind of order. Prepare to have some help when you return home from the hospital (about a week should be enough) and don't make any plans that would interfere with your recovery. As the Big Day approaches, try not to obsess about it and use this forum to ask questions, vent or whatever you need to do. Our members are eager to help and have a wealth of knowledge they're happy to share.
I'm sure you'll do well and be just fine but we'll be thinking of and praying for you, just the same.
Jim
