Surgery done! When will the car sickness go away?

[HM1983]

So I did it!  I had my surgery for my AN on 6/9/11 at Tampa General Hospital.   I decided to do the translab. approach with Dr. Agazzi and Dr. Danner.  I basically had no hearing loss on the affected side prior to surgery.  However, after going through the baracade of hearing tests at Dr. Danners office, both surgeons felt that enough damage had been done to the vestibulocochlear nerve that there was little to no hope of preserving my hearing.  As a 27 year old girl, I decided that my best option was to try my best to preserve my facial function.  I have to say... I feel so blessed with my outcome.  I had some real difficulty at first.  I was told before I went into surgery that the first three or so days of recovery would feel like I had been hit by a bus.....and man, you guys weren't kidding.  I couldn't seem to keep my eyes open because of all the drugs they had me on to fight the pain and nausea.  I do have to say though....the pain isn't nearly as intense as I had expected.  Anyway, its been 2 weeks since surgery.  I was only in the hospital 2.5 days (they sent me home before they should have- I think because my family is full of nurses).  My walking is improving....I tip left a bit, and in the mornings its pretty difficult to get around.  I feel like a fly thats been sprayed with Raid.....bumbling in circles.  I see improvement every day though.  I do have some slight facial weakness.  I can't pucker my lips, and my eye closes, but I can't close it tightly or form tears on that side.  I am very fortunate in that I haven't had any other side effects.  I don't suffer from headaches, I don't have insomnia or intense pain.....I feel very lucky.  My surgeons said they expect 100% recovery for my facial function.  The SSD isn't bad at home....its hard when I'm out in public though.  I've scheduled an appointment to BAHA test run on the 29th on July.  I'm looking forward to that.  Something that I'm having trouble with right now is actually travelling in the car.  Is there anyone else out there who had trouble travelling in the car after their surgery?  I get really nauseous and have to keep my eyes shut to tolerate it right now.  Any idea on how long that might take to go away?   

[HeidiC]

I can't help with the car sickness question, i'm not at the surgery point yet...but I had a question about the size of your tumor.  I saw that you put the numbers, but not if it was mm or cm I was wondering if you could let me know...or it could be there and I just missed it-i feel like I miss a lot these days-sigh.  I ask since mine is small and I was curious if yours was too and you elected to have surgery anyway-or if it was CM and pretty big.

Good luck on your continued recovery, you seem to be doing well!

[Jim Scott]

Hi, Heather ~

Thanks for posting your AN surgery experience and an update on your recovery, which seems to be going fairly well.  I didn't have the car issue (I resumed driving within 2 weeks of my surgery) so I can't offer any advice.  However, the majority of post-op problems usually prove to be of a temporary nature so I'm sure the car riding problem will be resolved, in time.  How much time, I can't begin to speculate but at your age, healing should be fairly rapid and so should recovery.  Checking out the BAHA is a good idea.  It isn't for everyone (I'm SSD and don't have one) but many do - and like it.  It's certainly worth investigating.  I agree that you're fortunate to have a such a complication-free AN surgery experience and I hope that your experience will be an encouragement to other, newly-diagnosed AN patients that are somewhat fearfully contemplating AN removal surgery.  Even though one person's experience isn't a guarantee that another AN patient will have the exact same outcome, it's always good to learn of AN surgery patients who did not have any major issues, post-op.  Thanks again for posting. 

Jim

[ksiwek]

Hi there!

I am posting to tell you congrats on making it the 'other side'!  I am one year post op...had my surgery when I was 29.  So I wanted to lend my 'good ear' to you if you ever want to talk!  Being diagnosed with an AN (or any significant diagnosis for that matter) at our age, comes with its own emotional challenges.  Please send me a message if you would like to talk...any day...any time!

As for the car...I had my surgery out at House in LA.  My first few times in the car I just kept my eyes shut.  Our first longer car trip 'test drive' to Malibu left me quite dizzy upon getting out of the car!  After a couple of weeks it was okay.  Keep in mind that it is a lot of brain input when you are seeing things flying by!  I still find car rides fatiguing whether I am a passenger or a driver, BUT I have residual 6th nerve palsy from the tumor.  Just give it time and try to limit yourself to short car trips and rest your eyes while riding.  Also, you may find that grocery stores and places like Target are challenging.  They do get immensely better over time.  I wear sunglasses whenever I am outside as well and it helps reduce eye strain, too.

Another thought...did your Dr talk to you about vestibular therapy?  They had me start after I was 5-6 post op.  That really, really helped me get functional again.  They also provided me with great (not to strenuous) exercises for my eyes...I am happen to share those with you too!

Good luck with your recovery.  One of the hardest parts about it, is staying patient and letting your body heal.  I had a hard time coming to grips with not being able to necessarily 'work harder' to fix something.  I learned that sleeping, walking, eating well and taking vitamins were the most I could control and the body would do the rest of the healing...on its own schedule 

I will be thinking of you!

Kris

[Rivergirl]

I am almost 4 weeks post op and going to vestibular therapy.  The therapy is targeting that bee being sprayed by raid feeling, they have given me exercises to do and it has helped with the compensation very much. I agree with your the first 3 days were horrible.  I still have a lot of swelling and the area is still painful so I cannot sleep on that side.  Sounds like you are doing good, keep up the good work.

[james e]

I had translab in March 2010, and had problems in the car...it is not a problem now. Go to vestibular therapy ASAP and begin to learn about how you balance post surgery. I found out that I depend on my eyes for most of my balancing. You might be different, but I found out that my eyes were so busy trying to balance me, that I got wonky in the car with all of the rapid movement. It took me a couple of weeks for  things to start slowing down as my brain began to adjust to loosing half of my vestibular system. PT was pretty successful for me. I am still wonky 24/7, but not as bad as in  the beginning, and I can drive/be a passenger in the car without problems. Recovery is a slow process, and improvement may take weeks or months to notice a difference. The more you work at PT, the faster you will  recover.

James