Balance Issues and Driving.

[nannettesea]

Whew, that's scary, girl.  Glad you're okay and didn't roll over...I feel better when driving, as long as I'm behind the wheel.  That's a condition of MdD--motion is better--till I get out of the car.

Go slow on those curves, Capn.  So glad you weren't hurt.  What would we DOOOO?
love,
Nan (DD)

[justafactoflife]

Capt Deb,

I'm glad the neighbor was there to help out and you are OK.  We've all had near misses, and but for the Grace Of God, I'm still here.

As for driving, I spoke to my ENT during an exam and asked why AN patients have so much trouble with driving, and balance issues.  He said a normal person has to have 3 things to have a sense of where the body is in relationship to where the brain thinks it is.  Good Eyesight, Good Sense of Touch, and Good Hearing Balance.  If you take 1/2 your balance away from the brain due to an AN tumor, that leaves you 2 things left for the brain to compensate your location of where you are.  If you take your eyes off the road, now you are left with 1 sensory for your brain to react with and that is your touch.  The least of the 3 sensories the brain uses while driving is your touch.  It relies mostly on your eyes and your hearing balance.

Thus, ....why I have to focus on the road or my wife slaps the every living daylights out of me when my eyes stray?  I enjoy driving by myself as you can see why.  Not because I don't have any daily love taps, but because I feel like I'm driving drunk and somehow getting away with it.

[Captain Deb]

Pre-AN, my hubby and I used to take turns driving everywhere ('cept I made him pump the gas all the time) and now, I let him drive. In fact I don't think I've had a passenger at all in my car post-op. With my bad driving, I don't want that responsibility.  Especially with the grandbabies. I used to have a little black sporty stick shift car and we bought a new SUV with the extra special safety package so hubby would feel better about me driving by myself. I turn off the Buffett in traffic and usually drive like the granny that I am!! No left turns w/o traffic light, even if I have to drive around the block a few times. Really disconcerting to hear a siren and not know what to do.
Capt Deb

[Peanut]

Really disconcerting to hear a siren and not know what to do.
Capt Deb

Oh yes, that brings up a point of confusion-how can one know where the siren is coming from without a passenger to tell?

Just today I again appreciated how much better my head feels when driving compared with, say, two years ago.  (I'm  over three years out)
But no long trips on my own yet.
Lucky you, Capt. with Dr. Love.
Peanut

[Sue]

Glad you are okay, Capt.  Scary situation.  When I go to Seattle next month, I will either sit in the back seat or wear a blindfold, what with my "car anxiety", but I'm going anyway.....

Sue

[kippy6]

Hi there! I'm so glad you are okay! We would certainly miss you!!

I hope this doesn't come back to haunt me by admitting this to a group...but I've backed into 2 cars in less than one month. I was a good driver before surgery. But the first time was about 4 weeks ago in broad daylight, when my father-in-law decided to park right behind my garage door. It was in my blind spot... The second time was just this week. I was backing out of a friend's driveway in the dark, and a car was parked on the street, and almost touching the driveway... also in my blind spot. For some reason, I just want to feel normal, like this could happen to anyone.... Do you think this is normal? Is it harder to see in your blind spot after AN surgery??

But it seems now that I've had brain surgery, I have this fear that people will try to pin any mistake I make on having had brain surgery ... in some cases they are right... like on Sunday I was at a baby shower, and the hostess was calling for me, and in front of 15 people, I had obvious significant problems figuring out where she was. People laughed, most not knowing I had surgery. But it gave them something to talk about, and I'm sure the subject came up after I left. I just don't want to be labeled, and feeling like people are watching me for every mistake I'm making... I don't always feel this way, but I am recently. Like recently, I forgot something, and told a friend in a group, "my memory is not what it used to be." She immediately is thinking I mean b/c of brain surgery, but what I meant was just a light-hearted joke as I'm 40 now. The social stuff is just a little different now... I guess I'll have to be more careful what I say now...

[Dfcman]

Capt Deb,'

You ever hear of divine intervention? Haha I know if something like that happened to me I would definitely think its a miracle of god.

[Dfcman]

its a good topic to be mentioned...esp for me.  I believe I am taking an on-road drivers test soon..maybe even tommorow.  I did pretty well on the other tests.  The one was a reactions test, which involved a floor base with 2 pedals simulating a gas and a break.  You'd have to step on the gas when its green and when it turned red you would hit the break.  Repeat.  I also had some scenario's written on a paper with multiple choice answers.  I did well on that too.  I did fair on my visual exam.  Its one of those eye charts with the letters that get harder as you advance in the numbers.  I did so-so at first and then a little later on my therapist tells me I might want to have my eyes examed in the near future.  He asked me later to read a sign on the window on the other side of the room and it read "happy haloween" and then he took me back to the eye chart and I did so much better.  I know my eyes are kinda lousy at times.  But I will prob get glasses in the near future.

Anyways, I must say i'm kinda nervous for my on road exam.   I havent driven in like 6 months.  I'm afraid it won't be like riding a bike and i'll be a little rusty.  I'm just nervous about it all.  I still have my license but I need cleared for driving.  I guess if you fail your on-road test you get your license taken away for six months and at that time you can try again.  I mean six-months?  They don't even take DUI driver's license's away for that long.

Capt Deb by the way my mother (chrissmom) says hello and she's glad you are ok! Eventhough that was a long time ago, i'm just seeing