"I would like to hear from other people in similar circumstance."
Mhdilks,
My situation is somewhat similar. I had gradual hearing loss, dizziness, and a ringing ear in Spring 2013 and was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma in May 2013 thanks to my first MRI. My second MRI 6 months later indicated rapid growth, and I went almost straight to translab surgery. The ringing had become highly variable in pitch and extremely annoying, and my hearing in the left ear was nearly unusable.
Everyone is different, and there may be the possibility that radiation could be an alternative for you. The primary danger of waiting, if your tumor is growing, is that it could begin pressing on the brain and cause damage. It's fine to watch and wait if the thing isn't growing, but otherwise you need to carefully consider your options and take appropriate action.
After surgery, my experience has been total hearing loss in my left ear (as expected), much less dizziness, and the ringing has leveled off to a fairly steady buzz that I often don't even notice. I was teaching at the graduate level until February thus year (not little kids, obviously, like you), and was nearly always able to hear and understand students in the classroom.
Now I'm loooking into a hearing aid, and it seems like it will be the Phonak CROS. I expect this to remove the left-sided gap in my hearing, but don't expect it will help with tinnitus or the problem with noisy environments. I'll try to report back after I get it.
I would encourage you to do the right thing by your health and not worry too much about your fitness for work until after you have dealt with the important issues. Some things are certain from translab surgery (e.g. total hearing loss), but other things are highly variable. I think there is life after this, although different from life before. Sometimes our options aren't great, but that doesn't mean you can't make the best of it and adapt.
Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it until further notice.
JimJ
