I was diagnosed in Jan 2014 for a 4.2 cm AN on my left.
My only symptoms pre-op were tinnitus and some hearing loss. My wife made me go to the doctor! Other-wise I didn't think it was a big deal.
Anyway, the MRI showed a very large AN pushing on my brain stem. My surgeons were actually quite surprised I showed little symptoms.
They suggested retro-sig surgery to remove due to my age (30) and the brain stem compression. They told me I would be dead in 5 years if i did nothing. My next symptoms would have been speech and breathing problems if I would have not gone to the doctor.
March 2014 was my surgery and expected to be 8 hours. Surgery was uncomplicated except it was 13 hours and I lost over a liter of blood. My tumor was very vasculated and required a lot of work due to my bleeding. They said they got 100% of the tumor. I have my first follow up MRI end of May to see for sure!
Post op recovery:
First hour: I woke up in the recovery room puking into a towel. Not fun, but they helped me a lot and I fell back asleep. I think I was given nausea meds and I smelt this smelly thing that helped. Some kind of nausea stick
First day: In ICU with my family. My mouth was very dry and a wet sponge felt so good in my mouth. My wife helped me out a lot in ICU, she would dab the small sponge in water and let me bite it. I also had very painful pressure sores on my right side from the 13 hour surgery.
Next 4 days: In general hospital bed. They removed bandages and was visited by people every 3-4 hours doing tests. Lots of walking up and down the hall with my walker with help. I bit my left side tongue bad cause I couldn't feel it while eating, only reason I knew I bit my tongue was I could taste blood. The tongue healed. Most frustrating thing I couldn't pee on my own yet until day 3. They would do an ultra sound of my bladder and call the "catheter team" I wish they would have kept the permanent catheter in longer, but didn't want me to get an infection or weaken my bladder muscles.
Day 5 discharge: I still haven't pooped. I was concerned. But was given a lot of meds to help. I didn't poop until day 9 at home.
Two weeks: still very uneasy and dizzy. Using a walker. No pain other than my pressure sores.
Four weeks: Walking without the walker with help of my wife's hand.
Five weeks: Walker is put away
Six weeks: Coordination on my left hand getting better. I still can't type or play guitar like I used to. My pressure sores on my right side are gone.
Permanent symptoms: Uni-lateral deafness in my left ear which was expected and facial numbness on my left side. My ENT suggested that a cochlear may not work well for me because my right ear was so good. He said my brain may reject the cochlear and use my good right ear.
Anyway, I think recovery has been going well. I can move my face a little bit. Eyebrows are symmetrical and I could shut my eye.
