old

[Rc Moser]

well, one day I woke up and:  I'm old, I feel old, I look old, and old age in knocking on the door!.  :o  This is getting old talking about old!  ;D 

[lmurray69]

 Taylor, Did you go to the meeting in St Louis?, Did you meet very many people your age.?.The flapper page has young and old as you say...I am 54 going on 36...I will never grow up,I get down on the floor and row with the best of them..Remember you came to us .Not the other way around. We are all one big family and it would be nice if you droped in now and then. Weather the tumor is gone or not we need each other.

[Jim Scott]

Taylor:

Compared to you, a teenager, I suppose most of us do seem rather old and so, we may be a bit harder for you to relate to, in some ways.  Well, that really can't be helped - but we do have a lot of information to share.  So what if we're 'old' (compared to you)?  We're not posting about music, clothing styles or giving dating advice, so why should our age be a big deal?  This is a very specific site and message board intended for people who have or had an Acoustic Neuroma tumor.   With many folks of all ages and from all walks of life, living in various places in the U.S. - and overseas - offering their experiences, advice and comments.  That's its beauty. We're a diverse group with one shared issue: Acoustic Neuroma tumors.   The 'group' also happens to be comprised of some pretty nice folks, too...of all ages, from teens into the 60's.  Another bonus. 

As this is a support forum, you'll necessarily read about pre and post-op problems - the inevitable 'horror stories'.  That's normal.  People who are suffering, physically and/or emotionally, need a place to vent and share their problems and frustrations with those who can empathize with less fortunate AN patients.  This forum serves that purpose.  We can help a bit because, in one way or another, we've all ' been there'.  Whether we're 18, 28, 45 or 60, we have a lot to offer other Acoustic Neuroma patients, like ourselves. 

You can also read some positive stories; such as the one where an 'older' AN patient (age 63) had a large, nasty AN tumor pressing on his brainstem and displacing his brain, causing pretty serious symptoms.  He found a very competent surgeon, an excellent surgical team and was in (otherwise) good health, before the surgery.  He eventually underwent a very successful surgical operation that effectively debulked the tumor.  He then underwent 26 'fractionalized' radiation treatments - over 5 weeks - to kill any remaining tumor cells.  He recovered quickly and is almost back to 'normal', today.   That's a success story for you.  Oh, one more thing.....

His screen name is:

Jim Scott. 

[DeniseSmith]

Bravo, Jim!  well said/written!

DS

[Karen]

Taylor, I am old too - 55 years young.  How was the meeting in St.Louis. I couldn't make it this time.  How is your double vision?  I am going to have mine in Dec.  Karen

[Taylor]

this is too funny... GO JIM! Like i said this site is hard to get on because it's so depressing! not a lot of people have it as bad as i do with this tumor. i don't get very many scenarios that are worse than mine. but i have to to learn more about the tumor i had. i dont think im progessing as well as i should be.Ugh! i guess i have to try harder at recovering but it's hard being this young... i already have college to worry about.

In the support group there was nobody close to my age. I sat next to a woman who was 83!!!! lol... now THAT'S olllllllllld

Karen my double-vision is bad sometimes... it's more blurry than anything probably from drops

[TaylorsMom]

     I don't think Taylor was trying to offend anyone when she started this thread.  She has said she wished she had been "old" when her tumor was found.  She feels her life is over before it really got started sometimes.  She reads that most of you had normal lives when you were young-- school,  jobs, marriage, kids-- and she's not sure anymore she will have any of that.  I tell her she will recover and we'll do whatever it takes to get her there, and she will have a great life.

     Yes, she may think most of you are "old" and don't understand how she feels going through this at 18, but I'll bet most of you think of her as just a kid, a teenager.  When I was 18, I thought anybody over 30 was old, and many of you probably did, too.

     This forum is a great thing for everyone, and I am gratefull for all the info and support.


     Taylor's 47 year "old" Mom,

     Kathy 

[Crazycat]

Hey Taylor, I have bad double vision as well. I had it before my surgery and extremely bad after surgery. Now that it's a year behind me, it's gotten much better although it's still there.
     Old? Yes, it's coming. I'm 49 now. I'm also one of the hottest and most respected rock bass guitarists on the scene around here. I remember one of the last days of school in my senior year. I remarked to the Vice-Principal: "Boy, this year went by fast!" He looked at me and quipped, "So won't the next thirty!".  He wasn't kidding!!! I remember an old saying:" Forty is the old age of youth and fifty is the youth of old age". How true.
   Remember how they used to say back in the sixties "don't trust anyone over 30"? Well, my new creedo is: "don't trust anyone under 40"!

Right now I'm struggling with a lower back sprain. I swear, nothing will make you feel old more quickly than a bad back. I'll take the brain surgery any day before this crap. The irony is that I put my back out doing crunches!

      Paul

[Sue]

I am very sympathetic to you,  Taylor. I totally understand how difficult it must be to have such a terrible thing happen at such a tender age. It's unfair and crappy.  And then, to have "mature" people to commiserate with doesn't quite cut it.  Remember how we all felt when we learned that Michael J. Fox had Parkinson's Disease? He was so young and boyish looking and he ends up with what we perceived as an "old person's" disease?  It's different, I know...but sort of similar.  I'm guessing that a lot of his "research" into his disease had him talking with lots of old people and wondering how in the world he fit into this picture.  When I went to my diabetes classes, there, sitting amongst the older, heavy-set, out of shape couch potato diabetics was this younger, boyish, cutie-patootie guy, all slim/trim and buffed looking. I finally asked him, "What are you doing here?"  He looked at me and said, "That's what I want to know."  From out of the blue and his genetics he ends up with Type II diabetes. He wasn't very comfortable in our classes. 

And Taylor, another thing I totally understand is that this idiotic thing that we all have tends to be long-term in the making, and long-term in the healing and that it is hard to be patient while the ramifacations of surgery and/or radiation take it's own sweet time to heal. Especially when you are 'old' like me! I think, Man, I better get over this before I'm dead!  And some of us haven't been down as long or as hard of a road as others. And it seems like you and Chelsea and Chris and probably other people who have developed it at a young age, have gotten a really, really, tough hand dealt to you.  And as msuscotty's wife says, "That sucks, but what are you going to do?"  I have no idea what my life would have been like had this happened to me at 18.  I would have been devastated.  But, boy, you just do what you have to do and trust that this all works out in the end.  I'm so impressed with the support and caring for everyone on this forum, and I think especially for you "kids" because I'm sure most of us identified with your mom and all felt that "parental" instinct kick in whan a young person is hurting.  I'm so grateful this happened to me and not to my son. He's going to be 34, but he's still my "kid".   Well, I've rambled on and on...like oldsters do  , but I guess I felt like I had something to say.  I wish you only the best and I hope you find the support you need/want. 

Take care,

Sue in Vancouver

[Kathleen_Mc]

Taylor: When I had my first surgery I was 23, single and not long outta college. Since then I did return to school and did some post-grad. courses in nursing, I got married twice (the first time was still in the early post-op days,relatively, and my judgement likely impaired, shouldn't have married that &%#*......wasn't looking at him clearly), I have had two lovely children. I have continued to work full time and I am very good at what I do I must say, at times I worked two or three jobs (that was when I was single and trying despartely to buy a house). During all this I have had many "plastic repairs" done to my face to the point I can live with what I see in the mirror( but it ain't what it was).Through the years I have met many AN survivors, both on-line and in person, all at differnet stages of life, all at different stages of recovery and/or treatment. I have met those for whom life went on just as before, those who have had some changes and those whose life has completely changed, some of this due to circumstances and surgical outcome and some just due to thier mind set (I once met someone just about my age who lost the same nerves as me, had no other health issue's and was in a wheel chair and unable to work.....it was her mind that had her there not her physical health).
My point is this Taylor....you can do anything you want, life is not exactly as it was before but you have the world open to you. GO FOR IT GIRL!
Kathleen

[LizH]

I don't think age should matter when you have AN. The associated problems are very simmilar regardless. I was 42 when I was first diagnosed with AN an the tumor was 2.5 cm big so it had been there for a while (without me knowing) and long before I turned 40! There are peolpe with AN older than I am now but with less problems than I have now.

[Captain Deb]

Hey Taylor!
Yes we is old! Old as the flippin' hills! I took your start of this thread as your way of poking fun at yourself and the rest of of us, which is what we love to do here. Yahoo has a free method of starting your own group, which is how the ANAWAY site got started.  You could start a group for teens with brain tumors, or other health problems, which would be a very good thing to do for yourself and would be great for other young people with issues similar to yours.  Check into it.  Meanwhile--alla us Auntie-wenches and Uncle-scallywags are here for ya!

Capt Deb

[marie]

Taylor

 A Forum member named alwaysanonymous is about your age.You might check in  with her.

[Jim Scott]

Taylor:

I just wanted you to know that I didn't take any real offense to your original post.  I can see why you're frustrated.  I will readily admit that I'm glad that I had this AN thing now, when I had just retired and my son is grown (27 years old), rather than at 18 or even at 30.  I have no job to hold down or little kids to worry about and that is a definite relief.  I can see why, at your age, this AN thing is a bigger burden to you than to someone like me.  Still, since we all have or had an Acoustic Neuroma tumor we are all 'equal', in a sense.  Only our life circumstances and assorted post-op problems noticably differ. 

Still, having an AN is certainly no fun or a minor problem - at any age.  The good news is that you can 'come back' from this, as I have.  As you've probably been told already (more than once I would bet) your youth is a positive factor in your recovery - but not a guarantee that you'll recover at the rate you might wish.  At 18, you have many decades of life ahead and once you get through this, it will become a distant memory for you.  Now, all you have to do is get through it.   You will.  Most of the 'common' AN post-op problems eventually resolve themselves.  You have to have patience, which is easier said than done, I know.  I have many years on you and I'm still a bit impatient that I have a few lingering, minor post-op 'issues' to deal with.  Realizing that others have things a lot worse helps me keep things in perspective, another service of this messageboard.     I wish you well.

Jim

[Chris]

Good luck Taylor. Hopefully after hearing about everyone, except Capt Deb, telling you they are not old gave you a bit of a giggle. I live by the rule "if you don't grow up by the time you are 40, you don't have to" and "grow old disgracefully"   
P.S. And getting this thing really sucks!