Hi! I was 27 when I was diagnosed almost 3 years ago.
I would highly suggest sending your MRI to both House Clinic (Dr. Schwartz) and USC (Dr. Friedman) for a free phone consult:
https://www.houseclinic.com/consultation/acousticneuroma http://acousticneuroma.keckmedicine.orgI had both of them remove my tumor (back when Dr. Friedman was working at House, but he has since moved on to USC), with extraordinary results! They preserved my hearing and I had zero balance or facial issues. They are extremely experienced with ANs!
You can send your MRI to them and discuss your options while you wait on the visa process. Hopefully once you start gathering information about your individual tumor - location, size, and symptoms and risks, you may feel less scared as you become more informed. I know I did!
As far as balance - the surgeons may recommend you do VNG test, which tests if your tumor has caused your balance to be compromised in any way. In my opinion, as your tumor is larger - I would think it may have already compromised your balance, and your body has adjusted along the way to mainly use the other side's balance nerve. If this is the case - the surgery may not affect your balance very much as you have already compensated. At House, they cut my balance nerve on my tumor side during surgery - they believe that your brain will recover quicker by learning to only use your good side, rather than having to fight off mixed signals coming from a compromised balance nerve (from the tumor side). My tumor was small and the VNG test showed my balance was not compromised in any way pre-op. However, post surgery, I honestly was very surprised how fast my brain re-learned how to do everything with just one balance nerve. At House, they have vestibular therapists visit you as early as 2 days post-op to get you walking around to re-train your brain for balance. By day 3 post-op, the therapist had me doing balance exercises (stand on one leg, walk sideways, stairs). Before I even left the hospital, they highly recommended that I didn't jump or spin, but being the 27 year-old I was, and I was so confidence in my balance, I told everyone, "watch this" and jumped and spun around. Needless to say, my mom was not happy with me, but I pulled it off perfectly, and didn't fall!
I honestly think being so young helped me recover quickly and I would assume you will be the same way. I'm not a dancer, but I did buy my first road bike after surgery, and have had zero balance issues riding it, skiing, or walking on a balance beam afterwards. It may take a little bit of time to adjust, but hopefully you can be just as great of a dancer you are now!
As far as hearing and facial nerve - that will always be a risk. In my opinion, the best you can do for that is to be in the hands of the most experienced surgeon you can find.
As far as time to start dancing again - I took the recommended 6 weeks off work to fully allow my body to rest and heal after surgery. At 6 weeks, I went back to work 9-5 with no issues at all. I would recommend not rushing the recovery time, as it will pay off in the long-run.
As always - this is just my personal story, and even the surgeons told me that my "results weren't typical", but as long as you are in the hands of experienced surgeons, a great outcome can happen!
~Michelle
