yes boppie SBI gave me the squished wet spagetti analogy about the nerve.
ya they did a retrosigmoid, but via endoscopic.-did not have to retract the cerebellum.
I think it will be the norm approach in the next 10 yrs.
Shahinian and others were removing pituitary tumors through the nose I guess 10 yrs ago and now that is the norm from what i hear.
If I wouldve had traditional route on my 5cm tumor (measured from start in IAC) he said I would have facial paralysis on my left side for sure since the facial and trangeminal nerve were so compressed like a fist by the tumor. thats why i had it done with the 2mm microsurgical instuments under the endoscope instead of the traditional way of using some high powered magnifying glass and more invasive opening of the skull. shahinian uses a robotic arm with instruments he customizes himself.
here is a pic of the possible head position during resection.
It is from a BBC documentary on the SBI site.
The link is here.
http://skullbaseinstitute.com/pressroom.htm clik on the bbc tomorrow's world link and wait for it to load.
I highly reccommend viewing the BBC documentary to get an idea of the technology used and reasons for it. He has Various AN info on his site of course, the above video has to do with a trapped trangeminal nerve. he has an example of a AN procedure on his site too here,
http://skullbaseinstitute.com/video_acoustic_neuroma.htm and explains that process more in depth.
Make sure flash is installed. or get a techy friend to figure how to see and hear the vid.
I went to traditional specialists before settling on endo. -and yes it was a rocky road trying to find out information about this approach and why alot of ENTs have never heard of it and why there is controversy. Other themes abound that I wont post until I am recovered from the OVER ALL PROCESS. Just look at why I started this thread and you will know what I mean, there was some frustration involved. My first threads were only done out of utter frustration. imagine the WORLD VIEW I explained, and WORLD Demand for ANs and ALL OTHER Tumors, cancer and such-to be endo removed-funnelled down to only 4 office staff.
I kind of analyze it like I am at the mercy of some guy with a gun at my head (tumor) and Clint Eastwood comes along, ( hear the whistle from good bad ugly), sees me helpless there, and I start yelling, hey man, CMON SHOOT HIM SHOOT HIM, clint slowly draws another cigarette, takes 2 deep inhales that seem like eternity, camera cut to crow on branch, clouds, sun, lizard,
CMON MAN,my frustration building..WATCHA WAITING FOR_!PCHING!POOWW< BANG CLANG of Gun on the ground, I fall, the thief dead-on top of me. On the ground I grab my mouth, push the dude off, and notice that my face was not shot off,(facial nerver preservation) and the gun at my head is gone. I slowly get up from the dust to see Clint already riding off into another town.
Now I just have to catch a stagecoach to my main hometown and recover.
I am open for contact just as eronbaum, chop and wife of goin2LA helped me through the process for those looking for endo option.
I talked to some guy that had his out @ SBI and he gave me the greatest advice but I won't list it hear. too funny!
i will post my resection video eventually but want to make it known that I am not a Doctor and am not proposing one style over another. That is a personal position. BUT THANK GOD FOR FREEDOM OF INFORMATION and THE NET-
and of course my pov posts here and my thestatus.com page is personal since I do/DID have an AN.
Shahinian did not have any qualms when I brought up Dr. Jho
http://drjho.com/ and it seems he is familiar with his work and even mentioned that it is closer to those that live on the east coast. IMHO Dr. Jho doesnt have the PR machine behind him, and I believe that is why at least on the net-Dr. Jho
http://drjho.com/ is rarely known and there is not much buzz about him on the net..I talked to him for free though and was about to send my MRI PRINTS to him for a 4th eval when Shahinian lined me up with a date-.
Also, I have a WORLD POV and know this is done in Korea and other areas.(i.e jho, not sure wher he studied though)- Shahinian has trained all over the world, speaks 4 languages, and has that same POV. I wanted someone with a WORLD POV that has acrued medical knowledge from ALL OVER to tackle my AN. I was not passsive at all while looking for Tx options. I was that pain in the butt kid that always asks why why why why and that didnt stop with shahinian.
If I am going to let someone into my head WHY COULDNT I GET INTO THEIRS. I made it known to all docs I saw for opinions and thier staff that I was in charge but of course ignorant about neurosurgery, etc.
I probably should be posting this a month from now, I am only 8 days post op so for all I know my head could fall off as soon as I get up from this computer.
It would be interesting to get some DR JHO experiences. For now, via Endo the only Endo patients here I have interacted with are eronbaum and chopper.THANKS GUYS! without their input, and phone calls I wouldnt have chosen endo. I like to hear from consumers themselves, and this whole forum is full of that!--unless of course we have some spies among us..heheee
head thanks for the decompression education.
and no, no hearing on my left side of course. I knew that was coming -or GOINg and prepared for it by saying goodbye to sounds while I hunted in September and October.
hearing was secondary.
it was compressing on my spinal cord too much and was affecting intercranial pressure. ICP.
Doc said I wouldnt have lasted 4 more years to 40.
I will post more later soon. the actual video of my resection.
, still slow, but a lot faster than 1 week ago! 12 hrs post op was a PITA!
laters
