Hello Quick Intro,
Im 34 year old male from UK, just been daignosed with a 3cm AN. been having symptoms for about a year or so, (loss of hearing, ringing in ear, balance slighty off, tingling in face, used to have mild headaches, and sometimes what i would call a rush to the head (basically felt like my head was very fuzzy and couldnt really focus with either ears or eyes) thought the headaches and the head rushes have died down over last 6 months.
I first went to docs, who sent me away and told me to try hay fever tabets and chew chewing gum... i went back anout 3 months (jan 2017) later as the ringing became permainant, i was they referred to the ENT department, however i wasnt refered properley, and i had to phone 6 weeks later to find i wasnt even on list. I then got added (from the start). eventually i saw the ENT guy on 16th May (i also had a hearing test that day that showed my hearing was down on right side) he sent me for an mri scan 2 weeks later, and 2 weeks after that i received appointments for the ENT and a neuro surgeon (both on same day diffent hospitals, one at half 10 otehr at 12, which i managed to do). This freaked me out ( iwas expecting an AN but know i was thing all sorts and that it would be even worse.
I saw the ENT guy and he told me it was an AN, it was kinda a relief (i kinda thought it was that and at least its not life threating if not left stupidly wrong. He told me there was a possibilty of a gamma knife, but he'd booked me in to nerosurgeon to go through my options. So off i went to see him. He told me that at 3cm it was proably just on the bit too big side for the gamma knife and that suregery is most likely. But he has sent a letter off the sheffield hospital to see what they thing.
As it stands, i am know to have a contrast scan in a few weeks and go from there. I hvae a hol abroad for few days in July and then one at end of August for a week, he has said he will make sure it is between the 2, so we can then get a plan together for what happens next.
so i am assuming surgery sometime in septemer or october. I dont think it will be all cut out as it may be too close to the facial nerves. Bit may be left for gamma rays sometime in the future (as i believe).
so thats where i am at the moment, just diagonosed yesterday, releived it wasnt a worse case, but it's starting to sink in a bit now. I think i will be fine until just before the surgery, thats when i will start bricking it.
