I’m a mid-40s woman who had a small acoustic neuroma removed by middle fossa surgery three years ago. My vestibulocochlear nerve was cut during surgery but my post-surgical PT worked wonders, and I felt almost back to normal within three months. At that point, I went back to classes for my favorite hobby: aerial silks, which, as you can imagine, really taxes your balance. Since then, I’ve moved on to an even more balance-taxing hobby of aerial rope (it’s more dynamic). It was going great last year until about July. I think I overtrained a bit and ever since then I’ve gotten SO fatigued after every class. Much more than usual. I took time off, I worked on gaining strength and improving mobility, and my doctor ordered a million tests to make sure nothing else was going on. I realized this week that my balance has felt off for months, so I dusted off my old PT exercises and… wow! I’ve regressed quite a bit. Not back to where I was immediately post-surgery but to the point where I’m wobbling all over and tipping into the wall on one of them.
I stopped running around the same time this started happening, and I wonder if not spending so much time outside looking at far away objects and moving my head had something to do with this. Walking around outside and looking around was a big part of my post-surgical PT.
Has anything like this happened to anyone else? Have you found that you need to go back and refresh your remaining balance nerve with PT every once in awhile? Do you get major fatigue when your balance is poor?
