Residual tumor growing after surgery, dizziness and facial palsy feels worse

[beanboard]

I had surgery for a 4.5cm left sided acoustic neuroma about 4 years ago. After surgery, I was left with grade 4 facial palsy.

My most recent MRI in February showed that the residual tumor is growing, so I know I will probably need treatment soon. It's around 2.5cm now. I am looking into radiosurgery, but I am also worried about whether I may need another surgery.

For the last week or so, I have been feeling dizzy. I also feel like my left facial palsy may be getting worse, especially around my left eye. The eye feels weaker and I am getting some blurred vision. I have also been very stressed and not sleeping well recently, so I am not sure if that could be making the symptoms feel worse.

My blood tests came back normal.

I wanted to ask:

Has anyone here had residual tumor growth after surgery and then noticed more dizziness or facial weakness?

Can stress and poor sleep make existing facial palsy or dizziness feel worse?

If the tumor is near the facial nerve or brainstem, does that usually mean radiosurgery is not possible anymore? Or can Gamma Knife/CyberKnife still be used depending on tumor size and location?

For people who had regrowth after surgery, how did your doctors decide between radiosurgery and repeat surgery?

I know no one here can diagnose me, and I will be discussing this with my doctors. I am mainly looking for personal experiences and suggestions on what questions I should ask my neurosurgeon.

[v357139]

Hi Beanboard sorry for your regrowth.  I didn't have any of the things you mention, but I think I can answer some of your questions.  My tumor was compressing the brainstem and also stuck to the facial nerve and they did surgery with a great result.  So as long as the doctor thinks so, you can get surgery.  The main thing now for you is to talk to very experienced teams.  In addition to your surgeon, I would probably be talking to some different highly experienced teams.  Highly experienced is very important.

I know some people have gotten partial removals and then radiation as an actual strategy.  I also understand radiosurgery may not be good for fast growing tumors because radiosurgery can take up to 2 year to work.  It does not kill the tumor per se, it stops it from growing new cells.  Don't ask a radiosurgeon about surgery or vice versa.  Ask a highly experienced surgeon about surgery, and a highly experienced radiosurgeon about radiosurgery.  Ask how many they have performed, it should be in the hundreds as a minimum.

I know its been a while since your post but if you see this, let us know how its going.  I am more than happy to talk, text, email, etc.