pre surgery

[ceeceek]

Two items..wow what a story, and great attitude about it,,no doubt it has helped in your recovery, and to our new newbe,,,remember, you do not need to be in any rush...read read read,,this site has lots of info and you have I assume plenty of time...(exception is if pressing on your brain stem,,and even then you have a little time). I suggest a least one second opinion and the possibility of radiation therapy...it has been proven to be very effective and much less invasive..especially if you are concerned about missing work..check with the cyberknifesupport.org site...you will learn lots about the different methods and the doctors volunteer their time answering questions etc...they are supportive and non biased towards treatment although I would have to say Dr. Medbery is somewhat conservative regarding physical surgery.....read up, hang in there and keep in touch.
Ceeceek

[kat]

 Hi There

I pretty much agree with ceeceek about taking time to look into CK or GK options since thay are much less disruptive to life and career since it is possible to return back to normal  routine within a few days after treatment . You may already have decided to opt for surgery and if you have I respect your choice and wish you the very best of luck  .

Regards Kat 

[TP]

I am so impressed with you guys that had tumors removed years ago and you are supporting this group. This is very informative.

I have a question to those of you that have experienced eye problems. I wear glasses but have black tape on my left side of my glasses which is over my bad eye (double vision with gold weight implant) as oppose to wearing a black patch.  My dr told me that after at least one year from my surgery if my double vision is not better they can operate and fix my eye. I see my eye dr tomorrow and will be discussing my future options with him. But if anyone has had this type of corrective eye surgery, would be interested in the procedure and if your eye is back to normal. I can live with my face paralysis (pain at times) but my eye is useless until I can see straight.

Background info: 6/5/06 AN tumor removed. My tumor was large, 4+ cmm and had complications (menigitis, home pic line and lumbar drain as well as two (6/21/06 and 7/12/06) additional surgeries to repair a CSF leak).  Immediately after my tumor removal, I had double vision, obviously total loss of hearing but had pretty much lost that before my surgery but i did improve in my senses with smell and taste. Did anyone experience an improvement in their other senses? My tumor was on my brain stem pressing against my spinal cord and had been treated for what they thought was a neck injury for about 3 months, lived with pain in my neck and arm  for another 3 months but when my hearing was deteriorating last spring and I was started to get head aches that is when they sent me for a brain MRI and within less than three weeks had my surgery. 

[pearchica]

Brucifer- you always amaze me with your medical knowledge. And TP that is awesome about your Taikwondo!.  Okay now onto our original poster KSS4LUCK- I ended up doing Cyber knife treatment at Stanford- this was after 3 surgeons including the head of ENT at Stanford told me surgery was the best option. I think for some surgery is the way to go, but for me I was kicking and screaming. After the third opinion I went ahead and scheduled surgery. The next day I checked this website and found three postings (mark, brucifer and phyllis ) suggesting I give it one last shot and research radiation as an option. I am so glad I did... CK turn out to be the EASIEST thing I have ever done medical- I can't rave enough about it.   So while the research is exhausting- you do have a benign condition so you can have time to research it. Know for radiation you will have to go outside the nornal ENT cycle as most ENT's are biased towards surgery.  Having said that, if you do opt for surgery make sure you go wtih someone who does a ton of these things- this website is an amazing resource is you can pace yourself and read through all the postings.  Take care, good luck and keep us up to date with your progress... Annie