I've just found this forum and have been reading steadily! This is my story and I have a few questions. I'm a 47 year old mom/writer/runner and l18 months ago I had a brain event that they have never fully diagnosed. It was a probable bleed in the fourth ventricle of the brain and there's either a bit of scar tissue from the bleed or a 1 cm (tiny) tumor. I was in Neuro ICU for 15 days and had at least 3 MRI's at that time. Along with every other test under the sun. I had severe double vision, left side weakness, vertigo and killer neck pain from blood in the spinal fluid. (all very much stroke like)
I recovered slowly and am now I'd say 98% back. I even ran a 5K last weekend. Some residual effects include balance issues when I'm tired and some speech stuff, stuttering and so forth,,,all when I over do it. Which is a lot!
My doc ordered MRI's every six months and they have showed no change in the "lesion." (he did not biopsy due to bad location)
Okay...so this summer, I noticed that I was turning up the volume on the TV,,,asking people to speak up and mostly, having a hard time on the phone and in crowded places. Four months ago I went to my ENT and told him I htough I wasn't hearing well and he ordered a hearing test from the audioloigist. She said I had left sided hearing loss which she described as "severe." The ENT gave me a course of nasal steroids and said it was due to an ear infection, come back in four months. Well,,,I did, three days ago and I KNEW the hearing was shot to hell. I also have had some minor ear pain, feelings of stuffiness, some vertigo,,again, the audiologist said it was severe and said she knew I'd be back for a hearing aid. The right side was fine..
The ENT said he wanted me to have an MRI, was very vague about why and since I'm only a few months off from my regular check up, I tried to extend it to the first of the year. He insisted on one sooner.
Which then led me to research which led me here.
I mean, I can't find any other reason for why I'd have a left sided hearing loss. I suppose it is gradual but it's very out of the blue even still.
Oh, and there's one other weird puzzle piece. I flunked my driver's eye exam and had to go to the eye doc. I see an optomitrist. He did a perifrial vision test which showed one sided vision loss. On the opposite side as the hearing loss. I can't imagine the two are related,,have not found anything yet that shows they are.
This is my big question. Wouldn't they have seen a small AN on the earlier MRI's? I was seeing a big time neruosurgeon, the MRI's were done in a medical center. If the AN's are so slow growing,,,doesn't this seem somewhat strange? So,,,maybe that's not what's causing it? Or are they easily overlooked if you are not looking there? They might have been focusing on the lesion in the fourth ventricle and not ordered an occular amplification.
I know it sounds like I'm reaching here but any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
