Sorry to be blunt

[mrgarlic]

Greetings, This is a question that none want to deal with but, I want to know. I am aware that a AN left alone can cause instant deafness and even death. Do any of you have comments on this. Are there symptoms first?   thanks,,,,, Larry

[jazzfunkanne]

I think there are always some kind of symptom, my AN was over 4.5cm and the symptoms i had were deafness and faical numbness, i think some people suffer from balance probs. headaches tinnitus there are prob other symptoms i have not mentioned.

[Patti]

i got bad headpain when in bed at night.  i started occassionally waking up with severe head pain and vomiting.  then the vomiting came as frequently as once a week.  when it was discovered i had an AN, the doctor said those are symptoms of it pressing on the brainstem which controls heartbeat-so, yes, if left there much longer would cause death.  patti

[jazzfunkanne]

hi patti, i think i sent you a PM last week did you get it?

[Omaschwannoma]

I too, like Patti, experienced the vomiting coming on with no warning weeks before my scheduled surgery and having shared this new symptom with my doctor he said it most certainly is time to remove it.  Head pressure and pain were there also. 

[Jim Scott]

Greetings, This is a question that none want to deal with but, I want to know. I am aware that a AN left alone can cause instant deafness and even death. Do any of you have comments on this. Are there symptoms first?   thanks,,,,, Larry

Larry:

No need to apologize.  We've all had to deal with the effects of an acoustic neuroma and are not shy about discussing the issues involved.

To answer your questions: yes an acoustic neuroma can cause 'instant' deafness in the affected ear.  However, most AN patients lose their hearing slowly, over a period of time that can be weeks or even years.  Of course only one ear is affected so the patient is not totally deaf but does have diminished hearing (by 50%).. 

It is also true that, if left untreated, an acoustic neuroma can grow large enough and press hard enough on the brainstem to eventually cause coma and death.  However, that is extremely rare in the industrialized world.  At an advanced stage, the symptoms would be vividly obvious (vomiting, vision loss, the aforementioned hearing loss, eventual unconsciousness).  No sane person would let the condition progress that far without at least going to an hospital emergency room for a diagnosis and/or treatment - or simply calling 911 or someone for help.  In a very primitive society, without benefit of modern medical facilities or doctors, I suppose someone could slowly get worse and eventually die from an acoustic neuroma.  My neurosurgeon did say that "this could kill you".  I assumed he meant if it was never addressed.  It was. Most ANs are at some point.  An acoustic neuroma always presents some kind of symptom at some point in it's growth.  Some are much more noticeable that others.  It varies with each patient.   

See, that wasn't so hard to deal with - and I trust your questions have been answered satisfactorily.  The ANA offers a great packet of AN information and I suggest you send for it as it gives more detailed explanations of this issue.

Jim

[4cm in Pacific Northwest]

Before removal of my 4cm I had great hearing and balance.

What was weird is I could no sleep through the night, my ears were ringing and my bowel was not working (i.e. constipation) … the bottom line is my brainstem was compressed by the tumor and regular bodily functions like sleeping and popping were not happening as  in a  normal healthy person. The sleep deprivation had me foggy headed. I do not think the tumor caused this as much as been sooh sleep deprived.

When we did finally find the AN tumor my 4th ventricle was partly closed.

Some have major symptoms with a 4mm and I had hardly any with the 4cm – until the sleep pattern went wonky.

Know that now the tumor is out - I sleep and poop jus fine. NO cognitive issues…

How big is you tumor- Larry?

DHM

[wendysig]

My initial symptoms were fullness in my ear, hearing loss, mild tinnitusand minor balance problems  By the time I had surgery everything except the tinnitus was worse and I had some intermittent facial numbness (my whole ear and cheekbone).

Wendy

[saralynn143]

This is neither here nor there . . . I just found it amusing that someone called "mrgarlic" was concerned about being blunt. Thanks for the chuckle.

Sara

[Patti]

jazzfunkanne-i did not see your pm.  try again and this time i will check my junk mail folder.  btw-mrgarlic-my hearing loss was instantaneous.  that and the headaches and vomiting is what sent me to a doctor.  patti

[leapyrtwins]

Larry -

like most of the others, IMO a huge AN would present some kind of symptoms before it killed you.

And, I'm imagining that an AN would have to be extremely large to kill someone.

Satman had an AN that was 8 cm and he's alive and kicking (thankfully).

Jan

[28Lisa]

My symptons were hear loss in the left ear, didnt really pay attention to that but then it was hard to balance.  It was like having an outer body experience....
Since ANs grow slowly, looking back I think my first symptoms began 13yrs ago when I would have long going headaches that would last for days....I thought it was migranes and dismissed it

[robynabc]

Here is my son's story.  He had a really bad cold a year ago in maybe Feb. or March.  He had to go on antibiotics twice and has asthma.  He said he had some ringing in his ears for a day or two.  Dr attributed it to antibiotics so close together.  Now,  for about a year before he was sleep walking.  Very badly.  Almost every night.  It was terrible for me.  He was scaring me and I even locked his window.  When he went in for a checkup the doc said some people do that he said it was stress probably from the difficult IB program at school . In every other way he seemed fine.  But me as a mother felt things weren't quite right.  The sleep walking thing really was bothering me.    So, one day we are looking at the dog on the floor and Eric is drooling.   I laughed at him and made fun of him.  He says,  "I do that sometimes." 

Okay,  my ears pricked up and asked wyh he said he had a small area of numbness on the corner of his mouth.  We didn't think it was a big deal.  It took me two months to make an appointment with the doc.  He didn't know what it was and sent him to an ENT.  It took us another month to make an appointment with the ENT.  Eric had no hearing loss.  That was the first thing the doctor asked.  They gave him a hearing test before the MRI,  he had perfect hearing.  He had the MRI.  I swear I didn't even get nervous about that.  I never put two and two together.  The day we went in to see the ENT about his MRI he was trying to skate at our local skating rink in the neighborhood and I found him sitting in the middle and he said he was having trouble skating.  The diagnosis of a 4.5+ tumor pressing on the brainstem was a shock. He virtually had no noticeable symptoms but after he went to the neurosurgeon we noticed the big time balance problems after he gave him walking tests.  He had to get that tumor out right away.  The doctors couldn't wait more than a month. Yes,  if he waited too long they said he could,  the D word.  But,  it has to get really large for that to happen.  Our ENT had an appointment for us at our Cranial ENT for Monday,  we saw her on a Friday.   We had to make a decision on a doctor within 10 days.  Before surgery,  his balance got worse quickly.  Right before surgery,  he was tripping all over the place.  His sleep walking was horrible and he was sleeping with his eyes half open.  His symptoms were very subtle at first.  Yes,  what you said is true but most people have symptoms,  when you dont' that is when they get large enough to really cause issues.  It is unusual to have no hearing loss with a huge one.  But it happens.  Also,  your body can adjust until it get so big that it can't adjust anymore.

I will say again.  The deafness after surgery really wasn't too bad for Eric.  After the few months of adjustment he rarely mentions it but my ex is deaf in one ear and had few issues so we all didn't think too much about it. 

I don't know if this means anything for you.   But it is our story. 

Sending Sunshine. 

Robyn

[Dog Lover]

I can remember the day that my symptoms started. I woke up one morning and my left ear was totally plugged. I couldn't hear a thing. It was also ringing. The dr. gave me antibiotics and didn't think much of it. The fullness eventually went away, but the tinitus never did. Over the next 2 yrs the same fullness happened 2 or 3 more times.  Each time it happened it seemed like I lost a little bit more hearing in my ear. my dr. kept telling me that the concerts that I went to in my younger days were most likely the cause, even though I told him that where I grew up in IA concerts were few and far between and I never attended one. It was like talking to the wall. A change in jobs and a move across country delayed my seeing an ENT. Then when this fullness happened again this past April I insisted on going to an ENT and got a referal. i did indeed have a medium hearing loss in my left ear and the MRI was then ordered..

The rest as they say is history..

Oh - and I have been seriously considering writing my old dr. a letter telling him of the outcome. Not to be vindicive, as I really liked him as my dr., but to let him know the outcome so that maybe if this happens to someone else in his care he will think of other options.

Cathy