Hello AN Community!
This is my first post to the ANA board. My wife has been on this site a lot more than I have been. and had registered a while back. She discovered there is a lot of great information on this discussion board, so I wanted to join up for two reasons. First is to thank participants for sharing their experiences, and insights, on the various acoustic neuroma topics (especially to Jan for posting BAHA photos - not sure now whether to be hopeful or freaked out!
). For me, the circle of light is expanding. Second, is to pick away at that circumfrence of darkness for others. Hopefully, I'll be able to contribute a couple of valuable insights myself as I go through the AN experience.
In hindsight, I've had number of symptoms for about three years. Ringing in the ears was the first one. Some strange "physical" sensations in my head, and a reduced sense of balance in certain situations were next. Then came facial numbness and some degraded hearing in my right ear. The reduced ability to stay on an even keel and the hearing has become a bit worse since testing started earlier this year. Being a typical guy, I had ignored symptoms until the facial numbness, which didn't go away and became annoying. Gums, tongue, and eyelids affected too - like being on long term novicane.
Finally had an MRI in June. It revealed the large tumor (about 4 - 4.5 cm depending on where measured) on the right side of my head and some significant deviation of the brain stem. Once that diagnosis was made, it was off to the surgeons to get things rolling. Due to the nature of the health care business here in Canada, and the fact that I have no symptoms that are critical, no surgury is scheduled until November 3rd.
One anecdote from talking to my ENT. He asked me to do some simple balance tests with my eyes closed. Man, I really noticed my balances issues then. It was like I was drunk! it felt so wierd I wanted to fall over from laughing. I cannot believe I didn't notice that before.
I've read through a number of threads over the past months. I've been dismayed at some of the negative experiences some have had, and bouyed by the positive experiences of others. Simple things like a list of items to consider taking to the hospital are invaluable (a postive attitude is number one on my list). One thing that will be a certain outcome of the translab process is single sided deafness (SSD). So more complicated topics, like dealing with hearing loss, have been interesting. Discussion threads about BAHA and Transear show the answers to coping with SSD are not always easy. Looking forward to more discussion on SSD.
Surgury seems both very close and far off at the same time. When the time comes, I know I have the support of friends and family to help me pull through and get back to normal activity as soon as possible. I can also count of this community for support and direction. Of course, my number one support is the one I've relied on for decades - my wife Michelle (I know Love you'll be looking at this post first thing, so I just want to publicly thank you for letting me know about this site, for for being there for me).
Cheers!
Ken
