Out of surgery 1 week today

[bleavitt]

Translab, for a "medium" sized AN with Dr. Kartusch at Michigan Ear Institue (surgery at Providence Hospital in Southfiled Michigan). Everything went better then expected. No facial or eye issues! My hearing was of course lost in my right ear. 

I went into surgery Friday the 16th of January at 7:30am, the next thing I knew, The doctors woke me up at 2:30pm and summarized my surgery as a success.  I was foggy at best, and later went to ICU for he night. The care there was great, I ate some jello later that night, visited with my family, but mainly slept. Saturday walked with a therapist, and moved out of ICU. I walked more on Saturday, however, sharing a room wasn't my cup of tea. So I put my mind to it to get out Monday morning, and I did. We drove two hours back home to Grand Rapids, which wasn't a big deal, I slept the enitre way home.

It was great to be back home, I could finally rest. I slept most of Monday, and Tuesday (as I told my wife, I would have been tired just from beginning in the that noisey hospital enviroment). Now, one week to the day, Ive taken a shower, the bandage is off my head, I'm walking, doing stairs, playing the Wii game for balance  and gettig around outside in the snow. Eating, and generally doing very well.

Expectations should be for some pain (managed by pills), need for a lot of sleep, walking will take some concentration, and you'll need to just plan on laying around for a hand full of days, maybe longer, I'm only at one week.

My message is this: I read a lot of information for months prior to surgery, and that caused a lot of anxiety. I would suggest, being on "the other side", get a great doctor, determine your best course of treatment, prepare for your treatment, and set goals for your recovery. You can bounce back quickly from this surgery.  I don't know when I'll go back to work (desk job), but I can't imagine any more then two more weeks. I'm an avid downhill skier, i will be skiing in the next two weeks. I know everyone is different, but it was just very difficult to find many success stories heading into this, I feel as if I'm in the process of being a success story!

Hope my account helps.

[wendysig]

Hi and welcome to Postie-land!

It sounds like you must be one tough cookie and I congratulate you on having such a wonderful outlook and surgical outcome!  Please keep us posted on your progress -- we love hearing good news!   

Best wishes,
Wendy

[Jim Scott]

Bleavitt:

Congratulations on your successful surgery and rapid recovery!  Your recuperation sounds similar to mine, and I did just fine.  Don't push yourself too hard and take whatever rest you need.  Thanks for the update and words of encouragement. 

JIm

[nancyann]

Hey bleavitt,  great news ! !  Sounds like you are on the right track toward total recovery & I am so glad for you ! !
I was laid out tired for about 2 weeks after surgery, then little by little my stamina came back.
I went back to work after 2 months from surgery ( 3 days a week for 2 weeks), Since you're doing so well,  you may be back sooner -
I'd check with your MD about this...
Anyway,   continued healing my friend,
Always good thoughts, Nancy

[Jwh]

Sounds good to me!  I go on Monday for my Translab at NYU.  Wish me luck    I hope I recover as quickly as you. Jen

[nancyann]

  Jen,

  I wish smooth sailing for you ! !   
  Also, & this goes for bleavitt,  what I always say to myself,
  ( first I  take a deep breath in & out )

  '"keep a peaceful heart"

  Always good thoughts,  Nancy

[leapyrtwins]

Wow, that was fast, bleavitt 

Sounds like your recovery is going full speed ahead.

I've heard only the best about Dr. Kartusch - and Michigan Ear - apparently what I've heard is correct.

Thanks for the feedback - in addition to sharing your good news with us - it will serve as a great story for newbies contemplating surgery.

Keep up the good work,

Jan

[NL]

Bleavitt,

Congratulations! So glad you came back to post your good news!

Keep up the good work, and be sure to listen to your body and rest when you need to. I know you're itching to get back on the slopes (and we're all different), but I felt great at 2 weeks out (with lots of naps!) and pushed myself just a little too hard - ended up getting a whopper of a headache. It hasn't happened since, but thought I'd share this since I'm pretty sure you're waxing your skis in between naps. 

Thanks for sharing your success story - and please keep us updated when you can.

Nancy L

[wcrimi]

Wow that is an amazing recovery story!   

[MikeS]

Congratulations on your successful surgery.  Can I ask you for your perspective on something?  I'm newly diagnosed (2cm) and am trying to decide between surgery options.  Right now I have almost perfect hearing (all Dr's surprised) and they say I'm a good candidate for sigmoid approach but should assume retaining any hearing is 50/50.  Can you tell me how your 'transition' to losing hearing on your affected side has been?  TransLab is safer approach for my situation but hard to not take a swing at the fence.

Thanks and best of luck in your recovery!  Glad to hear it went so well.

[bleavitt]

Mike S;

In response to your question, I've only been without my hearing for a little over two weeks. I had poor "servicable" hearing going into surgery, making my complete hearing loss less of an issue then I thought it would be. I need my wife to sit on my good side in resturants (surgery went so well that we've been out a few times). So far, hearing loss isn't a big deal. My biggest fear going forward is the preservation of hearing in my good ear.

I'm not real familiar with the Sigmoid Approach. I had virtually no chance at retaining my hearing, so 50/50 sounds good to me. The little bit I have heard about Sigmoid revolves around headaches. I had one headache last week for about a half of a day (never had a headaches before) and they are strong, but that was it. If that approach has headaches as a long term side effect, that would be something to consider.

You and your doctor will make the correct decision. Make certain you have an outstanding specialist, someone who does your surgery routinely. Good luck and feel free to contact me with any questions.

[Kaybo]

MikeS~
I had surgery 13 years ago (& had no choice in the type of surgery I had) and have been SSD ever since.  I have 3 little girls and a VERY active life.  I have adjusted very well to only hearing out of one ear.  I would take deafness over headaches ANY day.  HOWEVER, there is no guarantee that you won't have headaches with any approach - there are some that seem to have more...but once again, every AN situation is completely different.  I will say that the ONLY real problem I have had over the years with the SSD is the "directional" hearing - you should try locating a crying baby that has crawled off to another room!!    But that too can be dealt with.  There are many devices out there these days that really help SSD if you need to go that route.  The best I have heard of are the BAHA and the TransEar.

K

[Pooter]

I had the retrosigmoid surgery and without regard to the headaches associated with some CSF build up, I didn't really have any to speak of.  As Kay says, you run the risk of headaches with any procedure (surgery or radiation).  What matters the most is the location of your particular tumor, size, etc..  The surgeon will tell you what gives him the best option to get all of the tumor based on it's location.  It makes sense that some will favor one approach over the other, and therefore give them the best option.

FYI, I was scheduled for translab also but with about a week to go before surgery, I noticed on some paperwork that I was scheduled for a retrosigmoid surgery.  When asked, my surgeon said that after consulting with his partner, that approach (retrosigmoid) gave them the best avenue to hopefully get the entire tumor.  Hearing, to me, was secondary to getting all of the tumor in one shot.  Loss of hearing can be adjusted to or dealt with (via TransEar or BAHA or another method), but I wanted them to do surgery only once.  That was my thought process..

Regards,
Brian

[MikeS]

Thanks everyone for your input.  One more consult tomorrow and am leaning towards retro-sig in mid-march.  i agree with everyone's comments that i'll trade almost anything to ditch the headaches and soreness i have right now.  i've lost the ability to filter out loud noises (apparently a pre-cursor to hearing loss), so any time i'm in a movie theatre, restaurant or at the kid's b-ball games, i have to use a foam plug anyways or the loud noise is excruciating so already getting a taste of hearing out of one ear.  I'm just hoping it doesn't affect my "selective hearing" ability with my wife!

[leapyrtwins]

Hi, Mike S 

I think I missed your first post, but just wanted to say I had retrosigmoid in May 2007.  Everything went as expected - in fact in some ways it went better than expected, which was nice 

I ended up SSD, but opted for a BAHA - which I highly recommend.

Don't forget to put your surgery date on the AN Calendar (you'll find a link at the bottom of Steve's profile - his user name is sgerrard).

Please keep us updated.

Best of luck,

Jan