December 6, 2012 I had a meeting today with Dr Shelton at the University of Utah hospital. He specializes in Acoustic Neuroma tumors. He will do part of the surgery along with a neuro surgeon. He told me that my tumor is large measuring 22mm. It is pressing on my brainstem. Because it is so large and the position of it there is only one surgery possible it is the tranlab approach. There is an option of radiation but he said it would be very difficult to keep the radiation off my brainstem also there is a small chance the radiation could turn it cancerous and then it would definitely result in death. So I will do the surgery. It is a 4-6 hour surgery they go in behind my right ear.
I am disappointed about doing the translab, because there is no way to preserve my hearing in my right ear. This makes me sad since my hearing is still pretty good. But the other surgeries would be very difficult to get to the tumor and even more difficult or impossible to remove the whole thing and there is a good chance I would still lose my hearing. Also, they have to cut my balance nerves. They have told me that when I wake up from surgery I will be extremely dizzy and sick. I won't be able to balance. They will have to teach me how to re-balance and walk again, They will keep me in the hospital for about a week. When I come home I will have to practice walking around everyday. It will take 4-6 weeks to be able to walk around mostly like normal. They will also be working around my facial nerve, it is very common to irritate this nerve during the surgery. So when I wake my face will be droopy and I won't be able to use my muscles on the right side. This should be temporary, lasting a few months but could be permanent if they have to cut the nerve to get the tumor out.
That was a hard appointment, it was hard to hear all that. I had a few hard days afterward. But Nick took me to the Timpanogos Temple and it really filled me with peace. I mostly have accepted this now but I still have some hard days or nights. My surgery date is January 14, 2013. It is horrible waiting for this date knowing that I feel fine and I will come out of surgery permanently feeling worse than I went in. But I am fully confident in our team of surgeons they have been operating together on these tumors for 13 years. They also have patients that fly in from around the country to have them operate. I feel very blessed to have them near by.
I don't have much more going on and won't update to much until my pre ops the week of January 7. I told Nick he has to update this blog while I am in surgery and the weeks following. Thank you all for your concern and comforting words, it really means a lot to me.
Monday, December 17, 2012
History of my Acoustic Neuroma
I am writing this blog for all the wonderful people who are concerned and requested to be kept updated on my surgery. Thank you all for your concern.
It started in May 2012, I had been frustrated for a long time feeling like I could never "catch" what people were saying to me. I finally thought to myself "maybe I'm not hearing as good as I should be."
In August I noticed I could not hear people clearly if I had the phone on my right ear. I discovered this after getting annoyed with Nick for mumbling on the phone (Sorry babe.) Also in August I started to complain to Nick that the right side of my face felt funny. But I never thought the two had anything to do with each other.
In October my tongue started to bother me I kept chewing on it and it felt numb. I set up an appointment with an ENT to get my hearing checked. My hearing was only slightly worse in my right ear than in my left. It still passed a hearing test. He wasn't sure what was wrong and told me there is a very small chance it could be a brain tumor. But he thought it was more likely that I just didn't pay attention when people talked to me and I blamed it on my hearing! He wanted me to wait until Feb. and get another hearing test and decide where to go from there. I came home and talked to Nick and researched this tumor a little and found that facial numbness was one of the symptoms. We decided that since we already met our Insurance deductible we would push for an MRI before the end of the year instead of waiting until February and having to pay the deductible again.
On Nov 26, 2012 I went in for my MRI, I was very nervous since I had heard so many horror stories about getting them done. So I took the valium, and it turned out to be a very relaxing enjoyable 45 minutes :) The next day the doctor called and told me that I did have a brain tumor, It is called an Acoustic Neuroma, it is a benign tumor. I was shocked and not quite sure how I felt.
It started in May 2012, I had been frustrated for a long time feeling like I could never "catch" what people were saying to me. I finally thought to myself "maybe I'm not hearing as good as I should be."
In August I noticed I could not hear people clearly if I had the phone on my right ear. I discovered this after getting annoyed with Nick for mumbling on the phone (Sorry babe.) Also in August I started to complain to Nick that the right side of my face felt funny. But I never thought the two had anything to do with each other.
In October my tongue started to bother me I kept chewing on it and it felt numb. I set up an appointment with an ENT to get my hearing checked. My hearing was only slightly worse in my right ear than in my left. It still passed a hearing test. He wasn't sure what was wrong and told me there is a very small chance it could be a brain tumor. But he thought it was more likely that I just didn't pay attention when people talked to me and I blamed it on my hearing! He wanted me to wait until Feb. and get another hearing test and decide where to go from there. I came home and talked to Nick and researched this tumor a little and found that facial numbness was one of the symptoms. We decided that since we already met our Insurance deductible we would push for an MRI before the end of the year instead of waiting until February and having to pay the deductible again.
On Nov 26, 2012 I went in for my MRI, I was very nervous since I had heard so many horror stories about getting them done. So I took the valium, and it turned out to be a very relaxing enjoyable 45 minutes :) The next day the doctor called and told me that I did have a brain tumor, It is called an Acoustic Neuroma, it is a benign tumor. I was shocked and not quite sure how I felt.
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