Meeting with Dr Shelton

        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.