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.