Monday

Well, tomorrow is May 1, May Day. That means that I have 23 days and counting. I had a good weekend. I ended up being able to take Connor to both of his soccer games and Cooper to the Scout-o-rama. We had a fun day.

I did some yard work on Sunday, that was about it. A pretty good weekend.

Tomorrow, I am going north to do some field work. It will be a quick trip.

Comments: I had the settings where it wouldn't let anyone post, so now that is fixed. I think you may have to set up a Google account.

Happy MAY DAY everyone!!

Preparations

Hello, I hope everyone is well and going to enjoy this nice weekend upon us. Boy1 has the Scout-a-rama tomorrow, and as this is our first, it should be a lot of fun. We will probably be there most of the day. Boy2 has soccer too, so hopefully all of that will work out.
I am going to get my bike out and ride as much as possible in the next three weeks, because with the balance issues I am not sure when I will be able to ride again. Actually, as I sit here and ponder on that one, I am going to make that one of my goals by the end of the summer. Huh, I wonder if that will be possible?!? We can only hope...
I have been walking as much as I can. I am hoping that will help with my recovery. I think that walking as much as possible after the surgery will help me get my balance back. I may look funny afterwards with the balance issue, but that will have to be how it is.... May not be able to walk straight.
I hope everyone has a nice weekend. Take care!

More

A few statistics:

1. I have a 50/50 chance of retaining hearing on the left side.
2. 6-8 week recovery.
3. Acoustic neuroma is not really a tumor on the acoustic nerve, but the vestibular nerve, which is the balance nerve.
4. Surgery will sever vestibular nerve. The right side will compensate eventually, that is why the recovery is so long.
5. I won't be able to drive during the day for 4 weeks and after dark for 3 MONTHS.
6. I won't be able to wash my hair for 12 days! ICK!
7. I will have severe dizziness/nausea/vertigo when I wake up from surgery due to the balance nerve being severed. This will probably last a few days.

I am sure this is just the beginning. More later...

Surgery date

Okay, I have the date of surgery nailed down to May 23, 2007. I have 2 reasons for picking this particular week for the surgery. 1. Soccer is over for boy2 and cub scouts is over for boy1 the prior week. 2. My 20 year class reunion is 8 weeks after. I doubt I will be partying, but at least I will be able to see friends that I haven't seen in a while.

I went through my MRI images and selected a few to post. Here they are:

Pretty weird aren't they!!

Introduction

Hi, As many of you know, I have an Acoustic Neuroma. I will abreviate it as "AN". Mine is 1.5cmx1.6cmx1.7cm in size.

In February, I had sudden hearing loss on my left side. My sister Sue is an Audiologist, so I called her and she told me to get to the doctor ASAP. So I went and saw the local ENT and had a hearing test, which indicated that I had lost about half of my hearing in my left ear and the right was still good. He put me on steriods and sent me for an MRI. The steroids actually helped and I have close to normal hearing back in the left ear.

But, the MRI indicated that I have the AN. So, on March 9th about 5 pm, the ENT called me with the news and that is where this journey started.

I guess at first, I was in shock a little bit, especially since I had no clue what an AN was. So of course, with the magic of the internet, I started my research.

Summary of AN:

1. An acoustic neuroma is a benign tumor.
2. It is usually slow growing and expands at its site of origin.
3. The most common first symptom is hearing loss in the tumor ear only.
4. The cause is unknown.
5. A large tumor pushes on the surface of the brain but does not grow into the brain tissue.
6. Continued tumor growth can be life threatening.
7. The treatment options are observation, surgical removal or radiation.
8. Occurance rate is 1 in 100,000 diagnosed per year. (so in Wyoming, that is 5 per year)