Huh?

Say what? Huh? one more time? I’m sorry? 

Sometimes I feel like that’s all I say anymore. It’s been almost 6 years since I was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had my first brain surgery, thus, 6 years since I’ve heard a single sound from my left ear. I suppose it’s a small price to pay considering that a large brain tumor was removed from my brain, but sometimes I just grow so absolutely frustrated with my inability to hear fully. I live my life looking around frantically wondering if anyone is trying to talk to me. No matter where a sound comes from, it always feels like it’s coming from my right (good ear). I fear what the future brings when nature takes it course and the hearing in my “good” ear deteriorates.

 I try to maintain a positive attitude and count my blessings, and I fully understand that so many people have much larger challenges, but I’m allowed to vent once in awhile, right? Right? Did you say right? Huh?

Phyl’s CyberKnife Testimonial

Want to share YOUR story?

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Thanks!
Scott

Scott Ryan

  

 

April 2007

  Scott Ryan

 

Canton, Michigan  

 

Diagnosed 3.5 cm AN in August 2004 at age 28

 Microsurgery #1 (Retrosigmoid Approach)

 October 7, 2004

 

Microsurgery #2 (Translabyrinthine Approach)

February 1, 2006

 

Gamma Knife Radiation

July 17, 2007

 

 

“YOU HAVE A BRAIN TUMOR.” My heart started racing. I could feel myself growing faint. I leaned my back against the wall of the small exam room and slid down to the floor. Dr. P continued, “IT’S LARGE AND IN A BAD SPOT, COMPRESSING YOUR BRAIN STEM, WE NEED TO SCHEDULE SURGERY TO GET THAT OUT OF THERE.” I closed my eyes and tried to regain some sense of composure. I was numb.

 

Are you on Facebook?

If so, joing this great Acoustic Neuroma / Vestibular Schwannoma Group!

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8190517727&ref=mf

Movie hits close to home for Ruffalo

Interesting article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about actor Mark Ruffalo, his new movie and his battle in 2001 with an Acoustic Neuroma.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=801878

Justin David Phillips

 

 

IT’S A BIRD, IT’S A PLANE, IT’S…A ‘BENIGN’ BRAIN TUMOR!

Justin David Phillips

Born: October 28, 1975

Diagnosed: February 20, 2007, Age 31

Surgical Resection: Translabyrinthine Approach May 1, 2007 – Toronto, Ontario

 Home: Winnipeg, Manitoba,  Canada

____________________________________________________________________________

Let me preface this by saying that I truly believe in fate and what happened to me was meant to be. I have experienced every emotion, which a human can have some I liked but most I didn’t. Staying as positive as I could throughout this entire experience was very important to help me through the struggles of being told “you have a brain tumor…but it’s benign?” (Is that supposed to give me comfort?)

 

Samuel B. Rush MD

A doctor and  a patient

At the time of my acoustic neuroma diagnosis, at age 61, I had been a busy internal medicine specialist for 36 years, and acoustic neuroma’s (AN’S) were something that I never thought about. I had never seen a case, never looked for one, and never considered it as a differential diagnosis even in people with classical symptoms. If somebody would have asked me what a AN was, I would have said that it was some kind of tumor involving the ear, but I would have had to look it up to see if it was benign or malignant, or how to treat it.

Michael Huggins

Michael Huggins’ Story – A CSF saga
As experienced by his wife, Lisa

 

Baseball Sized Tumor

“Honey, you know, something seems different with my right ear….”  That was the first I’d heard in many, many years about my husband, Michael’s loss of hearing.  For about 5 years, he’d been saying – rather non-chalantly – that he was noticing that his hearing in his right ear was less than the one in the left ear.  We both attributed that to the many, many previous years of rock-n-roll.  Playing in bands, on stage with loud music blaring out of the monitor on his right.  He is my “rock-n-roll, hairdresser husband” after all.  That’s how we met.  He was my hairdresser first…. and he was so cool, with his long hair and the fact that he played lead guitar and was lead singer of a band made him even cooler.  When we started dating – Wow, I thought I’d hit the coolness jackpot!  But that’s another story that goes back to 1990….
 

Larry Sher

Larry Sher

DOB 24 September 1956

Melbourne, Australia

Diagnosed September 2002

Operated on November 2002

Regrowth discovered November 2005

Would I do things differently if I had the chance – absolutely!

Am I angry at this affliction – Yes, Yes and Yes

 

Headaches, some rather ordinary medical advice and attention, single sided deafness and my tumour is still there! These are the outcomes of my Middle Fossa surgery to remove an Acoustic Neuroma.

I was diagnosed with an Acoustic Neuroma that was around 22mm in September 2002. What a shock to the system that should have been but displaying all the traits of too much testosterone, I didn’t seem too perturbed by it at the time but alarm bells should have rung and I shouldn’t have been so blaze’ about it.