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New and very anxious

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dsf767:
Hi all,

I'm sure you have read posts like this 1,000 times by now but at this point I'm very anxious

For a couple years I've had single sided hearing loss with occasional Tinnitus no other symptoms of note i do have very occasional vertigo if i wake up and move quickly but other then that no balence issue or facial issues.

When i noticed the hearing loss i did see an ENT but i was younger then and when he told me i should get a hearing test i kinda blew it off. I know that was a mistake but at the time i was busy and well honestly not sure what i was thinking.

Fast forward until now and i finally made the decision to follow up on the situation even though in the 2 years since this all started i haven't got worse but i recently had my daughter so thought it was about time to start looking after myself for my family's sake. So i had my appointment with my ENT today and they confirmed i hid mild to moderate hearing loss in my left ear.

The results of my hearing test on my left ear were SRT 40 Discrimination 76% 75dB MCL what ever that means (maybe someone can elaborate on those numbers).

Basically my doctor said there was distortion in my left ear which he was concerned about so ordered an MRI in the research I've done i always knew an AN was possible but it was not until tonight when i was finished with my appointment that it really hit me. He said i will most likely have to wait 3 week for an MRI then wait for the results after that.

I am the type of person to plan and look at everything so i know it's going to have me going crazy until i find out one way or another so i figured I'd join here share my story in case in the event i do have an AN i will be ready to hopefully be in a better place to deal with it.

ANSydney:
dsf, welcome to the forum. I won't say welcome to the club and I hope you never have to!

SRT is speech reception threshold. It is similar to the more meaningful pure tone average (PTA). 40 refers to the dB (bigger is softer) that words can still be heard. At 40 dB it would be considered moderate hearing loss. Discrimination is the amount of words and subwords that are correctly heard, in this can at 75 dB. Your results are very similar to mine which would be considered moderate hearing loss.

Can you use the phone (not so well) on your poorer ear?

Ironically, you may have done the "best" thing by unknowingly putting yourself on (potential) watch & wait. These tumors have been found to stop growing after 4 years from diagnosis (or ~symptoms). http://acusticusneurinom.dk/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/natural-history-of-vs.pdf

These are slow growing tumors so there is no rush to get the MRI or anything done.

Good luck.

dsf767:
Well I just got the news I do have an AN.

I guess now the fun part starts I guess luckily I live just south of Boston so I am going to be going to MEEI and the MGH team to see whats next on my journey I am very scared as what comes next but I hope I can be a part of the forum to help me feel better about my situation.   

Even though I was diagnosed in Weymouth at the local MEEI office I did not really care for my ENT. He just seemed so impersonal and at first he told me to call Dr. Lee in Boston and did not even mention Dr. McKenna who I know is very highly regarded on this forum. I also asked about he size but he could not tell me and just told me it was a "good size" what ever that's supposed to mean.

I called Dr. McKenna's office today and am waiting for a call back but knowing lots of people on this forum has experience with him makes me feel better, not that I think Dr. Lee would be a bad doctor but for something like this I want to see the best.

I really have no idea what to think or how to feel at this point my Wife, Parents, and Boss know at this point and its just so hard knowing what going to come from all of this and the information is so hard to process.

I just want to thank everyone on this forum because when I got the call from the ENT he seemed to know nothing other then giving me a name and its only because of the reading I have done here I felt like I had a little more information to use 

LakeErie:
You can get a copy of the MRI report directly from the imaging center just by asking. The report will have the radiologist's estimated AN dimensions. A word of caution though, radiologists look at a lot of images and not a lot of AN's. An AN experienced physician often measures AN dimensions differently than the radiologist. It happened in my case, my experienced skull base surgeon found the tumor a full centimeter larger in one dimension for example. AN surgeons look at AN images all the time
The worst part of the tumor process for me was the time prior to making my treatment decision. Once I had confidence in the surgeon I selected, I was much calmer than I would have believed prior to the decision.  Things get better as you gain information and make decisions as you are gaining some control over events. Most people do very well these days if they have experienced doctors. Good luck

dsf767:
Thanks,

I got my appointment with Dr. McKenna scheduled for 3 weeks from now. I will probably also send my information over to House just to see what they have to say as well.

I guess what makes me be a little more positive about all of this is that I live near a great medical city (Boston) and am seeing someone who lots of people on this forum have had a good experience with 

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