ANA Discussion Forum
Watch and Wait => For those in the 'watch and wait' status => Topic started by: Notanotherthing on December 29, 2015, 08:00:42 pm
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As your tumor grows, will ear pressure increase? Also will I have sensations of a muffling in the affected ear because my hearing is going?? Mine is still very small but I feel as if it is indeed growing due to increasing symptoms. It was discovered on MRI during evaluation of sway/stumble balance problems (but the docs are telling me that my vestibular schwannoma is not causing balance problems)
I know how I feel. I started having balance problems at least spring or summer and was reporting these to my doctor. So therefore even if a VS "appears stable" because they went back and looked at last year's MRI and saw it, what does the word stable really mean--- it could appear similar in size however could it not be making subtle changes and therefore that may be why I am having symptoms. Or am I incorrect in that?
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Balance issues can definitely be caused by small ANs.
Disabling vertigo is not common, but being off balance, walking into door frames, running your hands along walls, when walking in the dark, problems reading, concentrating, short term memory loss, jumbling words, can be linked to balance issues and ANs.
As for hearing... It's a contentious issue as to what is the best way to preserve your hearing.
Ear pressure is caused by an upset facial nerve, it may or may not get better or worse.
I chose to be treated proactively with Single session Cyberknife.. It's essentially the same as Gammaknife but no head frame. 5 1/2 years later and I still have reasonable hearing in my AN ear. That annoying full ear canal feeling went 5 years ago. Dizziness went after about 3 years ago.
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Notanotherthing- There is also evidence that there are other factor, aside from tumor growth, that affect hearing loss from AN. We will be including an article in the March ANA Newsletter about research that is being done about toxic substances AN's release which damage hearing.
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Thank you.