General Category > AN Issues
Cerebellar Retraction / Handwriting Difficulties
Crazycat:
Hello all!
I Just returned from Dr. Michael McKenna's ( Neurotologist at large) office at Mass Eye & Ear in Boston. For the most part, I'm in extremely good condition since my surgeries last year. I do however, have some issues with left-side impairment that are bothering me. Totally deaf in one ear - left-side - while being, let's say, an "inconvenience" is something I've been living with for five years prior to diagnosis and treatment and have no problem dealing with, even as a professional musician if you can believe it.
What's really bothering me is the impairment or lack of control I'm experiencing when it comes to handwriting and even guitar playing. Not only did I have excellent penmanship throughout my life but have also had considerable talent as an artist and illustrator. Now, although I can still get by with these skills, my abilities have been seriously compromised. I'm earnestly hoping and praying that these skills that I "had" will eventually return in full force after diligently and ceaselessly working them.
The good doctor spoke of "retraction of the cerebellum" and that typically, most of the healing that we can expect to occur in this area will occur within a year or so after surgery ( I'm now 1 year and 3 months out). It seems that in my case, I have a mild case of this affliction, in spite of the fact that I had a tumor the size of a grapefruit and two shunt surgeries for hydrocephalus. The difficulties that I'm experiencing however, are minor in comparison to how bad it could be, i.e.: problems with movement, walking, or balance.
I was speaking with a woman I know that has M.S. a month ago. Out of the blue she complained to me that her handwriting was shot - among other things. I thought that was interesting, not having M.S. yet having a similar malady.
The cranial nerves, while being so close together at the skull base, act as a sort of wiring harness that often gets short-circuited during the course of an invasive surgical procedure and/or from impingement of an invading growth. We've all experienced it, one way or another, whether the problem involves sensation (trigeminal nerve), facial movement (facial nerve), taste (chorda tympani nerve), auditory, vestibular and other problems I can't even think of. The purpose of this thread is to now append "cerebellar retraction" and the resulting problems that may arise from it into our litany of medical grievances.
Here is a publication that I found pertaining to the subject at hand:
http://www.otology-neurotology.com/pt/re/otoneuroto/abstract.00129492-200207000-00028.htm;jsessionid=FQ9pJJsnhTBKwt2LTQSh541XJfjxQvHM7S3p8p8fLkSsPGvnPyhJ!918851391!-949856145!8091!-1
If anyone is experiencing this problem with handwriting or has gotton over it after surgery, CK or radiation please feel free to chime in!
Take care, Paul
nancyann:
WHAT ELSE IS GOING TO HAPPEN POST-OP ????
Jeez, Paul, & this is your livelihood !!!!!!! Haven't read the insert yet, I'm still shocked to hear there can be more heading down the pike !
Obviously, at 5 1/2 months post op, I'm not having that problem. When I 1st tried to play the piano post op (besides forgetting a memorized piece ),
looking at the keys made me whoozy, took some time, still a little off..... but to hear there can be more of a problem !!! I write alot at work, I've taken
to copying drs. notes that are too long.
This is just TOO much ! I hope things improve for you - I'm sure more for you than me, MUSIC IS YOUR LIFE, art also.
Best wishes to you, Nancy
Windsong:
Paul,
I hope these symptoms resolve for you...
I personally have to wonder about "retraction" being the "culprit". If "impingement" is an issue then wouldn't an An simply by "being" there have an affect on nerves?
There are / can be a myriad of symptoms many of which most of us do not mention simply because they don't seem to be important. Then again, whatever the An sits on, or impinges on, plenty of symptoms can happen.
Perhaps the best thing to do for all of us is to mention anything new to our doctors?
I, myself. ignore some mainly because they seem unimportant in the "bigger" picture.
I find myself thinking now "wait a minute" i don't remember having that before?
Perhaps if we reported more of them, we'd have better research answers.
I say this as I think, well, Ans grow on nerves, so wouldn't any strange new symtpoms have a part to play in all this?
Again, it's the diffrence between a macro and micro picture of Ans...
Hope you get answers and better soon,
Windsong
PS short term memory made me forget the bit about handwriting? yes, handwriting which used to be oh so nice is all over the map along with the dyslexic typing....for me
HeadCase2:
Paul,
Interesting article. I've been wondering for some time if cerebellar issues may be involved for post treatment AN patients who have vestibular issues. I'm not sure that losing a vestibular nerve on one side can explain the whole range of the vestibular symptoms. We tend to focus on direct damage, like a severed nerve, but damage to the blood vessels supplying blood to parts of the cerebellum would have a similar effect.
Regards,
Rob
Joef:
  I too still have some minor problems with handwritting..  and belive it or not .. I sometimes miss-spell my name! .. not sure why I do it , but you know how your hand just sort of "knows" how to things... well my hand has forgot .. and commonly leaves out a letter ...and the same letter all the time!
  I have a thoery! ..
  now think star-trek .. the shortest point between to spots on a graph .. can be shorted if you bend the paper! ..
  now think you brain is the paper ... what was the shortest point (a comressed brain because of the AN). is now no longer the shortest point! assuming we had the AN for a long time ....our brain learned the shortest route... and now its not ... we have to re-learn .. and it might take (another 40 years in my case) ...
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