What caused your AN ?

[SuzeAN]

All right I have to add to this ..yes..I haven't seen this one posted:  When I was about 12 my family vacationed in Northern California (visited the Redwoods)  well unbeknownst to me at the time I came home with a little something extra--a tick--really---it was in my head.  And it was a couple days after being home I remember saying to my parents that my head felt like I banged it, though I couldn't remember on what I may have bumped it on.  I asked my dad to check and see if there was a bump, and my mom said that I had very dark circles under my eyes.  Well lo and behold, my dad looks and there is this the backside of this tick sticking out of my head! We rush to the emergency room, and several docs pop in to see this (unusually case for a Queens NY hospital; I felt like a freak) my dad looses his patience (not uncommon for him) and was yelling "Stop looking at the @#%^ thing and get it out."  Well a shot, and few stitches later its out, I get to see this thing in a jar (yuck). It wasn't Rocky Mountain spotted whatever nor Lyme, but it was embedded in there nicely. 

So head injury-check, concerts- check, alcohol-check, sugar (no sac, or asp)-check,  no smoking,  not much caffeine (not a regular soda or coffee consumer), and no weight control supplements.  So I watch what I eat, I buy organic foods, I exercise, have healthy habits and tell everyone else in my family to do so and I end up with the tumor!

[okiesandy]

I will add a little to this thread. Seems a good one.

I went to the neruousrgeon yesterday in preperation for my CK Treatment. Some of the questions she ask was:

(1) Are you right handed?  Yes
(2) What part of the country does you family come from?  Missouri (However, have lived in CA and OR growing up. OK now)
(3) Have you ever had blow to the head or an accident?  Yes
(No questions about loud music).
(4) Has any one else in your family had a brain tumor? No
(5) Do you have any autoimmune diseases? Yes
(6)Which ear did you normally use for the phone. Left

(2)She said there are parts of the country where AN's happen more often (got interupted and didn't get to ask where)
(3) Two very serious auto accidents and a bad fall while ice skating in my 30's
(5) Autoimmune Inner Ear Disease
(6) Tumor is on the left side. Used cell phone since Late 80's. Long time Realtor, lots of cell phone use.

Just for kicks look at the Kansas City Acoustic Neuroma forum for a survey they took. Great thought provoking questions and yes, I do fit most of that catagory also.

If there is anyway to find some common threads for this I think all of us may have the answers.

There have always been AN's. There is a significant increase in the amount seen not and not all are due to better imiging. Or even Dr. Education. Mine would not have been found had I not lost 100% of my hearing in 3 days. Which I also found out yesterday is in all likelyhood not realated to the AN. More likely the AIED.

The Neurosurgeon I saw yesterday is one of the most open minded and willing to listen and share information that I have come across yet.

[sirialison]

hmmmmm.....my dad (acidentally) let me roll off the changing table when i was a baby once. could that be it? i also got a whopper of a concussion when i was 5, 6, 7 or 8 (can't really remember...) sledding down the hill at my grandparent's house using  one of those evil red saucers...great fun, except for the headache! so, would my children be doomed to a tumor since all of them have fallen off the changing table one time or another (or couch, or bed, or what have you...accident, of course!) and they have all banged their heads while sledding? (but never one a saucer that i know about - i got them the even more evil "wacky carpet"!)

i figure the tumor was probably always there - instead of asking "why?", i've started to ask "why not?"!

[janetm]

Has anyone suffered from inflammation of the nerves called neuritis?  I had shingles at age 17 and have had flare-ups since.  Since an acoustic neuroma is a tumor of the nerves, I wonder if there is any relationship.  I also think that stress causes a flare-up of nerves.

[Crazycat]

Hi Janet!

            Can't say I've ever experienced neuritis. Anyway, how are you feeling since your surgery?

                      Paul

[Larry]

Hi guys,

Sorry to get onto a more serious note but when the product Aspartame was mentioned, I looked it up and sure enough, it is certainly in just about everything that i eat and drink. I tried finding an official medical study that links this product and its dervitives to brain tumours but couldn't find one. the only in depth articles i found were by people trying to sell their book or aspartame de tox programs. Can anyone pioint me in the direction of any offical study or trial on this product. I'm not sure if i can live without my copious amounts of diet coke. Given the quantity of aspartame in that drink, I might be in trouble.

Oh, and a happy new year to all posters.

Larry

[Mark]

In regards to the discussion about Aspartame, there is an article in the most recent issue ( January/ February 2006) of Men's Health magazine which is written by a Jeff Volek, PH.D, R.D. dealing with reducing the body's intake of sugar. On page 91 he separates fact from fiction on sugar substitutes

His comments on Aspartame are:

What it is: A combination of two amino acids: aspartic acid and phenylalanine.

Flavor Profile: Distinctly chemical 180 times sweeter than sugar

Possible side effects: None- unless you have a rare genetic condition called phenylketonuria in which your body can't process phenylalanine.

He further comments that it causing Brain tumors in rats is a rumor. Saccharin was linked to cancer in rats, but not in humans.


I'm not sure I'll put men's Health up as an academic source but ususally their information is pretty good. FWIW

Mark

[Windsong]

no idea if this will help but a few yrs ago when i was wondering about aspartame i plugged in a search using words like aspartame and then side effects and who knows what... but i found an amazing number of articles some of which had to do with reports done and brought to congress...... i read enough to maike me stop drinking a diet soft drink with aspartame that very day..... i don't eat packaged foods and things like that so unless they feed aspartame to chickens and cows and put it in milk or eggs in the shell i figure i no longer am "intaking" aspartame......

the chemical compostion of diet drinks with asp is mind boggling and when these drinks are left at a temp that is higher than  a cool room temp all sorts of things happen in it...... i wouldn't drink the stuff now......

maybe this will help your googling.....hope so.
Windsong

[marie]

When I was six or seven years old, I was running , ran into a clotheline strung across the sidewalk --forehead high-- and was thrown straight back  flat on the concrete.I still remember my ears ( both) ringing  for a while.  My first AN was discovered when I was 30 years old, but they said I had had it since about age 16.  There were no cell phones, no sugar substitutes, didn't ingest caffeine--none of the modern possible causes.  I now have an AN on the other side.  I've wondered over the years whether that shock to the hearing nerves caused the tumors.

[jamie]

Just curious, why is everybody listing caffeine as a possible tumor cause? Caffeine actually has anti-tumor qualities.

[debora]

I wonder if stress has anything to do with tumors, my left has been extremely stressful the last 5 years.  I also have the other possible causes that have been listed but truely believe stress plays a large roll in illnesses.  Deb

[stacylee]

I have NF2 and bi-lateral ANs and I have nerve flare-ups all the time.  I had a trans-lab removal 10 1/2 years ago and I was diagnosed with the second AN(still very small) and the NF2 in August of this year.  Whenever I am stressed my hearing in my good ear goes away.

At one point the Dr. that performed my surgery 10 years ago said that when he closed back up my head cranial herpes was activated in my brain.  He still says that that is why my hearing fluctuates.  I am constantly searching for an answer or someone with similiar symptoms. I no longer go to this Dr. and have been at MD Anderson Cancer Center in their NF2 program but they have no idea why this happens to me.

I can go days and even weeks with wonderful hearing and then suddenly within minutes it is gone and there is also lots of tinnitus.

Stacy

[Kathleen_Mc]

Boppie: you are right that the stat.'s on A.N. only reflect the one's that are found in the living, they are often found in post-mortems and these are not included in the stat.'s of A.N. occurances. I am told by the morticians that they are found in very small states and very large states as well, nobody has told me the cause of death of someone is listed as an undiagnosed A.N. though, at least not yet.
Kathleen

[Joef]

Good point.. I think we (doctors) assume when we are getting old that our balance and hearing is not as good as we were kids .. and we end up dieing from something else .. when all along we had a small AN ...
 

[Joef]

Hi Stacy !!
  Sounds like a lose connection! .. do you have tinnitus when the hearing is good? or just when the hearing is gone?
my

I can go days and even weeks with wonderful hearing and then suddenly within minutes it is gone and there is also lots of tinnitus.

Stacy