ANA Discussion Forum
Post-Treatment => Post-Treatment => Topic started by: kixit on August 24, 2012, 05:11:36 pm
-
Today, Aug 24th marks the 3 month post op mark for me. I don't feel any different than before surgery except knowing the tumor is gone. I still have balance issues, major fatigue and ticked off about a failed Baha surgery.
My patience is running rather thin as I have tried to stay upbeat about it all. People see just the outside of me and think she's recovered, what's her problem? I'm tired of explaining me.
My doctor keeps saying the balance will get better. Well, it's no better now than it was a month ago. Granted, it's better than the first month after surgery but I want to walk NORMAL again!!
Thank you all for listening to my grouch session :P
-
Hang in there.
In my experience, the early months were the hardest. After that it was all downhill :)
Keep in mind that lots of AN patients suffer from depression post op - I know I did until I got my BAHA - so don't discount the idea of seeking professional help if you feel you need it.
Best,
Jan
-
AT the risk of being repetitious, it took me exactly 7 months to walk with any real sense of normality. And as recently as this afternoon I had a momentary spell of feeling that everything was
bouncing, and my walking was awkward. But it changed back quickly to more normal. My problems recently seem to be outside, indoors I am usually fine.
After surgery I found I needed to run through a head movement routine periodically to keep myself on track with balance progress, as well as walking figure eight patterns. Walking with head movements of 45 degrees right and left, then up and down, over many months led to gradual improvement until one day I noticed I was indeed walking normally - at least most of the time. Good luck, it seems to me that you are on your way to more improvement.
-
Wanting to feel "normal" makes sense. The new normal takes some adjustment. Do you have the vestibular exercises for after AN surgery? My understanding is that we want to practice what makes us have problems with balance/dizziness over and over every day until our brains can relearn how to help us rebalance. I'm not a PT but doing this every day seems to be helping me. Maybe getting some help from a PT specializing in this could be of benefit? You may have done this already? Please give updates. Thanks to those of you posting about your continued improvement after the first several months.
Karen
-
Kixit ~
Your frustrations are perfectly normal and understandable to us. I'll just add my voice to the chorus singing 'Time is on your side'. In short: it gets better. Honest.
Jim
-
Kixit -
I have a copy of the vestibular exercises my doc gave me in a Word document.
If you'd like them, PM me your email address and I'll send them to you.
Jan