Welcome to the club nobody wants to join. I am sorry you're a member, and we all know how stressing the diagnosis can be. I had my surgery 7 months ago on May 13th. I had decided early on that I wanted the surgical option. For me personally it was the possible cancer risk that steered me away from radiation. I know that risk is extremely low, but in my mind so was getting the tumor in the first place and I didn't beat those odds. My surgery was done at John's Hopkins, although I also had a second opinion from Hershey Medical center. I really liked the facility at Hershey, but they wouldn't listen to what I wanted and kept pushing the radiation. Surgery couldn't have gone better. Pre-surgery I was very unbalanced, had headaches all the time, even had a few episodes of choking on food because I couldn't swallow properly. Also I was considered legally deaf in my left ear but not totally deaf. Seven months post surgery and I feel better than I have in years. No headaches other than normal ones everyone gets from time to time, no balance problems, and no swallowing issues anymore. I do still have a lack of taste and although they said they were able to preserve the hearing, honestly I can't hear a thing out of that ear but it was so bad before I really don't see much change. I would recommend doing as much as you can to stay as active as possible if you go the surgical route. It really seems to help the recovery process. Pre-diagnosis I ran several 5k's a year, and I kept doing them until my balance was too bad, and even then I ran on a treadmill with handrails, and if I couldn't run I walked as fast as I could. Post surgery I was walking, not well, but walking on the 2nd day, and by the end of the week I was doing 1/2 mile at a time around the hallways. After about 6 weeks I started jogging again, and I felt well enough to push it further so I started running again, and just a few weeks ago I ran the Turkey Trot and not only finished, I actually set a personal best time. Now you may be wondering about age. I am 56 and about to turn 57 right after Christmas. I was stressed about not waking up or waking up really messed up. The mental health side of this can be really rough. Try to focus on the positives. What you can do and not what you can't. Don't be afraid to ask questions, and don't be afraid to basically put your foot down about what you want.
