Thanks for any thoughts.
Our 22 y o daughter is across the country. She is working in the city where she attended college. Whenever she flies home, she is somewhat nauseated and feeling off balance when she gets off of the plane. I am empathetic because I have Meniere's disease, and also find motion sickness can be familial. However, 6 months ago, on Labor Day weekend, she had that feeling when she arrived, recovered and then was quite sick the next day with vomiting/nausea/balance issues. I took her to the ER as she needed to travel back on a flight the next day. CT scan was read as nl and P.A. attempted to clean out her right ear, which was incredibly painful and I finally had to ask him to stop.
My daughter got back to Dallas and to work, but was in great pain and had no hearing on that side all week. I found a respected ENT and she visited him for follow-up. He worked her up with audiologic testing and she had conductive hearing loss in that ear, and he was concerned she had bony dehiscence. His CT scan ruled that out. He prescribed nortriptyline and said to take it for 6 weeks; when she returned then for f/up, if she was still symptomatic, he would do an MRI.
She never got the RX filled and felt better at 6 weeks, so no MRI was done.
She has a decent number of headaches, but has had them for about 5 years and we have a familiial pattern of those. Two weeks ago she wrote that she was having a numb tongue, lip, temple area, etc. Went to the internist the following day, who ordered a sleep study and an MRI. We were shocked when she called our daughter with the radiologist's impression of the MRI: an acoustic neuroma. She sent the MRI report and CD to our daughter's ENT. He is awaiting a contrast MRI of the auditory canal and is really not giving us any impression he has; just told my daughter not to lose one wink of sleep until he'd gotten his own scan's results in.
A few questions, please:
1) Have you gotten an impression of an AN on CT scan that was then found not to be an AN on contrast MRI?
2) Have you experienced transient symptoms of facial numbness?
3) Have you felt ill when flying prior to diagnosis?
4) At what size would surgery be recommended for a 22 yo with hearing in both ears, but who is symptomatic?
5) How long does one have to wait after surgery to fly?
Obviously we are hoping that our daughter will not have to deal with this, but if she does, we have a lot of logistical issues about treatment location, etc. Thus the question about ability to fly afterward, since she already feels sick when she flies now.
Thanks for your patience with my barrage of questions. Trying to do my research with you and appreciate your assistance. Mom is being strong for daughter, but doing research all the while. Thank you!