Measuring sucsess

[willy]

I consider myself lucky. I had my surgery 18 years ago. I have lost hearing in my left ear. I thougt that was the  only side effect I had , but after reading some of the stories on this site I now realize I have a few more . Tearing eye ,runny nose when I eat and head aches. What a fantastic site this is. I wish I had found this a long time ago. Has any one else had to have a shunt put in? My surgeon was fantastic but getting info was near impossible. Hope you don't mind the questions . I guess we all have diferent ways of measuring sucsess.

[willy]

 :)Sorry about the sad icon still learning this computer stuff

[Battyp]

Hi Willie and welcome. 
It amazes me that if you have microsurgery they measure success by if you lived or died with no concern to any residual problems.
There are some here who have had shunts put in.  I'm sure they'll identify themselves shortly. 

What size was your tumor?

You can alway go back into your message and hit modify if you want to change something in your message.

[tony]

I had a shunt put in about two years ago - the internal pressure was threatening all kinds of damage
in my case, I (temporariy) lost my sense of smell and was getting flickering vision as well (plus balance issues, plus headaches, plus, plus, etc, etc.)
This is usually said to be called "advanced stage hydrocephalus." The eyes settled down after a month or so - the smell function  took 8 mths to return to normal.
Actually I too was very lucky - another 3-4 weeks and it would have been permenant damage
I diagnosed (the hydro) myself from the internet - and then told my local doc what I had discovered. A rather aghast medical professional had to agree that the patient  probably right
- I was in hospital 24hrs later....
good luck in your recovery
best regards
tony

[Battyp]

Tony,
  Flickering vision?  I had that right after surgery..I kept saying rapid eye movement.  That part lasted a few days then the light sensitivity kicked in which lasted for months.  Wondering if it had anything to do with hydrocephalus since the ct scans said I had none.  Miserable! 

[tony]

Hard to say - the fluttering/flickering vision with Hyro is usually associated with
extra back pressure on the optic nerve - a good doc can usually see this if he looks into your eyes carefully from one side - any form of neuro surgery can create a bit of swelling which does have side effects - when the swelling goes down things straighten out some - thankfully
best regards
tony

[Raydean]

Flickering - rapid eye movement could be nystagmus, which can be neurological based.

Just a thought
Raydean

[Crazycat]

Hi Willy!

      Yeah, I had a shunt put in last August, before they took the tumor out a month later in Sept. So far, so good! Deaf on the left side as you are. Here's a link to my MRI scans....   http://anausa.org/forum/index.php?topic=1257.0

   Take care, Paul