Hi, folks,
It’s been a pretty amazing ten days for me. Just over a week ago, on December 16, I went in for my tumor resection at Swedish in Seattle. We’d caught the tumor back in June when it was still on the small end of the spectrum (13 x 6 x 9 mm), and my preop CT scan indicated it hadn’t grown significantly in the intervening 6 months. My hearing was compromised already, though, and to preserve what was left my neurosurgeon, Dr. Delashaw, suggested we take the middle-fossa approach, which my neurotologist, Dr. Hoistad, agreed with.
Though the tumor was small, the surgery wound up being somewhat more complicated than they’d initially hoped for in the best-case scenario. The tumor had a lot of cystic material in it, which was gooey and required a lot of careful dissection. Still, after 5 ½ hours under anesthesia, I was closed up and in recovery. Two days in the ICU, three days on the general neuro ward, and I came home to my fiancée’s place on Saturday.
Since then, I’ve been making pretty good progress. I’m getting out for a walk daily, albeit I’m still using a walker for a little balance assistance, doing my vestibular exercises, and resting as much as possible without turning into a total slug. I made breakfast for us yesterday, which was kind of a triumphant moment, and today I’m going to try to walk a mile.
On the down side, it’s not clear yet whether I’m going to retain or recover hearing in my affected (left) ear. My acoustic nerve was working at around 50% capacity for most of the operation, and it was still working when they stitched me up, but I haven’t been able to actually hear anything on that side since the surgery. My surgeons say that we won’t know for sure for at least a few weeks, once the swelling has gone down and the fluid drains, so I’ll try to remain open to all possibilities. And if any of you guys have stories of regaining your hearing weeks after your surgeries, I’m all ears. Or ear. ☺
Thanks for your help and generosity. I hope everybody’s having a happy holiday season!
