In late August this year on a Sunday I suffered sudden hearing loss. On Monday I went to my GP and she immediately referred me to an ENT. He prescribed Valtrex, steroids, and an MRI. He also prescribed an audio gram. Within a week most of my hearing was back and I was happy. The second audio gram confirmed that. But the MRI had other news...
I was diagnosed on Sept 1st with a 1.5CM AN and shortly thereafter met with Dr. Selesnick at Cornell in NYC. Since it was my first opinion I decided to seek out another surgeon for their take on my case. I met with Dr. Post at Mt. Sinai in mid October. He was referred by my wife's friend who in the same profession so that had me at ease very quickly. This is a scary time and any bit of help you can get you grab at.
On Nov 3rd Dr. Post and Dr. Smouha removed the AN. Surgery took 8-9 hours. All in all I am very happy with the results so far. No headaches. I had a sub-occipital. I can hear, not close to the levels before the surgery, but OK to get by. I was out of ICU by Friday at 10am walking up and down stairs by Noon and home one Sunday at 2pm.
In my case I was lucky to have a GP with the knowledge to understand that this was not an infection. The ENT was equally skilled in prescribing the quick MRI. And last but not least a team of skilled surgeons at Mt. Sinai that do this procedure often, with precision and skill.
I am also relatively young at 39 and in ok health, so that helps a great deal. My wife is supportive and positive. In my case it also helped to let family and friends know what was going on. It was important for me to rely these folks for support.
Everyone's recovery is different. I just wanted to get some positive info out there.
