Finally A Surgery Date!!!!!!!!!!!

[Tina Hager]

Hello everyone!
 
              I finally have a date scheduled @ House on Feb 13th.  I am relieved. I have been waiting a month. Dr. Friedman and Dr. Hitselberger are the men in charge! I feel VERY confident. Dr. Friedman is so wonderful I e-mail him or call and returns both right away. My AN is a little under 2cm. I have really no balance issues or facial numbness. I just cannot hear that well out of it. They will be doing the translab approach. I live in southern California and I have met SO many people whp have gone to house for AN's who live here in my area. I will tell you all they are all doing great and you would never know thet even had surgery. This I believe is truly a great site. You all are so inspirational! I am just grateful it is benign. I will keep you all posted.

                                                 God Bless,
                                                                Tina Hager
                                                       

[Larry]

That's great Tina,

I'm sure your surgery will go well. peace of mind is a large issue to get over and now that you have a date, I'm sure you will get on with your life a lot less stressfully.

cheers



Larry

[shoegirl]

Tina,

Good luck with your surgery!  I hope all goes well for you and that your recovery is as minimal and quick as possible.  It was a huge relief for me to have my AN treated.  I feel very peaceful now and wish you the same.

Best Wishes, Suzanne

[HeadCase2]

Tina,
  Good luck with your surgery.  Mine is scheduled for 2/9/06.  I find that once you've done the research, and made a decision, waiting is the hardest part.
Regards,
 Rob

[matti]

Hi Tina -  It is a great sense of relief to have a surgery date and to be able to finally move forward and get this dang thing out and over with. Luckily I did not have a long wait, only 7 days, I can't imagine the stress of having to wait months. You are so right about this site, for me it has been a huge comfort and a wealth of information for which I am eternally grateful.

Good luck to you and also to Rob.

take care,
matti

[cookiesecond]

Tina and Rob,
You are in my thoughts and prayers!
Lynn

[kwong521]

Good luck, Tina and Rob! 

[DFF]

I HAVE TENTATIVE DATES FOR TRANSLAB SURGERY AT THE HOUSE IN FEB.  MY AN IS 2.1 CM CPA WITH BRAIN STEM COMPRESSION.  I HAVE NEAR TOTAL HEARING IN EFFFECTED EAR.  ABR AND EEG ABNORMAL, INDICATING BALANCE NERVE EFFECTED.  I HAVE DONE EXTENSIVE RESEARCH AND CONSULTED WITH NUERO, OTONEURO, AND RADIOLOGY NEURO WHICH ALSO DID MIRCROSURG.  AT YALE NEW HAVEN IN CT.  NEURO AND OTONEURO IN SAVANNAH BOTH RECOMMENDED THE HOUSE.  DR. BRACHMANN KNOWS OTONERO IN SAVANNAH AND THE OTONEURO AT YALE. 

I AM A MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIST AND MY HUSBAND IS AN ORAL SURGEON.  YET I STILL QUESTION TRANSLAB APPROACH BEING I HAVE HEARING NOW. 

HOW CAN I BE SURE I WILL LOSE HEARING REGARDLESS OF TREATMENT.

ANXIOUSLY,

DFF

[Mark]

DFF,

The information you have been given is certainly perplexing to me. My An was essentially the same size as yours and it was just slightly compressing on the cerebellum. I would not expect"brain stem compression" to be a factor until the AN was significantly larger. Everyone's situation is different but the vast majority of these follow the same growth path.

As Jaime mentioned earlier the information on hearing preservation that you have been given is flat out wrong. Translab will most certainly create deafness as it destroys the inner ear structure. Someone with your size tumor who had near perfect hearing and had prioritized wanting to try and keep it would usually be offered the retro sigmoid surgical approach. Even then the odds are not great for a 2 cm AN with less than 20% probability of retaining serviceable hearing. Studies have shown that 1 dose Gamma Knife radiosurgery has about a 60-70% chance of retaining usable hearing and Fractionated protocols on machines like the Cyberknife are tracking somewhere between 75-90%. Hearing preservation is not AN size related in radiosurgery as it is in surgery. I had CK for my 2 cm AN 4 years ago and have had no reduction in my pretreatment hearing and still have 100% Speech recognition scores and loss down to 50 db at the highest frequency.

So all treatment options, surgical and radiosurgery have different documented statistics on hearing preservation and I find it puzzling that the doctors you have seen are not aware of that

Mark

[David707]

Best wishes for both of you.  Expecting to hear good reports from you, (no hurry, only after you have regain your strength).

David