acoustic neuroma

nurse lucky · Apr 7, 2005

Good luck to your friend and he's lucky to have you around to help him through this. He may have a lot of dizziness and n/v post op. Advocate for scheduled antiemetics and steroids if this is the case. The may also do eye patches to help with it.

Unfortunely, whatever deficit you have going into the surgery you keep. As for the paralysis, that is pretty much luck of the draw. At my hospital, we are using cyberknife to shrink the tumor without causing other deficits. Spread the word, but it's not for everyone. Just do a google search for cyberknife or check out www.healtheast.org.

Take care, Lindy

A very close friend of mine who is also a physician is having surgery today to have an acoustic neuroma removed. He already has severe hearing loss on the tumor side as well as some tongue numbness. He's having the posterior approach as far as surgery goes...what has been your experience on recovery and post-op comps...his major fear is that he'll have facial nerve paralysis...hopefully all goes well...90 minutes down and only 6.5 hours to go!!! thanks for your time...

mommatrauma, RN · Apr 7, 2005

Good luck to your friend and he's lucky to have you around to help him through this. He may have a lot of dizziness and n/v post op. Advocate for scheduled antiemetics and steroids if this is the case. The may also do eye patches to help with it.
Unfortunely, whatever deficit you have going into the surgery you keep. As for the paralysis, that is pretty much luck of the draw. At my hospital, we are using cyberknife to shrink the tumor without causing other deficits. Spread the word, but it's not for everyone. Just do a google search for cyberknife or check out www.healtheast.org.
Take care, Lindy

Thanks for your info...He has already had some severe bouts of vertigo prior to surgery, and actually what prompted him to get an MRI in the first place that found the tumor...so the dizziness is nothing new...I am aware that he won't improve upon the hearing deficit he has, and he has already been told that most likely any residual hearing he has on the tumor side will be totally lost post-op...As for the cyberknife, never heard of it and made for some interesting reading. He did look into the gamma knife but the thought that any radiation exposure to his already vulnerable brain tissue could cause cancer frightened him enough that he opted for the surgical approach instead...He was very nervous going into the surgery, but I seriously think he was more worried about facial nerve paralysis then anything else. Even when he was told he would probably lose the rest of his hearing in the one ear, he just shrugged and said "as long as my smile is straight, I'll cope" so hopefully everything works out...few more hours to go,and hopefully he'll do well...they have said so far his surgery is going well...thanks for your help and kind words so far...I'll keep you posted...

llg, PhD, RN · Apr 7, 2005

I lost everything in my right ear about 12 years ago -- hearing, balance, developed tinnitus, and have a very small involvement of the facial nerve. It was probably due to a virus that wiped out the inner ear in a matter of seconds. I don't know if I could be of any help to your friend or not, but he/you are welcome to e-mail me either in this forum or privately if you think I could help.

It's not just a matter of his recovery from the surgery -- it's a matter of him learning to live a full life with whatever residual handicaps he will have. That's a process that may well take a couple of years and that will always be a part of his life as he will have to cope with his special challenges for the rest of his life.

llg

mommatrauma, RN · Apr 8, 2005

I lost everything in my right ear about 12 years ago -- hearing, balance, developed tinnitus, and have a very small involvement of the facial nerve. It was probably due to a virus that wiped out the inner ear in a matter of seconds. I don't know if I could be of any help to your friend or not, but he/you are welcome to e-mail me either in this forum or privately if you think I could help.
It's not just a matter of his recovery from the surgery -- it's a matter of him learning to live a full life with whatever residual handicaps he will have. That's a process that may well take a couple of years and that will always be a part of his life as he will have to cope with his special challenges for the rest of his life.
llg

Thanks for sharing...he is learning, he's had mod to severe hearing loss that quickly progressed over the last few months...now here's the kicker, post-op, doing well, we have now come to find out that he does not have an acoustic neuroma..he has a facial nerve neuroma...so his tumor is sitting on CN7 instead of CN8 but was compressing 8, hence the hearing loss, however now that they know the tumor did not originate on CN8, they say any hearing he still has he should be able to preserve now that its not being compressed any longer...they were unable to take all of the tumor in order to preserve the facial nerve and recommend that if he has any other tumor regrowth or symptamatology that he have gamma knife...so Lindy, I will pass on what you have told me about the cyberknife because he may actually need to have it done...thanks all for your help and kind words, this has been very stressful...especially for him...His an ED attending in a busy ED, he's young, and he has young children..so its been quite a ride...he's more worried about everyone else and when he can get back to work....hopefully he'll be able to concentrate on his own recovery now that the surgery is done and he can just rest...

llg, PhD, RN · Apr 8, 2005

I certainly wish him the best of luck ... and a smooth recovery.

llg

mommatrauma, RN · Apr 10, 2005

Ok, so the final word is that it is a facial schwannoma that he has...They were not able to remove all of it because of the chance of facial nerve paralysis. He had some hearing loss due to the size and the fact it was pressing on his vestibular nerve (CN8). He had a hearing test and has retained some hearing and will lose no further hearing, thank god...He is doing well, out of the ICU and on step-down...He is having bad postural HA's and slight dizziness..which is to be expected...thanks for your thoughts..

nurse lucky · Apr 11, 2005

I am happy that he has retained some of his hearing and that he has other options for his tumor. I don't know where you live, but there are about 10 or so cyberknife centers in the US. It has been wonderful for so many.

I bet he's happy to still have a straight smile :) Take care, Lindy

Ok, so the final word is that it is a facial schwannoma that he has...They were not able to remove all of it because of the chance of facial nerve paralysis. He had some hearing loss due to the size and the fact it was pressing on his vestibular nerve (CN8). He had a hearing test and has retained some hearing and will lose no further hearing, thank god...He is doing well, out of the ICU and on step-down...He is having bad postural HA's and slight dizziness..which is to be expected...thanks for your thoughts..

mommatrauma, RN · Apr 11, 2005

I am happy that he has retained some of his hearing and that he has other options for his tumor. I don't know where you live, but there are about 10 or so cyberknife centers in the US. It has been wonderful for so many.
I bet he's happy to still have a straight smile :) Take care, Lindy

Oh Lindy, you got that right...sooo glad he still has a straight smile. The good news is that they think they got all the blood supply that fed the tumor, so that he may not need any radiation at all. They will repeat an MRI in 4-8 weeks and see how everything looks...They took the lumbar drain out and his headaches have subsided..They found that it was leaking so his HA were most likely due to the fact there was so much fluid loss from the drain that they didn't realize. Dizziness improved, and he'll be discharged tomorrow...I did mention the cyberknife stuff to him and I printed out some info about it from the link you had. So he knows that it is an option. Thanks for all your help.