My Three Month Check-up at Mayo

Today Jeff and I visited Mayo for my three month check-up, which officially marked the end of my recovery! My MRI looked great - not a trace of the tumor anymore. The before and after pics were pretty crazy. There was a big white blob behind my right ear in the "before" picture and no sign of it in the "after" picture. They also tested my hearing, and I have 95% word recognition in my right ear, which is great! I still have difficulty hearing certain tones and sounds, but I have a lot of very "usable" hearing, which was not the expected outcome of the surgery. They did other tests such as balance, facial sensitivity, etc. and I seemed to pass with flying colors. They also told me that if I haven't had trouble with headaches yet, I most likely won't. This was excellent news because I was very concerned about chronic headaches going into the surgery.

I still have some minor stuff going on like ringing and noise in my ear, but it seems to be better than it was before the surgery. And my incision and my neck muscles are still pretty sore. Lastly my hearing isn't perfect, but it's so much better than what was expected. I told Jeff that these things are so minor that I don't even think they are worth mentioning when they trouble me.

They also talked to me about hearing aids at the appointment. The good news is that because I can hear out of my right ear, if my hearing were to worsen for some reason or cause me trouble in the future, I have lots of options for hearing aids. Again, this wouldn't be the case if I had lost all hearing in my right ear. For now I'm just going to see how things go as is. So far I think I'm doing fine, even in loud social settings. But if I do seem to struggle, it's great to know I have options to improve my hearing.

To say I feel blessed or lucky is an understatement. I know people who have gone through this surgery and have been troubled with challenging side effects all of their lives. Somehow I was one of the extremely fortunate ones and for that I am ever so grateful. At my final consult before the surgery one of the surgeons said, "This is going to change your life. Life will go on, but it's definitely going to change things for you." I think he was referring to the loss of hearing and other possible side effects that I'd have to live with. Now that this is behind me, I can say he was right. This whole experience has changed my life, but only in positive ways. It gave me a huge dose of perspective and has really made me appreciate the important things in life. I hope I won't lose sight of that as I rejoin the rat race that we're all too familiar with.

Thanks to all of you for being my support system through this. Jeff and I were simply overwhelmed by everyone's compassion and generosity - again a reminder of what's really important in life. And what can I say about Jeff ... he has been my rock and strength through this entire thing. He never once had a negative thing to say. He just kept telling me that everything would be fine and soon this would all be a bad dream. I'm sure he had his fears and doubts along the way, but he never voiced them. Having someone so positive as my biggest supporter was a very powerful and wonderful thing. I will always be grateful to him for that. Today on the way to Rochester he said, "I told you this would all be a bad dream at some point." As usual he was right.

If anyone out there has been diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma and would like to contact me with questions about my experience, I would be happy to answer them. Feel free to e-mail me at kierzek@charter.net. I connected with a few people who had been through the surgery and found it to be very helpful. I also went out of my way to find success stories and that too was helpful. My best advice is to stay positive and be well-informed. And also, don't underestimate the power of prayer and positive thinking!