Wait & Watch

After yesterday's consultation with a neurosurgeon and an ENT specialist at UT Southwestern, I have decided to take the wait and watch approach with my acoustic neuroma. Right now the plan is to do another MRI next July and check for any growth. Factors in that decision:

• the tumor is small and normally they grow at a very slow rate. There is a reasonable chance that it will not grow at all.
• no matter what treatment/approach I choose, there is no scientific reason to believe that my hearing will improve.
• in fact, I will likely lose all the hearing in my left ear eventually, regardless of what anyone does. The wait & watch approach will give me the longest possible retention of any hearing in that ear.
• my left ear has only 40% word recognition, which is below the mark of what these specialists call "serviceable" hearing. To be a bit crass, that means it ain't worth trying to save. (One of the surgical procedures would have the goal of retaining the hearing at the current level,)
• I do enjoy having a bit of hearing capability in that ear, so I would like to keep it as long as I can. Both the gamma knife and the surgical procedures would speed along or possibly complete a total hearing loss in that ear.
• frankly, I went into the appointments thinking only surgery - let's get that thing outta there while it's small! My sweet Terrie was able to hear the dox more objectively and helped me see clearly what they were recommending for me - this is what they would tell their own family, both said.
• A major factor in any surgery for me is my blood condition, called antiphospholipid syndrome. Without going into details, I have to constantly be on Warfarin (Coumadin), a blood thinner, in order to avoid fatal blood clots. That significantly complicates surgery and creates an additional risk factor for me.

So, I will work on getting used to my condition and praying that God will do something wonderful that no one expects medically. I am happy to report that, even with the slight dizziness I have, I was able to hang with my grandson, Brishen, on the roller coasters at Sea World last Friday! No dizziness at all when the ride ended! Yay! There is hope for me yet!

Thanks for the multitude of prayers that have gone up for me and Terrie! Besides outright healing, I wanted a clear message from the consultations yesterday. I believe I at least got the latter!

Prayers up!