10 Weeks Later

The Irony of deciding to update my blog today is all's been well until today. This is the first day I've felt some reoccurring facial weakness. Here's a quick report on my progress.

PAIN- Every once in a while I can feel my jaw muscle ache when I smile or eat. My temple area is still very sensitive with some swelling Other then that no pain.

VISION- Is good, I can see as good as I did prior to surgery. The only thing I can notice thats a result from surgery is my right eye is always a little dry.

HEARING- GONE! This is the hardest part to get used to. There's been an increase in the volume level of my tinnitus with a lot of new sounds (clicking, screeching, heartbeat, clicking, etc). When in a loud room such as a room without any sound absorbing objects, the only thing I can hear is the loudest thing in the room. I also cannot tell what direction the sound is coming from. It's really hard to talk to anyone under those conditions. The thing that's the most upsetting is listening to music. It's just not the same, it seems to have lost it's depth. Now all music sounds two dimensional and I get discouraged when I pick up and play my guitar, it just doesn't sound right.

BALANCE- Better. Not anywhere close to where it used to be but much better. I'll have an occasional momentary laps of balance, but I'm getting used to them and I'm able to roll with it and regain my composure without anyone noticing. Moving backwards still needs some work. My new test for myself is to walk as straight as possible while turning my head back and forth. Try it.

FACIAL WEAKNESS- Being paralyzed on my right side for a few weeks I'm not complaining about a thing. That was the scariest part of this recovery, wondering if I would ever have use of the right side of my face again. I'm very fortunate that my facial nerve functions close to where it did before surgery. I can feel that the movement is not quite symmetrical. The right side does not move as good as the left. It feels stiff. But I'm not complaining, I know I'm fortunate.

THE SCAR- It's heeling very well and if you were walking by me you probably wouldn't notice a thing. I can highly recommend Dr. Bien's cutting and suturing. Being a person who shaves his head I still cannot use a razor over the raised scar just yet. It's still the electric razor for a while. It also appears that some of the skin is dying within the circle. There some brown blotchy spots on the skin within the circle.

COGNITIVE ISSUES- I feel great compared to a few weeks ago but, I still feel like I'm in a slight haze, not that bad just a little slow. I've noticed that my speech seems to be effected by this. Some words seem to be slurred or not there in the middle of a sentence. I'm hoping that because I have been in recovery away from people. That my communicative skills have gotten a little rusty.

To sum it up.

I went back to work last week and everything went as good as it possibly could have. In the last two weeks I've made some huge improvements. I feel that I'm getting very close to finding my new normal. It's really amazing how far I've come in the last two weeks. There's not much if anything that I can't do now that I could do before surgery. I feel that I've turned the corner.

Mike.

7 Weeks Post Op & 3 New Tricks

It's been a couple of weeks since my last update. There has been some improvements with my recovery so I'll share them with you.

I decided to see just what I'm capable of balance wise so, what's the one thing I've spent the most time doing that requires good balance. Any one who has known me for a while knows it's skating. No pools or ramps yet, just the street. I'll save the vert for later.

Trick#1 Skateboarding

I was in Tucson for Christmas and rode my brother in laws skateboard and it felt very easy to do. I felt more "normal" riding a moving skateboard than standing still.

I have a theory on this.

During surgery to remove the tumor, they have to cut out a section of one of your vestibular (balance) nerves from the brainstem. Because of it's removal you can't balance without concentrating . That includes just plain standing. Standing is something that you normally don't even have to think about doing, it's a sub-conscience act. After they remove the tumor you (at least temporarily) loose the ability to balance sub-consciencely. When skateboarding you always had to concentrate while riding your board. I believe this is not as big of a difference to your system and feels more normal then standing and even walking.

OK, here's my next trick #2. Riding a bike. This one's a bit harder to get the hang of. I first rode a couple of weeks ago, and once I maneuvered down the narrow driveway into the wide street it wasn't bad. The only real threat I had of crashing was when I had to turn my head around to see if any cars were coming from behind before I crossed the street while going down a hill. I can't trust my hearing as I once did. Turning my head from left to right quickly still throws of my balance off quite a bit, especially while rolling down a hill on a bicycle.

Trick#3
Now here's a fair warning to all. I'm driving. Dr. Brackmann gave me the OK to drive at my last appointment on December 22. He said take some short easy drives first, no freeways for a while. The next day Pam & I left to Yuma AZ. on our way to Tucson. She let me drive from Jucumba CA. to Yuma Az. About 150 miles. No problems. The next day we left for Tucson and I drove the first 200 miles. Again, no problem. I ended up driving all the way back so I guess I passed the test.

Work is 14 days away and I'm really looking forward to going back. You get bored not working, especially when you can't drive.

So to sum it up.

Pain- Just a little around the suture area and some occasional pressure from the temple area.

Balance- Getting better. Still act as if I just downed a 6 pack at times.

Vision- Im back to normal (except when I'm having a pressure headache in the temple area).

Hearing- There's annoying tinnitus when things are quiet. Loud rooms with a lot of people are the most dreaded places for me to be. I can only hear the loudest noise so if your talking to me keep that in mind. My hearing is the most challenging thing for me to get used to since my surgery.

Mike