My Day

Well we left NJ around 1:00pm for a 3:30 appointment in NYC which anyone who has ever driven in NYC knows that traffic can be a nightmare. We were making really good time until the inevitable happened. "ACCIDENT ON THE GW BRIDGE ALL LANES CLOSED USED LOWER LEVEL". Which in itself sounded easy enough until you are actually on the expressway heading for the upper level and their are concrete dividers between you and the lower level traffic. We were at a standstill for over an hour. I though that this would be just my luck to be so close and miss the appointment. Finally around 3:15pm when we still hadn't moved an inch I was getting nervous. I called the office to explain and they paged the surgeon since I was his last appointment of the day. And do you know what that big city surgeon said...."I am not canceling the appointment so tell her to just get her as soon as she can". I though to myself,"awwww what a nice guy" and then true panic set in when I started to let that darn BIG nurse Gene out again and thought "There really must be something wrong with me for him to want to wait.

We ended up getting there about 15minutes late and after about a half hour I saw the surgeon. (FYI no cane and he wasn't popping any pills). He explained to me the whole acoustic neuroma diagnosis and treatments. He showed me a slide show and even reviewed my MRI films with me. I really think I could have passed a written exam for medical school at this time if it only included AN's.

SO I guess you are all wondering what he said.............................................well I sort of guessed it ---------He called my alien "medium size" but then went on to say that the way it is sqashing my brainstem right now that their is no way we can just leave it. So having said that their isn't even a chance for the gamma knife therapy or radiation as these big city folk seem to think that too much radiation on the brain stem is a bad thing. I will have skull based surgery in the near future where they will have to remove a piece of my skull behind the right ear. (I will have to shave my hair too..I think I will aim for something like the picture but maybe with the Adk Arc symbol for Les) The surgery will be anywhere from 6-8-10 hours with himself, a neurosurgeon and another kinestiology specialist all involved. Prob a week in the hospital and a few more days at the In- laws before I will be released to come home. He is guessing about 6 weeks out of work but that really depends on allot of other factors. So there was my day in a nutshell........I will be comming home sunday because he did not give us an actual date and I love to travel so much (not).I think tomorrow I am going for a foot massage and maybe a little shopping depending on how good my eyes cooperate.