"A New Me" Blog

What causes stress with an acoustic neuroma? Pretreatment is the question – do I need treatment?  If so, what kind and where? Pre and post-treatment, we have the stress – is it growing? Hearing issues. Balance issues. Facial issues. All this is in relation to our diagnosis. The stress of daily living can be caused […]

I went to the Acoustic Neuroma group on Facebook to see what they were talking about today. Someone was wondering how to deal with claustrophobia during the MRIs and with radiation when you have a mask that is bolted down. This is one of my problems, so I replied with my solutions. They may not […]

Readers: Do you have a suggestion for a topic? Do you want more information on a topic I have already covered? I’m looking for ideas. Before my cyberknife radiation, I had one facial symptom. From time to time I felt like an ant was walking across my right cheekbone. I would swipe my cheek, again […]

At about 6 am one morning I woke up hearing the muffled sounds of a radio broadcast. Well, not really hearing. I heard noise that sounded like a radio but couldn’t distinguish the words. It was loud enough to wake me up. “Turn your radio off.  Please.” My husband woke up and replied, “What? My […]

Hello Readers. It has been too long since I last wrote a blog. I had surgery – a hip replacement – and it put the brakes on my writing. The surgery took away the pain. That was actually the easy part. The tough part has been the physical therapy. Therapy can be tough work. It’s […]

Did you know this is AN Awareness Week? What does that mean? Here’s an explanation of the week’s presentations. I found this on Facebook because I’m a member of the AN Facebook group. I hope you are, too. It is filled with patient stories and lots of answers to questions.   https://www.anausa.org/anawareness/anawareness-week This is a […]

Before I talk about Hearing Loss, I want to encourage you to visit a support group meeting. Many of these meetings are via Zoom. You do not have to be a member of the support group to attend their meeting. I have never attended a support group meeting that was a waste of time. This […]

I recently attended my AN support group meeting and learned about a new booklet available from the Acoustic Neuroma Association in both electronic or print versions. Understanding Emotional, Cognitive and Behavioral Changes  Published: July 08, 2021 The ANA is pleased to offer a new educational booklet as a resource to the AN community to help […]

It doesn’t matter where we are on this AN journey – pre or post-surgery, radiation, or watch and wait – this question can raise its ugly head. For me, it usually happens with a symptom that might or might not have anything to do with the neuroma. No matter when the question happens, it’s scary. […]

In blog # 62 (link) I briefly mentioned the AN Facebook Group. It’s a super place to ask questions and get help. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the answers can be confusing because they frequently are contradictory. What this means is what works best for one person may not be good […]