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"You Have 2 choices...which one would you choose?"

Ok, most of you are aware of the situation with my illness, so here I'm asking, forgetting about my situation for a moment, what you would do faced with the following situation...

You have 2 choices:

1. Have an operation that will leave you facing the following situation- click and choose postoperative-
[URL]http://www.med.umn.edu/otol/library/aneuroma/index.htm[/URL]

, with complete loss of hearing, and facing life-long hospital appointments and a possible recurrence.

2. Not have surgery now, but wait until either your hearing goes naturally or you end up in a life-threatening situation where there are chances of more complications after surgery. On the plus side though, you may have a couple of years of just maintenance treatment before the op, and you will still be able to hear for a while, making it easier to learn sign and lip-reading for later on, and generally giving you more time tp prepare.



If you had to choose one of these options, which one would you choose and why?

(but hey, it takes a brave man to admit he's a coward)

I'm not sure. It's one of those situations that's very hard to envisage.

It's like death. Would you like to be able to choose the exact date and time that you WILL die? Or would you rather just wait and see?

On one hand it's terrible to have the uncertainty hanging over you, but then again can you face condemning yourself? Could you really do that? I know I couldn't. I could no more condemn myself to 'death' than I could condemn myself to 'deaf'. (hoho, sorry).

In all seriousness, I simply would not be able to go through with it. I would have a really hard time accepting the inevitabe, and do everything in my power to postpone it.

Denial would be the only way I could deal with it. I'm a coward.

I'd be really scared whichever of the two I chose.

But probably option 1.

Having the knowledge that it would happen hanging over you, that might be as bad as losing your hearing.

Part of the decision would have to take account of the chances of more problems occuing though, and how bad they would be.
And I'd want a little longer to prepare than you'll have for Tuesday.

Maybe you could find a middle way - ask them to delay by a month or two while you come to terms with it and do anything you wanted to before your hearing goes.
Then go in, without having waited too long, so you've not increased the risk of complications by very much.


Whatever you decide, good luck.

I would choose 2.

Mostly because I'd want to make the most of every last sound I can hear before it's too late. In the back of my mind I'd also be hoping for a mircale, too.

I'd choose 2, just so you can come to terms with everything and learn sigh language / lip reading - rather than be plunged straight into a deaf world with no way to communicate.

I'd probably be 2, id rather have a few more years of preparing and hearing before I lost it completely one day.

Good luck

ßora† §agdiyeV wrote:
> I wish you the very best of luck, and am behind you, whichever path
> you choose.

Actually that sounded a bit rude.

Well, i sympathise heavily with the terrible position you are faced with. Either way, there are complications, I just hope that you choose the direction best for you, let us know how you get on.

What advice does your physician give? The shock of losing your hearing completely, right away, rather than slowly over time, is surely less of an evil in comparison of such complications as facial nerve paralysis or worse.

If such complications become more likely as time goes on, this would be foremost in my mind.

It's a terrible choice you have to make Lindgren, and I don't envy it one bit, but if hearing loss is inevitable, I would be more concerned about the possible complications.

I'm sure all this has run through your mind though.

I wish you the very best of luck, and am behind you, whichever path you choose.

I'm seriously heading in the direction of number 2 at the moment.