![efilm lite acoustic neuroma efilm lite acoustic neuroma](https://lmhofmeyr.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Large-AN.jpg)
I've always thought of myself as reasonably good-looking, but now I face the likelihood of becoming ugly. So a team of surgeons will have to slice my head open, rummage around inside and then make sure I'm well stocked up on Nurofen. But it is growing, and if it keeps pressing on my brain stem I will die. It's a growth of cells on the eighth cranial nerve between the inner ear and the brain - the bit that controls balance and hearing. The thing in my head is an acoustic neuroma. Was I really expected to do all this myself? Like someone with a new partner who hasn't told their ex, I wanted to push the responsibility on to someone else, to take the coward's way out. When my flatmates said they hadn't told anyone else about it, giving me the opportunity to let the world know in my own time, my heart sank. I mean, how many times can you repeat the same spiel about the difference between benign and malign? It was OK the first couple of times, but now I'm bored. But I've let maybe a dozen people know about it, and each time it takes ages - I reckon 45 minutes - to explain. Of course I appreciate everyone's concern. Telling people is an almighty pain in the arse. Thank God I'm on the other end of it.Īctually, the etiquette of the situation is not without difficulties for me. After all, what do you say to someone in that position? Do you show pity, or is that patronising? Do you offer advice, when you know nothing about the condition? Or should you go for the bluff, you'll-be-OK-lad reassurance, running the risk of sounding uncaring? I tell you, it's a minefield. That's why they're going fill me with anaesthetic, cut open my skull and try to chop it out.įriends do not react at all well when you say the words, "I've got a brain tumour." I know I wouldn't.
![efilm lite acoustic neuroma efilm lite acoustic neuroma](http://www.waent.org/archives/2010/Vol3-1/20090614-acoustic-neuroma/acoustic_neuroma_1.jpg)
It sounds tiny, just four centimetres, but apparently it's a big 'un. For about a month now I've known it's in there I've been carrying it around for a lot longer.