Gamma Knife

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In May 2014 I was talking on the phone and I got this massive pain in my ear and down the left side of my neck, it lasted for about 40 minutes.   I had an appointment for the doctors the next day so I decided I would see about it then.    The next morning on the way to the doctor the left side of my face went numb and my left eye and mouth started to twitch.   The doctor thought that I may have had either shingles or Bell’s palsy.  He gave me some tablets and asked me to come back the following week.  I was still the same the next week but I had another symptom that I asked about and the doctor thought he would test me for Multiple sclerosis and organised an MRI.    That is when they found my acoustic neuroma.   I was then sent to a ENT specialist who then sent me to Sydney to see a Neurosurgeon.   The Neurosurgeon told me to just go home and wait to go deaf and then he would operate.  I was not given any other option by him so I thought that was that.   I did not like the idea of just sitting around and waiting to go deaf and then one day on facebook I seen someone talking about Gamma Knife.   So I was quickly researching that on the net and found that we had one in Australia.  I rang my ENT to get an appointment to get a referral to the doctor that does Gamma Knife.    This was in the October of 2014 and the earliest I could get an appointment with his was the end of January 2015.  So I was going back to my GP the following week and I mentioned how I had found this treatment and how could I get a referral. My GP had never heard of Gamma Knife so she looked it up and said not a problem I will write you one out now and that the doctor comes up to Coffs Harbour once a month which meant I did not have  to travel to Sydney to see him.   My doctor asked me to get the receptionist to fax all of my information to Sydney to the Gamma Knife team.   Well I did not even make it out to my car and the university was on the phone saying that the doctor would be in Coffs Harbour in 3 days time and would I like to see him.   Wow I could not believe it, within a week I had seen the doctor and I was booked in for 5 weeks time to have Gamma Knife.  

 

On the 1st Decemeber 2014 I had the Gamma Knife treatment which took 52 minutes in the Gamma Knife, I was really lucky I had no side effects whatsoever.  At my first MRI after the treatment I had a little swelling.  I am due to go back for my 1st yearly appointment in December 2015.   I now have the feeling back in my face and twitching of my eye and mouth has stopped and it took about 8 months for me to be back to normal without feeling tired.   I really do think so far that I am one of the lucky ones.