Diagnosis: Brain Tumor: My Acoustic Neuroma Story Paperback – November 28, 2012

The author gives us a candid, personal look into a world most of us will, hopefully, never experience. A young man in his prime goes to the doctor for a stuffy ear and winds up undergoing a horrendous, complex brain surgery for a tumor that, left unchecked, most likely would have killed him. Miller's powerful account chronicles his shock at his original diagnosis, his fight through a rocky recovery and his success at ultimately living with permanent hearing loss and learning to cope with and ultimately embrace his "new normal." And it also recounts the impact his illness had on his wife and close friends, and how their love and support helped him deal with his diagnosis, surgery, convalescence and his quest to rebuild his life and health.Miller recounts his experiences with candor, humor and a healthy dash of self-deprecation. Beyond being a simple tale of a man's journey back from the brink, it gives the reader a road map for compassion--insights into the small things we can do for ailing friends, family members and even total strangers that can mean so much as they cope with serious, life-changing events.Miller's tale is well-written and insightful. It is a "walk a mile in my shoes" story that has much to teach us all.

I was a ccu nurse for many years before changing careers . I thought I knew what I was getting into. I had no idea.this book provided support for me during the early stages of my husbands recovery .

This is an excellent book. My sister was diagnosed with the same type of brain tumor and asked me to read this book which I did. Then I explained it to her and it helped me understand what she will be going through. It takes about 20% to read before the story becomes fast paced. I highly recommend to anyone wanting to understand the journey of someone with this type of brain tumor. The author keeps it real and he's entertaining while giving good information of his needs, expectations, and process. Great help to me in helping my sister.

I found the story of his journey to be well written and engaging. It was of special interest to me as acoustic neuroma is a possibility in my life. I would say anyone facing a "scary" diagnosis should give it a read. The author very ably tells us that we need to advocate for our selves when able and have others do so for us when we cannot. The story provides perspectives that we might not otherwise consider when it comes to our health. Thank you C. Michael Miller for being brave enough to share your story.

Unfortunately the writer's prose is on the level of an eighth grader. The sentence structure and word choice are poor. I often found myself distracted by the repetitive use of unnecessary adverbs.Though the writer experienced stressful situations, his writing fails to effectively convey them. The story is mildly interesting but poorly detailed. The writer explains his story in very basic terms that leave much to be desired.With a competent writer and a decent editor this book would have been much better.

This is a great read, and an interesting first-person account of dealing with an Acoustic Neuroma. It is a well written account of the facts of diagnosis and treatment as well as insight into how it feels to find out you have a tumor in your brain, that you need surgery, and recovery. A must read for anyone who is facing Acoustic Neuroma, or has a loved one suffering from it.

I had a Acoustic myself and wanted to read this to compare my story to his. Interesting.

I enjoyed reading this book because I also had an acoustic neuroma. My journey was different but I also have a new normal. It is interesting to read about other people’s journeys with the lovely AN we had. I am on the AN Facebook page. When my surgery was coming up, I made friends with a couple people who had surgery coming up soon after mine. I am still in contact with both, 8.5 years later. I also found out a very close friend had an AN removed 6 months after I did. Amazing!The book is written in a very conversational style. It is easy to read. I cringed when he described the CSF leak. I knew exactly what had happened & was extremely surprised on 2 counts. One, my doctors wouldn’t release me from the hospital until I had a bowel movement. Two, I had been well warned about a fluid leak and what to watch for. Eek!I am very impressed with the recovery and how well the author is doing. My new normal includes 24/7 vertigo, loss of taste and smell and a very tears left eye. A sliver of my tumor had to be left on my facial nerve or I would have lost all the movement forever on left side of my face. My doctors decided to leave a sliver. After 8 years, it has only grown to 2mm. I don’t run, I don’t do well in crowds, I don’t walk quickly because, at best, it is like walking on jello.Thank you for writing this book. I had fun reading it, seeing the differences in approaches and recoveries. Good job!

Having also had an Acoustic Neuroma I was searching the Internet for some answers. In Michael's book I found some, but as this tumour affects us all differently I was interested in his brave account of his 'travels' & search for the best treatment. His description of his CSF leak horrified me because as a nurse, I knew what he was describing & the fact that it was not recognised I found disturbing. I also found it interesting that he had no major balance issues. I would probably fall off of a bike, & as for sailing, I hate to think. As Michael said in an email to me, not enough research is done in this area, probably because it is benign. Nonetheless less your life will never be the same as you used to know it following the diagnosis.i fortunately do not know anyone else who has had one but I have found comfort in reading of others trials. This book was a well written account of this life changing event which is easily read in a day.

Good to read another person's experience of being diagnosed with one of these