Susan's hearing nerve is OK

When we met with Dr Kassam before the surgery, he told us that during the operation, while they monitor the 8th cranial nerve (auditory) it is typical that they will hit the nerve during the operation and it will lose some of its capacity (hopefully temporarily) because it is right on top of the 7th nerve. The rule is that they can hit it 3 times before they have to stop the operation to protect the hearing. In fact, this is one of the major advantages of Kassam's surgery.

At the end of Susan's surgery, however, he said the 8th nerve "went out" completely without any warning. Because the 7th nerve had already been decompressed and they were at the end of the operation, they didn't have to stop. He said we'd have to wait and see whether her hearing recovered.

While I was outside talking on the phone to Susan's mom and her sister Wendy (there's no signal in the building because of the MRI machines or lead or something), Doctor Kassam came by the nurse's station in the waiting room and asked the nurses to tell me that her auditory nerve has completely recovered. They called my cell phone to let me know.

When I got back to the waiting room, the nurse said "he doesn't usually come in here to talk to us."

I'm sorry I missed him, but what a relief.