BARRIE'S STORY - An acoustic Neuroma patient

10. PHYSIO CHANGE

At this stage my trips to the day hospital were reduced to one day a week and then finally they told me that I shouldn't attend anymore. This left me somewhat dissatisfied as I felt I had been left high and dry with much work still to be done towards my recovery. I was attending a facial clinic once every 2 or 3 months and on my next visit, I discussed the situation with my facial physiotherapist who agreed with me that this was not satisfactory. She contacted my local hospital and persuaded them that I still needed treatment. They claimed I had reached a 'plateau' but I felt that this was not so and that I had a lot of improvement still to make. At this point I suddenly realised that my future health was totally my responsibility and that if I needed anything from the NHS I must shout. I phoned the local hospital and was given the name of a physiotherapist who specialises in neurological problems. She only worked part time and was very busy. I tried to contact her but was told she was with a patient so I left my name and telephone number. By chance, the physiotherapist had a cancellation that afternoon and the receptionist rang me back at 11am and said if I could get in at 2pm she could see me. I dropped everything and took the appointment.

I did not look back after this appointment, I was given a series of physical exercises to do which I have tried to do religiously every day ever since. As I have improved I have undertaken new exercises suggested by the physiotherapist.

One problem that I think I have had since the operation is a general stiffness in the right side of my body that created several problems. If I tried to stretch to get something with my right arm I would get a searing pain mainly in my arm and shoulder. Similarly I had serious pain if I tried to raise my right arm above my shoulder. By use of massage and exercises slowly this problem disappeared, so stretching and raising my arm up now do not give me any pain.