Acoustic what?

For those finding my blog after being recently diagnosed, you've probably got the "what?"  down already, but it occurred to me that family or friends reading this may not know what it is, so here are the cliff notes.
An Acoustic Neuroma is a benign brain tumor, more appropriately a skull base tumor,  located on the 8th cranial nerve.  This bundle of nerves leading from the cochlea to the brain stem travels through the internal auditory canal.  Included in this bundle is also the balance nerve and the facial nerve.  Think of a piece of conduit running wires from the undrrground utility connections in your yard to your house.  Although the most frequent symptom is hearing loss, some patients also experience facial pain or weakness as well as balance issues.  Hearing loss is a symptom of the neuroma, but the neuroma is not an ear problem, the problem is purely a nerve problem, your brain does not receive the correct signals which result in a miscommunication or lack of communication with the brain.  Depending on the exact location of the tumor within the canal or extending outside of the canal into the cerobellapine angle the neuro if allowed to grow could press on the brain stem and cause difficulty with breathing and other basic functions.  It is rare for a tumor to grow this large before being diagnosed, particularly with today's advanced medical imaging, but still there are people who go undiagnosed and die from other reasons only to find a neuroma upon autopsy.  I addressed treatment options in a previous post. 
I just wanted to clarify, this is not an ear problem, it is a nerve/brain problem.