By Jude Green 2015
Living with a tumour in your head...
The site all about my brain tumour journey, with excerpts from others, useful advice and an active blog...
Where it all started....
" It was a snowy winters day in December... " hah well actually it was, but read on and you will see how I got to the point of getting Morris discovered.
2) Sitting in the chair being told that I’m probably just super sensitive and it’s nothing to worry about I just remember thinking "Oh my goodness, I’m a nurse and I'm actually going to cry!."
I felt totally deflated. I knew something was wrong. Thankfully at the last minute he caved in and offered an MRI to check my sinuses. The sense of relief that they were actually going to look was enormous!
Due to some weird twist of winter snow magic, the work I had nearby in the afternoon was changed and whilst I was standing in the MRI department being told there were no instant appointments (I was 2 hours from home, so it would be ideal) the phone rings and two slots are cancelled! So there you have it, immediate MRI!!!
3) The MRI is noisy and it does require having a frame very close to your face. If you are claustrophobic then do tell them and they will help you through it.
Mine lasted about 45 minutes instead of the predicted 15mins!
Halfway through they asked to inject me with a dye to show the picture more clearly for them (contrast) Suddenly being a nurse comes back to bite me! I spend the remainder of the time thinking "Ah.. they've found something! What have they seen!"
It worried me because I knew we generally only used contrast to get really good pictures of things we see. It could have been allsorts, but I just knew that finally I wasn't making it all up!
1) After 7 plus years of random, unexplained symptoms in my head and ears I'd just completed a 6 months wait for some private medical insurance to mature so that I could see a private ENT consultant and hopefully get some answers. I'd been told to inhale steam and I'd even had grommets put in, It was time to push for more!
I’d been suffering with severe intermittent muffled-ness in both ears and chronic tinnitus in my right ear. Having moved home I’d been noticing it a lot more and I wanted to get it sorted. It was always worse when my pulse was up and it was interfering in my life. I really needed some answers.
So on the last day in November 2010 you find me sitting in the private ENT consultant’s room trying to describe my symptoms.