Well at first everything was normal till one day I collapsed while at work in the ladies restrooms. Life was normal, nothing out of the blue ever happened to me till that time. Normally, we ladies do pay up our monthly salary in a hard way with different reaction from cramps to feeling dizzy and a little headache. This time all the signs came right after the “monthly salary”.
During the week, spoke to my boss-she was very easy tough kinda boss and I loved her for that, on a lighter note she told me if I am pregnant she could help me through hehehe, but I wasn’t next thing I knew I was in hospital running blood tests.
I did the test and was ok to go home having being diagnosed with bacteria in my blood, so I took a week off schedule to return to work Friday of the end week. Ever since my collapse I continued to experience severe headaches and lost balance in walking along with blurred vision, it was hard walking around alone.
When Friday came by wasn’t really able to get off bed, because I could hardly see the floor from my bed and everything was spinning so fast, and anything I consumed I would quickly throw up. With the help of house manager (I was staying at my best friend house) she called cab for me to go back to hospital.
While at the hospital they wanted to admit me but I was against it, as we wanted to leave the Dr, suggested since you having weird headaches and blurred vision why don’t we do CT-SCAN, little did I know that was the start of my “GlomusJugulare tumor”, after the results I had my close family members with me and my best friend Janet, we all went into this strange silent moment like we were in a cave. The doctor suggested we do an MRI so that we can rule out how far the tumor has extended to.
While at the hospital they wanted to admit me but I was against it, as we wanted to leave the Dr, suggested since you having weird headaches and blurred vision why don’t we do CT-SCAN, little did I know that was the start of my “Glomus Jugulare tumor”, after the results I had my close family members with me and my best friend Janet, we all went into this strange silent moment like we were in a cave. The doctor suggested we do an MRI so that we can rule out how far the tumor has extended to.
It took me about a week to realize that yeah I really have a growth in my head. My adrenaline is slow takes a while for me to react to a situation. But it really was shocking to my colleagues, family and friends.
After a week from diagnosis, my mind literally went on a spin having to accept that life can suddenly change with a snap, because how do you explain the abrupt symptoms amidst very normal life?
After visiting different Doctors in my country, all ENT surgeons, Neurosurgeon I got different sentiments that were really not positive.
I had a friend who had spinal surgery done in India Apollo, I reached out and I really like what they did, because she is now back to normal and back to her normal life. I did reach out through my Insurance contact person and that’s when we settled for Apollo Chennai.
I must say, it was the best advice and candid I ever received. When I got to India I had intended to do Gamma Knife and get back home because I was already given this perspective that was so negative, but when I met Dr Rayappa, he advised me from word go mentioned one by one was going to be done then I took a couple of days making decision about it as I prayed to God to help me through.
The staff we amazing right from the pick from the airport pick up to being registered and admitted to hospital…….
Hehehe surgical procedure and recovery was tough and rough, but the tough keep going
I did two surgery main one taking with duration of 11 hours. Two days prior the main surgery did a minor one “Angiogram” blockage of my main artery so that I don’t lose lots of blood during surgery.
Dr. Rayappa and team prepared me well for the surgery, I was told of what to expect during and after surgery thus I was psychologically prepared even though it was a struggle having accept losing hearing on my right ear but hey I made it.
Recovery part was the difficult part to handle, from normal facial structure to facial paralysis- where I could talk, smile and saliva falls off –that was tough to handle. At first it was difficult to talk, couldn’t go for 5 minutes continuous talking I would literally feel exhausted thus jotting down was way to go. As I was promised by Dr. Rayappa, the facial paralysis was temporary and I have regained the facial movement completely.
The hospital was conducive, the doctors the nurses the environment was conducive. The procedures right from admission to recovery period was well articulated
The frequent checkup from both nurses and doctor was encouraging.
The organization sent the invitation in time for Visa and yeah having Apollo local contact person made it much easier as well
