Help Me Hear Again

Hello,

I have never been one to ask for help, I keep issues locked away and appear to others as if I can take on the world, but the truth is, I cant keep them to myself anymore and I've come to a point where I need to ask for your help because the lack of funds have brought my fight to look to the future to a standstill.

After suffering with Epilepsy for the last 10 years, during a routine MRI scan in December 2011, at the age of 27 I was diagnosed with a very rare 2.8cm Acoustic Neuroma Brain Tumor, it had grown so large due to years of UN-detection that my only option was surgery, this meant I would completely lose all the hearing in my right ear as well as facial weakness due to the approach the surgeons would have to take in order to reach the embedded tumor which had wrapped itself around my acoustic, facial and balance nerves.

To my absolute surprise, just 6 weeks after being diagnosed I found out i was pregnant, the question was raised by the doctors, is it safe enough to proceed with the pregnancy? After all I needed emergency surgery and was on a lot of medication keeping my seizures under control and there was no way a baby would survive through a 12 hour operation. So do I end the pregnancy and have the operation or do I risk my own and the babies health and battle through it. My choice was simple and so me, putting others first and believing in fate, I was willing to fight it. My son Noah Andrew was born on the 16th December 2012 by emergency caesarean section due to me having 3 seizures during labor. He was a born a perfect 7lb 13oz baby boy.

In December 2012 when Noah was just 7 weeks old we flew to Manchester, UK (my home country) to have my 12 hour operation which was booked for the 15th January 2013. My reason for flying back here was simple, i was scared i was going to die.... I had never been so scared of anything in my life, my husband could only describe me as 'A rabbit caught in headlights' as i was lead by the nurses. I think in all, i put my clothes back on 3 times and cried to go home and see my son. Surgery went well but I contracted meningitis and a CSF leak which meant much longer in hospital than I had anticipated and time away from my little boy. Having my hearing taken away so suddenly was a huge shock, it felt like i had been hit in the ear with a base ball bat and the lack of balance was like nothing i had experienced before. Then 3 weeks after i was discharged from hospital, I woke with a severe headache and face like a balloon, I was rushed to emergency with excess fluid on the brain and needed another procedure.

I flew home to Brisbane, Australia at the end of April 2013 and wanted to get better, I returned to work as my 7 months maternity leave had ended and hit the gym hard to lose the gained pregnancy weight and medication weight, the over doing it caused me to have an epileptic seizure on the treadmill, fracturing my cheekbone and eye socket, which meant, MORE surgery to have a plate inserted into my eyebrow and cheek.

With all this i felt like i should just give up, we spent every penny we had on flights, time off work, a new baby, psychology and of expensive medication....

This means that we are still paying all this off and the debt is just getting bigger due to health problems since the operation, so I cannot afford the approx $5,000 plus for a specialised hearing aid such as a CROS or a BAHA. I am unable to have a normal aid as I have no cochlear, so a reconditioned or cheap one is not suitable.

With the love of socialising, I cannot hear anyone on a crowded place, so this brings on my anxiety, a love of cycling - I cannot hear cars approaching on my right and most of all find general day to day things like being on the telephone, crossing the road or hearing my boy crying a challenge.

To just be able to do the above and more would mean the absolute world to me and my family.

Thank you so much for reading xx