
Help Marrissa Battle Life-Threatening Condition
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Hi there, my name is Marrissa I'm 35 and a wife and mother of 4.
I have been dealing with issues with my ear, hearing and migraines and have been to 2 urgent cares, my doctor's office 10 times, the ER 6 times and have been dismissed so many times with claims of allergies, ear infections, TMJ all wrong only to have blood come out of my ear and to finally be taken seriously and see the emergency ENT who informed me I had a Cholesteatoma and needed to see a specialized ENT at Stanford.
Well, I had my consultation at Standford yesterday. It was not the news we were hoping for.
When I first arrived the ENT informed me that the CT scan they had requested from the hospital of my Cholesteatoma, was infact the wrong one and because of that, they didn't see the urgency but when I handed them my copy of my most recent CT she was extremely upset with their negligence and lack of responsibility, she said I should have been seen over a month ago and because of that damage has been caused that may not be recoverable.
I'll try to explain it and without a diagram. This is a long one so buckle your seatbelts. I have a benign tomor wrapped around my hearing bones behind my eardrum. I also have Idiopathic Intercranial Hypertension, meaning I have too much spinal fluid in my head. Because of this the spinal fluid and tumor are pushing against the same thin frontal lobe bone and both things pushing are eroding it causing it to crack and spinal fluid to leak. It's life threatening because the tumor is bacterial (it's a bit hard to explain) and can cause bacteria to go into my brain.
I have to have emergency surgery at Stanford with a top ENT and the countries best neurologist for IIH. I'm number one on the list to be called for surgery because my case is so severe.
In this process they are going to do their best to remove the tumor without trouble but more than likely I will have a mastoidectomy to remove a part of my mastoid and also remove my hearing bones in my right ear making me deaf in my right ear. They will do another surgery 6 months to a year later to try and restore my hearing with fabricated hearing bones. Even in best case scenario I will still have to have a hearing aid because of my hearing loss in my right ear. They will have to patch the leak with artificial bone meaning directly next to my brain. I'm terrified to say the least but trying to stay positive.
It's extremely painful, I have a migraine everyday and and nauseous and throwing up, there's so much pressure in my head it feels like my eye balls are going to pop out of my skull. Mike has to drive me everywhere because I can't look at traffic lights or headlights without sunglasses. My quality of life has massively decreased, and caused a lot of depression and sadness. I just want to be a mom to my kids. I just want to enjoy my life.
My recovery time is 6-8 weeks. For 3-4 weeks I won't be able to drive or pick my babies up. My husband has to take at least 6 weeks off of work to help me with our four kids. I'm not sure how we're going to make it honestly so we're setting up a gofund me. If you can, please donate, if you can't, please please share it. I'm a mom of four and I'm absolutely terrified to leave my babies, they are my entire life. My kids are 16, 12, 3 and almost 1. I'm only 35 I have alot of life to live, please keep me in your thoughts and prayers and if you can donate it would help us so much getting to and from Stanford, hotel rooms, food, giving my husband support while taking time off for our rent and utilities, we were barely making it before, and now I'm just terrified because we don't even know if my surgeries or hearing aids will be covered by my insurance. With everything going on we won't be able to do Christmas this year financially. I know I can do this and fight it, but I need support from my loved ones, It takes a village and I desperately need my village.
If you made it this far thank you for your support.
Organizer
Marrissa Haarmeyer
Organizer
Winton, CA