This is my wife Stacey, the backbone of our family. She is a nurse and a loving mother to our 4 beautiful girls. 

She went into work one night to get checked out for a pinched nerve, only to find out she had a brain tumor.  Three and a half weeks later we were called by the hospital that a spot for a craniotomy was available the next day. That began our journey.  

We found that Stacey was just 2 weeks away from getting short term disability through work and needed to apply for Disability EI. The application was completed immediately, unfortunately we are still awaiting EI funding. Service Canada had mistakenly opened an application in Ontario on top of Stacey's own application in Alberta. She has been questioned about our length of time here, bank information etc. Nothing has changed. Five weeks after her initial surgery, Stacey was diagnosed with a bone infection to which she had to have her own bone removed, and is on IV antibiotics twice daily for 7 weeks to clear the infection. The initial results from the tumor removal came back as benign, so we are truly grateful. Due to this second surgery, Stacey is missing a piece of her skull and must wear a helmet to protect her brain. This also means that Stacey will have to have another surgery to put in an Acrylic flap, and she will be unable to work until this procedure is complete.

It has been over two and a half months trying to fix her Disability claim, a service that they state can take up to 28 days. We are now a single income family, and only with help from some extremely generous friends and family have we been able to stay afloat up to this point.

Instead of by wife being able to rest and recuperate from both of these surgeries, she is struggling with stress,  anxiety and sleeplessness wondering how we are going to pay our bills. I am starting to struggle myself and am frustrated with how my wife's situation with her disability claim is being handled.  

I want to see her smile again and go back to what she loves doing, being a nurse and helping others. Her work family has been amazing and Stacey is struggling with not being there alongside them.