Alternative treatment a possibility for tumour patient

Across the globe, May is brain tumour awareness month and it is aimed at creating further education about brain tumours.

Mrs Seipati Mrwebi, an Edenvale resident and working mother, was diagnosed with a brain tumour at the end of March 2016.

Her first thought that came to mind was, “No it can’t be me. I’m healthy. I’m fine,” she said.

The brain tumour that Mrs Mrwebi was diagnosed with was a Glomus Jugulare.

“Mine is slow growing, highly vascular and is attached to the jugular vein on my neck. The tumour has begun to grow towards the base of my skull and is near my brain stem,” she said.

At the moment her tumor is non cancerous.

“It all began with an itch in her ear, however over time the intensity of the itch increased,” said Mrs Mrwebi.

She woke up one morning and went to work as she usually did and once at work she began to notice a pulsating sound in her ear.

This was her own heartbeat she was hearing. She also realised that the hearing in her right ear had been reduced. All of these symptoms were the first signs of a tumour.

Mrs Mrwebi said she went to a doctor, who put a camera in her ear to see the cause of her discomfort.

“It looked like a mealie pip that pulsated,” said Mrs Mrwebi.

The doctor was uncertain and sent her for a scan. After the scan it was found that the mass was eroding her ear canal and pressing against her cranial nerve. As a result, she has had some facial paralysis, weakness in the right shoulder, balance, visual, hearing, speech issues and congestion of the sinus cavities.

A Glomus Jugulare tumour is a part of the temporal bone (which involves the middle and inner ear structures) in the skull. This tumour can affect the ear, upper neck, base of the skull and the surrounding blood vessels and nerves.

Through her own research, Mrs Mrwebi has found that the type of tumour she has is very rare; it occurs mainly in women and occurs later in life between the ages of 40 to 70 years of age, but can occur before that.

As it is an uncommon tumour, Mrs Mrwebi said she battled to find information on the tumour.

“It is incredibly frustrating, there’s not enough information to work with,” said Mrs Mrwebi.

Her tumour may be non-cancerous and slow growing, but continued growth could lead to health complications.

Her surgery was scheduled to take place in the middle of May, however Mrs Mrwebi went to her specialist on Thursday, May 5, where she was told she had since developed other health issues.

She is now pre-diabetic, resistant to insulin and has an iron deficiency.

All of this makes no sense to Mrs Mrwebi because in her January her medical check everything was fine. The surgery had to be postponed.

The surgery to remove the tumour can be extremely traumatic and will leave a significant scar on the body, as the skull is cut open to get to the middle ear where her tumour is situated.

She became anxious and fearful about the surgery.

She had tried to stay positive since being diagnosed, but after her meeting with her doctor on May 5 and being told that there was no alternative but to postpone the procedure, she broke down and thought she couldn’t do it any more.

She began looking for alternative solutions and more information online.

She found her second ray of hope when she was put in touch with Dr Sridhar, who is based in Bangalore, India.

Dr Sridhar uses the CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery System, a non-invasive alternative to surgery for the treatment of both cancerous and non-cancerous tumours that rely on accuracy and precision.

Although her family is looking after her and she is currently on leave from work, she worries about the financial cost of the surgery that can cost up to 15 000 USD or R229 533.75.

Anyone who wishes to get in touch with Mrs Mrwebi can do so by contacting her at Seipati.mrwebi@outlook.com