My New Holiday Look

Harold,
here is my new look courtesy of an Acoustic Neuroma. (type of brain tumor) I was told by my doctors that things should improve and my facial muscles should come back, so I guess it's only a matter of time.

UPDATE: The doctor was WRONG! lol The facial nerves grew back but normal muscle movement never did return. In the later video, it looks like it got even worse.


I have always valued Canada's (free) social health care system but right now, I appreciate it more than you can imagine.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Acoustic
• Neuroma
• brain
• tumor
• TorontoEdmonton
• operation
• canada
• health

[Jeffbud84]

hey man... I just found out i have a AN its 1.5. I am lucky we found it when we did. I was having problems with my right eye. It felt like it was tring to shut, and i had no control over it it. I went to 4 diff. docs, and finally have my surgery set for july 30. I am just glad i work at ups. I have excellent insurance i paid 157 dollars out of pocket for the MRI. The surgery, and the hospital stay is covered 100%. So i am blessed in that aspect. take care of yourself..... god bless

[TorontoEdmonton]

Thank god you had good health care. I don't know what people would do if they had an AN and it wasn't covered by health care. That's just too scary!

I wonder what would happen to an American who had not health care coverage and had an AN. Would he/she just be left to die? Poor people in 3rd world countries die from AN all the time and it's just sad to think about. We are so lucky in western countries.

[chiripitio]

My respect Man !!! You are a winner and you valor Is so much !!! I was the same tumor and my face dont be the same.....I kwon the hard way .We are a survivor .My best wishes .Thanks for your video

[SteffanLlwyd]

@TorontoEdmonton My thinking too. I'm so thankful that I can see my specialist for free (on the UK NHS) anytime I want. It costs in taxes, but still less than private health insurance would cost for the same full spectrum coverage.

That said a lot of innovation has come out of the US system and I'm thankful for that too.

For info I'm a 1.1cm LH AN with significant symptoms but 'no appreciable growth' over 18 month of monitoring. Probably started 45 yrs ago. Great vid. True grit.

[tinyGhost17]

watch the movie John Q your gonna be scared as hell trust me

[TorontoEdmonton]

Yeah, those are really good prices but you're also very lucky you have the money to pay for it. I know that many people in third world countries, like Vietnam, die from things like Acoustic Neuroms because they can't afford the operation. A friend of mine who used to live in Vietnam told me his father died of an easily curable disease because his family was too poor to afford the operation. There is no free health-care there, so if you're poor, you die. In that regard, we are both lucky.

[satavalekar]

I read in your post that people (with INSURANCE) are so much better off in Western countries. I beg to differ & would like to present my point of view for the benefit of all those reading this post. I am from India and I had one of the best medical treatments possible. I had NO insurance, but the entire brain tumor surgery cost me only Rs. 130,000 (US$ 2800). I get my 6-monthly MRIs done (from top of the class MRI machines) at a cost of Rs. 7500 (US $160). This is very affordable, I would say.

[TorontoEdmonton]

OK, I lied! I didn't film another video because now that I'm feeling a little more normal, my shy self has come back and I dread going back in front of a camera. I can't say I'd never do it again but right now I really don't want to film another video. I cringe just watching this one. I can't watch these videos, they just make me want to press DELETE! lol I only keep them up because so many people tell me they helped them in some way.

[SteffanLlwyd]

Yes. I find these sort of groups useful. I'm in a UK one called 'BANA' and they have a great Newsletter and local groups. BANA is a good source of information, but you videos is SO informative.

[cymbeli]

there is an organization called ANA and the hearing institute and think the doctors name who either started it or is like the main doctor is Dr. William Slattery and they are based out of California I think. My doctors name is Dr. Anil Nanda and he is in shreveport louisiana. I think they have some type of publication as well and they are big on Gamma knife surgery if its an option of course.