Alanna's unexpected and urgent brain surgery

Alanna has many roles, including being a mom of three, wife, sister, daughter, amazing friend, chiropractor, and president of the Newfoundland Chiropractic Association. She has recently and rapidly gone from running kids to practices, doing laundry, working at clinic, and being active to being off work and unable to do the things that she loves while she awaits brain surgery.

Almost two years ago, Alanna started having migraines. A few months later, she started to get facial numbness. She was able to see ENT and was sent for an MRI, but like most places, there was going to be a prolonged wait. She saw ENT again a few months later as her symptoms were progressing- she had started to get unilateral (one sided) hearing loss and tinnitus. At this point, because they had already ordered the MRI, no further action was taken.

Fast forward two years later, on January 22, 2024, Alanna was finally about to get the MRI. Two days later, she received a phone call from her family physician who explained that the scan revealed that she had a tumour. From that point, she was taken off work immediately and things started to move very quickly.

Monday, January 29, she saw a neurosurgeon in Newfoundland who explained that she had an acoustic neuroma. They are typically benign, but because of the location they can be complicated. The tumour that was discovered is 3 cm, which made surgery her only option. Due to the infrequency these tumours are operated on in Newfoundland, she was referred to a doctor in Halifax that specializes in this type of tumour. 

To remove the tumour, Alanna will undergo a retro sigmoid brain surgery, scheduled for March 19, that will take 14-16 hours. She was informed that she will be deaf in one ear following the surgery. Because she needs a new MRI and CT scan prior to the surgery, she is booked to fly to Halifax on March 14.

She will likely spend one week in the hospital post surgery for the early stages of healing and rehab- her vestibular system will be severely affected and she will essentially need to re-teach her brain to function properly. After she is discharged, she will need to stay an additional two weeks in Halifax prior to being released to fly back to Newfoundland.

Once she arrives home, her recovery will take another few months, and she will not be able to work during this time. Her husband will need to take time off during this whole unexpected journey as he will be taking her to Halifax and home with their three kids when she is back. They are fortunate to have her mother helping with the kids while Alanna and her husband are in Halifax for the surgery.

Alanna has already been unable to work for just over one month. With the surgery and recovery, the total amount of time that she is unable to work will be 4-5 months. They have found an apartment to rent for one month in Halifax, which will be less than a Hotel, but still a fairly major unexpected expense. MCP will cover a portion of the travel costs, however, everything needs to be paid up front and throughout the whole time she is off, she will only be receiving a fraction of regular income through EI.

As you can imagine, this whole experience has been a whirlwind for Alanna and her family. With all of the time away from work for both her and her husband in addition to this extremely sudden and stressful unfortunate event, I want to try to ensure that they can get through this with the ability to focus primarily on her health and recovery with as little additional stressors as possible.

Your support is extremely helpful and very appreciated. Thank you.