My name is Angie Fleener Walthall.  I live in Southaven, MS, near Memphis, TN. I recently went through brain surgery to remove a tumor.  My profile photo is my husband and I a few moments before they took me back to surgery.

I had been experiencing dizziness, and because of previous experience, assumed it was an ear infection.  So after much procrastination I went to the Take-Care clinic at the local Walgreens (June 1, 2009) and told the FNP what was going on and that I had an ear infection and needed a Rx for Meclizine.  She looked at my ears and said she did not see anything wrong with them and proceeded to ask me what I thought was as stupid question, "Is the room spinning or are you spinning?" Well I don't know, and thought a minute and said, "I guess it's me."  She could tell how adamant I was about the ear infection, so she pretty well said, "When this medicine doesn't work, be sure to make an appointment with an ENT to get checked out."

Needless to say, I took the 10 days worth of medicine, and it didn't do a thing for me.  My dad works in neurology at the VA in Memphis, so I asked him some questions and he reminded me of 2 of my uncles who have had small tumors in their ears.  One of which ended up having seizures.  When I told him about the "stupid" question that the FNP at the clinic had asked he explained, "Well, if the room is spinning it is your inner ear, but if you're spinning it's something else.  Could be a number of thing.  Go ahead and make an appt with your mom's ENT."

So I made the appt.  And again he couldn't see anything wrong with my ears.  So he decided to do a hearing test and found hearing loss in my right ear.  Then he decided to order an MRI.  When I had the MRI, his clinic called me the same afternoon to come in the following day to get the results.  I went in by myself, b/c I knew what the results were going to be - a small tumor in my ear - minor surgery - no big deal.  So I had my husband meet me there and pick up the boys and I was going to meet them at church.  When I went in, I was not surprised when he said with a somber look on his face, "We found a mass."  I said, a-matter-of-factly, "How big?" - knowing the answer would be tiny, maybe the size of a pea.  He said, "The size of a lemon."  And puzzeled I said, "Where is it?"  He said that it was in my left frontal lobe right above my eye. . . . .

To be continued . . .