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“Free At Last”, a concert to help
Friday, July 7, 2006
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Nina Orrett-Ebanks’
whose ‘Friends’ have
organized a concert to raise
funds to cover her essential
medical costs to operate on
a brain tumour. |
After a shocking diagnosis and desperate need of medical attention, the ‘Friends of Nina’ will be presenting a special concert to raise funds for Nina Orrett-Ebanks’ medical expenses on Saturday 8 July at the Lions Centre in George Town, beginning at 6.30 pm.
The concert, called ‘Lean on Me’, will include many different musicians, displays of body building, stand up comedians, and fashion shows.
This is Nina’s story:
“In the early morning hours of Wednesday 7 Feb 2006, my daughter placed an emergency 911 call for the ambulance to come to my home in West Bay. Shortly after my arrival at the hospital, I was reunited with both my husband and my mom, Daphne.
While still in excruciating pain the hospital doctor on duty recommend that I be given a brain scan. “Thank you Lord,” were my silent thoughts “I thank you for all you’ve done and what you’re about to do.”
Finally, Nina said she thought she was going to get to the root of what was causing her so much pain from the neck up.
“Shortly after being given the scan, my mom, husband and I, braced ourselves as the doctor was now approaching us with the results,” she recalled.
“That day and that moment will be forever embedded in my memory: The diagnosis was a brain tumor. A look of shock and concern immediately swept across the faces of my loved ones. As for myself, I was thinking: “This is still the day that the Lord had made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
“I’d finally found the source of all my pain, and as I’d suspected all along, it turned out not to be a malignant tumor.
I prayed: “Thank you Jesus, for only now will I be able to truly live.”
Nina said her troubles all started when she was in her late teens.
“I was diagnosed as having a “lazy eye”, while still in College. My room-mate and best friend, Victoria Hew, would have to sometimes escort me to classes, as the glare reflecting off the snow made it very difficult for me to see,” she said.
“With constant burning and itching in both eyes, I was then diagnosed with having allergies. As the headaches increased I was diagnosed with having migraines. The list continued to grow, so there was more testing and more medication.
“I Just kept on smiling; putting on this mask for the public; trying to hide this never-ending pain.”
Nina told of how her body started to bloat, her face and neck started to turn really dark.
“My teeth on the upper right and my right ear were constantly in pain. My right eye began losing its sight (and that was the ‘strong’ eye; the left eye was the ‘lazy’ eye).
Consequently, feeling dizzy, fatigued and nauseated, I prayed: “Please Lord Please, do not punish me any more, but instead let me die peacefully,” she added.
With tears flowing down her cheeks and feeling as though she had failed her family as a parent and a wife, Nina said she began crying out in excruciating pain, “Lord, Please take this pain away.”
It was then suggested to her she should go to see a phsychiatrist and to also go to ‘Body-talk’.
“I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try these things out but I soon realized they wouldn’t solve the problem,” Nina explained.
“In fact, every suggestion I had been given I’d followed through on, but nothing worked.
However, the final straw came after my pain could no longer be hidden from the public.”
Nina explained that the crisis came during a semi finals performance at the Cable and Wireless Star Quest Competition.
“The sharp, penetrating pain in my head actually caused me to shriek. Needless to say, not only was I embarrassed, but felt that I had failed all those who had believed in me,” she remembered.
“In 2005 Dr Rutlyn Dormanes (whom I highly recommend to anyone who has similar experiences and symptoms) had put in a request for me to have a brain scan.
Unfortunately my dad got ill and later passed away, and being caught up in the funeral arrangements, I cancelled my appointment, and they are very hard to get.
However, I continued seeing both private and government doctors.
Some diagnosed me of having migraines or stress; sinuses; high blood pressure; anxiety attacks, bi-polar disorder, and even a cavity.”
Nina explained how one doctor after another ruled out what the previous doctors had said.
“My suggestion to those doctors: If someone is dizzy, five upper teeth are in pain, and they suffer from a constant earache, their neck and head is in constant pain, their eyes feel like they are burning all the time, they have constant fever, they feel fatigued, lose their vision and hearing, their blood pressure is always high, they have difficulty in breathing, cannot sleep, their jaws hurt and they also suffer from facial swelling, their complexion is getting dark, they have fading memory, suffer from chest pains, can no longer talk or smile without the entire face hurting; it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out a CAT scan should be given,” she said.
“All these years of pain and suffering could have been avoided. Some of the other symptoms such as facial spasms I had also mentioned to the doctor; and also like fingers or insects crawling on my head: I’d say, “What is in my hair?” and whoever was around me would say, “Nothing.”
Nina said she would like to get the word out that if anyone is having symptoms such as these, insist on getting a CAT scan.
“Because that’s the only way they can detect a benign tumor,” Nina advised.
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