A Kansas City Chiefs cheerleader initially suspected she was experiencing hearing loss when she observed changes in her right ear back in 2011.
However, after enduring six years of being “misdiagnosed, underdiagnosed, and dismissed,” Shanna Adamic, now 44, was finally diagnosed with a rare tumor in her ear.
Shanna visited numerous doctors over the years, seeking answers for her headaches, vision loss, and slurred speech, but her symptoms were repeatedly dismissed.
“I was told I may be suffering anything from a common cold to sleep apnea, sinus infection, even Lemierre’s disease, vertigo,” she shared with the Daily Mail.
“I was treated for dehydration many, many times. [My condition] was blamed on hormonal changes, breastfeeding my kids, menstrual period.
“I felt crazy and I started to believe that there was nothing wrong with me.”
When she noticed her hearing change, doctors attributed it to her work environment, having performed in loud stadiums for over ten years.
Despite a clear CT scan, a year later, medical professionals discovered a two-inch tumor in Shanna’s ear, which was pressing against her brain.
The tumor was a non-cancerous acoustic neuroma, a benign growth that typically develops slowly over several years.
This type of tumor affects the nerve responsible for hearing and balance, with symptoms including hearing loss, tinnitus, a sensation of movement or spinning, headaches, and blurred or double vision.
“When I received my diagnosis, the doctor referred to it as a ticking time bomb,” Shanna recalled. “And he said, ‘it’s pressing on your on and off switch’ and I will never forget the feeling of hearing that and thinking, ‘okay, what do I do next?'”
To eliminate the tumor, Shanna underwent a demanding 13-hour surgery, which resulted in facial weakness and paralysis.
“In that moment that I found going into that surgery and waking up with with my life, but then also a very different version of me [of having] one side paralysis and not knowing if I was going to get my facial function back on that side, gaining my mobility functions, all of that,” she described.
“I had to really kind of dig deep in that moment to think how was I going to love this version of me coming out of it and going to use this to be a positive force?”
After years of physical therapy, Shanna has fully recovered, with recent scans showing no signs of the tumor.
“I think I had to keep listening to this inner voice that kept telling me something was wrong. And it did,” she concluded.