Jake William Maroney's story

Hi, I’m Jake. I will say sorry now for my spelling mistakes as I have been through too much so didn’t finish my education and I didn’t keep much of a record of what happened. I was a man that just lived life. I was going to join the army as an infantry sniper, then when I was 16 I became ill and my dreams just went.

I will tell you my story as quickly as possible, as I can’t stand to look at the PC screen for too long. This is based on what people have told me, as I don’t remember due to MVA roll over, meningitis six times, three CSF leakage operations, and three cholesteatoma operations. So I will try the best I can, I will start with listing my medical problems.

Cholesteatoma and complications

In 2009 I had a cholesteatoma removal, they had told me that I was lucky that I got there when I did. I had been seeing an ENT specialist since I was six months old and he never picked up on it – I asked why but they didn’t have an answer. They removed it then a month or so later I ended up with meningitis, a sinus scrape and another cholesteatoma which was 2.5cm long.

I was in a car crash, then had another cholesteatoma which left the bone between my ear and my brain as thin as a piece of paper which gave me meningitis again.

They couldn’t find the CSF leak at this stage so they fixed the meningitis. Two weeks later I got meningitis again so they did more research and found that there was a minute hole that they could see on the CT scan. They did an operation using bone cement, when I came out of surgery they clenched their teeth and told me they could see the hole on the scan but not in the theatre. So they patched up where they thought it was and hoped for the best.

Recurrence

It was around one or so months later according to my diary and I had meningitis again. So they fixed it with antibiotics and put me on the waiting list. They tried again by using a tissue graft from my leg, once again it failed and around 2-3 weeks later I had meningitis. While I was on the waiting list I got meningitis again for the sixth time so they sent me to Melbourne where they sealed the whole ear off. I have not had meningitis since however I have had:

• Back aches
• Neck aches
• Loose bone in my back
• Another cholesteatoma in my right ear. I’m not having it removed though.
• Memory loss
• Balance troubles
• I’m not proud but I spent time in a mental ward, I am on nerve pills
• Really bad head aches
• Hearing loss in my left ear
• Recently I have been told I have a bad heart
• A bad leg
• Nerve trouble – like little tad poles swimming in my legs and back
• Loss of taste
• Weight loss and gain
• I can’t learn anything. Everything I learnt at high school I have forgotten
• Jumpy vision

I will leave it there as I have too many pages in my diary. I try to sleep most of the day from pain, I just thought if anyone had any pain suggestions or any cures I would be grateful.

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