Russell Dumond

Hello everyone and thanks for stopping in.  I will update posts as we navigate through this next journey we are experiencing in our married life.   Many people have asked how this whole thing went down.   As many married couples do, Russ and I lovingly joke around about his hearing deficit, or "listening" deficit.   He sees a PA at Mercy ENT on a regular basis for ear visits (I will save you details of that!).   The last time he went she suggested to do a hearing test and see if he actually can't hear, or isn't listening.  Lol.   So, the hearing test showed unilateral hearing loss.   The test suggested it was from noise exposure but when the words acoustic neuroma were mentioned as a remote possibility, I said I wanted the MRI and not an intermediate test.  That was just one of the many Devine interventions in this process thus far.  So, Friday night (10/7) we went to MMC for the MRI.   Monday he got a call at work to come in after work to review the scan.  The ENT doc said the MRI report did not show an acoustic neuroma but instead a small (4 mm.) mass of some kind in his Cerebellum.   The next step is to have CT scans of his chest, abdomen and pelvis to rule out a primary tumor elsewhere, which we feel really confident will all be negative as Russ is the specimen of good health.  They are also setting up referrals to Neurosurgery.   We will see someone locally as well as go to Boston for a 2nd opinion.   Those appointments are pending but the CT scans are Thursday, 10/13, at 10 AM.  We will have those results by this Friday sometime.   People usually ask, "what can we do?"   What is most needed now is prayer.  If you pray and know anyone who prays, please pray and ask others to pray for Russ.    We are praying, obviously, that the CT scans will be negative and that whatever it is in his brain will just disappear.   Miracles happen every day.   God is good and we just have to ask for His help to intercede.   We both have great faith and feel very confident that Russ is going to be just fine.  I have this inner knowing that he will be and many people that I have spoken with thus far have said the same thing.  We all know that Russ is such a bright light in this world - his smile, his way of being, his kindness.   He is needed in this world by me and many others.   I have told so many people since meeting him that it took me 48 years to meet the man of my dreams and that I didn't think existed, so I intend to have 48 more years to enjoy being with him!   Thank you all for reading and I'll post something after we get the results of the CT scan in the next couple of days.   God bless you all for your prayers and the incredible amount of support and love that we have experienced thus far!