Hello all! I’m Manasi Gadkari, 31, from Kolhapur.

I was born a perfectly “normal”, healthy baby and was like that till 17 years of age. At 17, (in March 2002) I was diagnosed with Acoustic Neuroma Neurofibromatosis Type 2: a pretty rare disease. In this, you get tumors in your nervous system.

The growth of the tumors is VERY slow and the effects of them on your body are not visible until they grow too big. In my case, I have tumors right above my ears, below the brain and on my spinal cord. I started experiencing excruciating headaches and slight hearing loss so the doctors suggested to get an MRI scan done.

And those reports opened a can of worms.

The tumor on my left ear was the biggest of all others (about the size of a fist) and was pressing against the skull. That gave me headaches. There were other tumors too, like on the right ear but we decided to have the left one removed first as it was risky and I had 60% chance of losing my hearing.

After 32 hour long surgery, they removed the tumor successfully but I was left completely deaf in the left ear. I also suffered from facial paralysis and the surgery near the brain disturbed my body balance. I slowly lost my ability to walk.

So at 17, I was rendered partial deaf, had facial paralysis and wobbled a bit while walking.

Between 18-26, I lost hearing in the other ear too, recovered about 40% from facial paralysis and needed support to walk.
And currently, I’m stone deaf and I need a walker and a wheelchair to commute.

Like my fingers of the right hand are crooked. I can’t hold a pen or write but I can hold a spoon, a glue bottle and such. Also, steroids during my surgery have left me fat and shedding that weight is a pain as I can’t physically exercise due to lack of ability to walk.

My parents, brother and a few friends have been my rock solid support in my years of complete darkness and depression.

Recently, I discovered a new passion for acrylic rangoli making. I have a small business of that. I do it because I love making it and also because my dream of earning my own money came true because of it.
I have books, I have a beautiful dog, I love everyone and I have some incredibly priceless people and relationships in my life.
I have no complains 🙂

Live your life to the fullest and love, accept yourself as you are. Life is pretty beautiful!

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