Losing battle to get rare cyst removed

[caption id="attachment_35500" align="alignright" width="405"] PROSPECTS DIM: Angelique Glass suffers from a rare ear cyst that is secreting poison into her bloodstream but has been told she can only have an operation in March or April[/caption]

A PORT Elizabeth woman will have to wait months for the removal of an ear cyst, which has already made her deaf, is pressing on her brain and is secreting a bone-eating substance into her blood.

The shortage of ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgeons in the Eastern Cape's public sector means Angelique Glass can only undergo surgery in March at the earliest.

Meanwhile her facial muscles are slowly being paralysed by the cyst, known as a colestiatoma.

The 30-year-old mother of one suffers debilitating headaches, battles insomnia and is losing weight fast – all signs, according to her doctor, that the cyst in her left ear is pressing into her brain. The cyst also excretes enzymes that erode the middle ear bones. - Estelle Ellis