A teacher, a tumor and the power of MESSA

power of messa photo After Jessica McClung belted notes during a lengthy rehearsal for a musical, something suddenly felt wrong.

A slight tingling sensation crept across her lips.

“It was like a big bully,” McClung said.

McClung, an 8th-grade English teacher and community theater performer from Owosso, didn’t think much about it. Then, a few months later, while sitting in her dentist’s chair, the tingling started again, leading to a life-changing discovery.

When she mentioned it to the dentist, it set off a couple of referrals. First, an ENT specialist. Then a neurologist.

That’s when doctors discovered that McClung, 49, had a tumor the size of a racquetball tucked behind her eye.

Little did she know it had been there for 12 years.

Getting rid of the “bully”

Though it was benign and grew at a snail’s pace, the tumor was packed with the power of a boa constrictor compressing her nerves, paralyzing her palate and crushing the Eustachian tube in her ear.

The “bully” had begun to press against McClung’s brain, promising brain damage and blindness if not removed. Last September, doctors removed the tumor during a seven-hour surgery at Michigan Medicine’s University Hospital.

She credits MESSA for allowing her to focus on her health and family.

“One of the most powerful things about my experience with MESSA is that I didn’t have to worry about reaching out to get them involved,” McClung said. “They were just there to provide the things I needed. I didn’t have to call. I didn’t have to hunt them down. I didn’t have to wait (on the phone) with elevator music in my ear. The bills were submitted and they were covered.”

Emotionally preparing for the fight

power of messa photo McClung, a wife and mother of four, had a schwannoma tumor. Such tumors are rare and usually develop randomly in otherwise healthy people of all ages. According to the National Institutes of Health, they affect fewer than 200,000 people annually in the United States.

McClung didn’t knowingly have any symptoms from the tumor except the tingling she felt after singing and after keeping her mouth open for a long time at the dentist. From the time she learned about the tumor, leading to the surgery, a series of emotions ran through her mind.

“At first I was numb,” McClung said. “Then I stopped singing. I resented it for some reason. Then I got really scared. Finally, I had an attitude of ‘OK, let’s do this.’”

It hasn’t been an easy road.

A long road to recovery

More than a year later, nerve damage from the tumor and the surgery itself has left McClung with a lot of pain and health issues. Currently, doctors are working on a solution for her hearing.

Part of the problem stems from a procedure about 12 years ago that was related to the tumor, although she didn’t know it at the time.

The tumor, although tiny, had crushed her Eustachian tube. The Eustachian tube balances pressure in the middle ear and protects it from hearing sounds your body causes and nasal drainage.

The tumor was so small, her doctors didn’t know it was there. Thinking the tube had collapsed, the ENT inserted a permanent tube.

Now fast forward to September 2024. After doctors removed the tumor, McClung’s hearing became amplified.

The surgery also caused a significant shift in her jaw. McClung endures grueling physical therapy sessions with her speech pathologist, who also helps her with certain consonant sounds.

MESSA makes the difference

Overall, McClung has 10 doctors working on solutions related to her surgery. Her pain tolerance is getting better thanks to her neurologist’s pain management plan. McClung said her medical team is amazing and she wouldn’t have come this far — or continue down her recovery journey — if she didn’t have MESSA.

“I’m so unbelievably grateful to everything MESSA has done to provide for us,” McClung said.