Finding Strength in the Face of Adversity

Sitting here reflecting, I’ve noticed that the past two days I’ve been feeling out of sorts and quite grumpy in the mornings. I wasn’t sure why or what was going on. But today, while out for a walk, I realized that tomorrow marks one year since a significant event in my life.

On December 5th of last year, I was at home, feeling miserable with a terrible cold that had lasted about a week. That morning, I made myself a breakfast smoothie and a protein shake. While in my home office, I fainted and fell flat on my face on the hard wood floor. My face hit my guitar case, and I lost consciousness.

A few days later, my landlord and best friend found me face down on the floor in my room, in a pool of blood, and having convulsions. She immediately called 911. The ambulance arrived, assessed the situation, placed me on a stretcher, and moved me to a church parking lot a few miles away, where an air ambulance helicopter picked me up. They flew me to the University of Tennessee Hospital, where I arrived having multiple mini-strokes. An MRI revealed a brain bleed and pneumonia. The pneumonia had triggered everything that was happening in my body, and the brain bleed was caused by my fall and lying there for days.

When I woke up in the hospital a few days later, everything was in black and white, and I couldn’t hear anything. I saw my friend talking to the nurse, but I couldn’t hear their voices. I was in tremendous pain and quickly lost consciousness again. When I woke up two days later, color and sound had returned, but I was still in a lot of pain and hooked up to many IVs.

The doctor came in and told me I was very lucky to be alive. I later learned that the hospital had tried to contact my sons for permission to unplug me because they didn’t think I would make it through the night. By some miracle, they couldn’t reach them, and I thank God that I am still here today.

I spent two weeks in the hospital, mainly in the ICU, and had to relearn how to walk. I remember a scripture that gave me strength while lying in that bed: “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” I prayed to God for strength because I had none left.

Nearly passing from this world to the next, God saw fit to keep me alive. This is why I’ve been on edge the past two days. I thank God I can share my story with people. I am still on this health journey and have many more appointments to go through, but I am grateful for the chance to continue living and sharing my experiences.