Reflecting on My Health Journey

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.