The day that shaped my life

On February 27, 2016, my life changed in seconds. The week before, I finished teaching a series at my church. My mother was calling me the morning of the 26th to tell me about the different celebratory things she had in mind to acknowledge the completion of our series. I was telling her whatever she wants to do is fine, but I must get off the phone because I have a headache. I stood up to go to the restroom and immediately the room started spinning. I fell to my knees and began to vomit. My ex-husband carried me to the car and began to drive to the hospital. I told him that my head was going to explode and my nose was on fire, so I can't make it to the hospital. He redirected the car to the nearest urgent care facility by our home. I do not remember what happened in the hospital as I was unconscious most of the time. After being at the urgent care facility for over 7 hours, the doctor proceeded to have me discharged while I was unconscious and told my family that I had vertigo.

My symptoms got worse over the next couple of days, and my mom could not understand why none of my symptoms matched what she researched about vertigo. She made me her homemade chicken noodle soup on Wednesday, March 2 (which is known to cure any sickness we have) and I could not swallow it. She promised that we would get to the bottom of what was going on. We went back to the urgent care and told a new doctor the symptoms of what was going on. He asked, “Has she been checked for a stroke?” He recommended that we do a CT scan. After waiting for what seemed to be hours, he came to our room to say, “We've contacted the hospital. They are sending an ambulance. She has had 4 strokes.”

Once at the hospital, a feeding tube was inserted. At this point, I could not talk, my gait was affected and I could not walk in a straight line, and I had lost fine motor skills so I could not write. The first two weeks of being in the hospital were spent getting me to a place of homeostasis. I thought I was in a dream. I never once thought that this was really happening, and I often said a prayer in my head asking God if I can wake up the next morning. My mom always taught us that when we have dreams it is God's way of letting us know what to pray for. I could not understand why I kept having a similar dream every day that I couldn't talk about. During the 3rd week of my hospital stay, I was sent to the rehab floor. My mom played a song that I love, He Lives by Fred Hammond, my favorite gospel artist. At that point something snapped in my head and I asked her, “Is this real life?” She confirmed to me that it was real.

My mom, who is an ordained apostle, along with other ministers continued to pray for me and repeatedly told me that God would restore me. I believed what they told me, but it was still a challenging time. I went through months of tears and felt very uncapable. After much prayer and physical practice, I slowly got my gait back and began to write again. It took my voice the longest to come back, but it has. I write and type with as much ease as I did before 2016. I have recently finished my bachelor's degree and work in education assisting with special education children. I am grateful for every word I can speak or type. I am grateful for every temperature that I feel on my skin, especially the right side that lost all feeling. I am grateful that I can cut food with a fork and knife again. I am grateful that I have the mental capacity to do things and understand instructions. I am thankful for the relationships God has given me.