Now we all have our own story and some are more eventful than others but all have value and all live's have an impact on an unimaginable amount of people in the grand scheme of things. So this is just my little story. The story that lit a fire under me to get things done and stop wasting so much time. Here goes:
In the summer of 1993, I was a newlywed to my second wife "Laura". She was a school teacher and I was working at an electronic's manufacturing facility and had also just enrolled in a computer programming course at DeVry University. Life was good, crazy and busy with 4 kids in the mix!
Around July the wife and I went on vacation to Sedona, AZ and were enjoying ourselves but I started getting a pretty bad cough and got some dizzy spells. Upon returning home I made a Dr. appointment and found that I just had "Bronchitis". This "Bronchitis" lasted about 2 months overall and gave way to an "inner" ear infection so they thought. The coughing stopped but the dizziness was getting worse, then one day I got up to go to work and I could NOT get my balance and stumbled back into the bed.
On another day I got a funny taste in my mouth on the way to work, I pulled over and threw up a large amount of blood! I returned to the doctors and also noticed something odd with my vision! For some reason everything I saw was shifting downward to the left something like this:
After dealing with this for about a month, I noticed that the vision continued to slip ever to the "left and downward" then I began to see "Stars" similar to when you get hurt! I went back to the dr and long story short was sent to get an MRI. The MRI Scan revealed that I had a large brain tumor underneath the cerebellum and was pushing up against optical nerves etc.. There was fluid massing up and the pressure from this was causing the vision distortion and vertigo.
Up to this point I had been working and going to school as normal including driving myself as I had no solid reason to NOT being doing these things. Up till now I though I had inner ear issues never did I or my doctors suspect a Brain Tumor! My Surgeon told me I had to get this removed or I would die pretty soon! So I had the surgery just 3 days later.
Here's where the tumor was removed, see the matter scooped out in the lower left.
The Power of Prayer
One of the most memorable experiences about the surgery was the coming together of family and the support I got from friends and family. Somewhere during the procedure, I got the clearest picture of my Father and uncles huddled around each other and singing the old Mexican songs of my heritage like "Las Mañanitas". I actually felt the love from everyone and was overwhelmed with emotion, it was like healing virtue was running all thru my body! Later I found out that while I was in surgery, my father and uncles were in fact huddled around in the waiting room, praying out loud over me!
The Miracle Recovery!
It was early October of 1993 and Just 5 days after major brain surgery I was back home. My head looked like something from the movie "Hellraiser" I had 26 staples going from the top of my head to mid way down my neck! In the 3 months I was back to work with my vertigo completely gone and my vision restored to about 95%! Yes to this day I still see everything with about a 5% shift to the left! But aside from that no "serious" complications!
There were a few small complications however, the first being a numb spot on the left side of my head that to this day feels a little bit like when your foot is falling asleep, do you know that "tingling sensation? Well I've dealt with this for over 20 years now.. The second issue was the tremendous amount of tightness in the back of the neck due to the muscles and nerves being pulled back together and stapled closed after the surgery. They had to remove a chunk of bone at the base of my skull about 3/4" and that was not replaced by any prosthetic material just covered up by pulling the tissue together.
Enter Acupuncture!
After discussing my state of discomfort a friend suggested that I try Acupuncture to remove and or release the tension in my neck. So I did just that and after about 10 sessions of Acupuncture, cupping and herbal remedies, my neck tension was diminished to about 80%. The cupping treatments especially seemed to help in releasing the tension and stiffness in my neck but I wont' lie it HURT like crazy. It felt like 3 large lamprey's sucking on the back of my neck and it left huge welts! Thank God for cupping! It worked!
So that's it, that's how I got an extension on my lease in life! And it helped me go on to graduate with honors from DeVry and pursue a degree in Computer Information Systems. I definitely have a better perspective on life and an attitude to get things done now more than I did prior to my wake up call.
We only have a limited time here in this world so I suggest we all try to make the best of it, lets put aside our stupid differences that will, in the end, not add a minute to any of our lives. I love how motivational speaker Dr. Wayne Dyer said "Don’t Die With Your Music Still In You"!
Time to get back to practicing!
No comments:
Post a Comment