Allie

In the early days of January, 2018, I suffered a series of grand mal seizures and lost consciousness. My husband called 911 and I was rushed to the hospital, where they discovered that I had a brain tumor. I continued to seize and was placed in a medically induced coma.

Upon awakening from that coma, which spanned 11 days (and during which I’d had brain surgery), I was unable to talk, walk, or swallow.  The seven days following I was focused on regaining the use of my left arm and leg which were paralyzed from surgery. Following that, I needed to learn to walk again. Three days after learning to move my leg, I was given a walker and took my first steps, and three days after that I was discharged to a rehabilitation facility. At this point I still needed a nurse to help me shower and get on and off the toilet. Charming.

I didn’t have to strength to lift my son up. Or the speed to chase him around like I used to. It was heartbreaking but also exhilarating since I had a firm focus and high stakes. After three weeks in rehab I was discharged, two weeks earlier than my target date.

Since then I’ve been treated with radiation and chemotherapy for seven weeks and I’m continuing to exercise and learn as much as I can to be happy, healthy and squeeze everything I can out of my precious life with my wonderful little family. I’m choosing to be positive about my disease, not treating it as an enemy, but as a beautiful teacher for this fleeting stage in my otherwise long life. There are many blessings that have come from having a brain tumor such as, discovering how much love is (and has been for my whole life) flowing to me every day and how worthy I actually am of all that love. I am so much more present for every moment in my life now and I can see all of the #tumorblessings that light up my days.