BeWonderNow (1)

when you get to the fork in the road, take it (yogi berra)

Timeline Share- My Month of May

On May 2nd, I had a seizure at 2 in the afternoon while walking around a lake near my home. It came on completely and without warning. I immediately dropped to the ground and lost control of my life and all that I previously imagined for it. It was as if I had been struck by lightning. Fortunately, someone witnessed this episode and called 911, and I was taken by ambulance to a nearby emergency room where I was revived — thoroughly dazed and confused. 

My girlfriend Sandi, whom I had in my phone as my emergency contact, quite miraculously heads up critical care research at a leading hospital in St. Paul, and she immediately came to my side and sorted out the confusion. 

I was then loaded into an MRI and diagnosed with a mass on my brain. I was then asked by a hospitalist about my “code status” (or wishes for resuscitation) and told that I would be going into brain surgery in the morning. I had yet to speak with anyone in neurology or neurosurgery, and Sandi immediately recognized the potential danger I could be in, and she started to intensively work her medical network looking for a better way forward for me. By the next morning, she had me on a path to be transferred to her hospital ICU and placed under the direct care of one of the most renowned neurosurgeons in the upper midwest. 

By May 3rd, I was at Regions Hospital in the care of experts and angels!

My surgeon had another MRI done and was reconsidering the relative urgency of my case. His view was that I was well enough to return home and surround myself with friends and family while I prepared myself physically and emotionally for the surgery now scheduled for May 10th. 

Those days of meditation and affirmations and communal support made so much positive difference in what came next. I truly believe this. 

In a State of Grace and Gratitude, S