Three days after we ran the 10K I got up in the morning to see the boys off to school. I do have seasonal allergies and therefore blow my nose quite a bit. I got up, walked to the kitchen, blew my nose. Immediately I was dizzy like what I imagine vertigo would be like. I had never experienced that before. Everything was spinning. I sat down and closed my eyes. Everything was still spinning. I laid down on the floor so that I could be as low as possible, still spinning. As if this was a normal occurrence (it was not) the boys stepped over me to get food from the refrigerator for their lunches! There were some assumptions made here on our part that kept me from going to the hospital right away. Previously I had experienced motion sickness, generally of a headache and nausea, which I was currently experiencing and therefore we thought because of the vertigo I also had symptoms of motion sickness. The second assumption being that I was having a reaction because of an inner ear problem . Many tests and one brain surgery later it was the general consensus of doctors that when I blew my nose it caused a blood clot to pass through a hole in my heart and forced it up to my brain.

My husband had a few meetings that day among other things to do and I asked him to stay with me. Since I generally prefer to be left alone when I am sick , this caused him to be concerned. He stayed home and cancelled his meetings. I slept most of the day, when I wasn’t throwing up. It is unusual for me to have a headache at all, but I had a headache that spread over the entirety of my head. We had made an appointment for me to see the ENT the next morning but because of the headache I felt that it would be best to go to the emergency room that night.

There is very little I remember after this point, however I do remember the MRI. It was terrible! They covered my face and I had to be still for about 45 minutes. I think I slept for most of it though. It was determined that my brain was swelling and that I did not have a problem that the ENT could help with. I was moved to the Intensive Care Unit overnight and the next day moved to a different hospital better equipped for brain surgery should it become necessary. I had two MRI’s at the first hospital and one at the second hospital. I was coherent during all of this, but do not remember any of it now. After the 3rd MRI it was decided by the doctors that I have emergency brain surgery. The surgery lasted about 5 hours. During this time several expat friends and many overseas friends supported my husband, Chad, and also prayed. It was a blessing to know that I was being lifted up by so many when I was unable to even know what was happening. It was also such an encouragement to Chad that so many stayed at the hospital with him. Community is a blessing and a Christ community is especially wonderful. We didn’t realize ours was so strong until there was a trial, but they were there for us in force and since then we have become even more aware of the blessing they are.