Healing

This has been the scariest 7 months of my life, but the better I feel the more I am thankful that they happened. For those of you that don't know the journey I've been on these last 7 months, let me give you the details.

Last February (while student teaching) I was diagnosed with Hydrocephalus. Which sounds really scary and actually is as scary as it sounds. Before I tell you exactly what that is, I want to share with you how it happened. The day before I was diagnosed my best friend Chase took me to doctors care because I earlier that day I had to leave from student teaching because of head pain and seeing floating spots. They sent me home with "tension headaches" and told me to take Advil. The next day my mentor and dear friend Ken Turner sent me home because I looked so bad when I showed up for school. Later a CAT scan was done and the radiologist told me to not leave. I was alone because I told everyone (including myself) that everything would turn out normal. I got a very nauseating and scared feeling once the radiologist told me to stay. I knew something was wrong. For the record, it's horrible how they break bad news to you. So, I went back upstairs to my doctors office (everything was in the same building) and they took me in this small consultation room. The only thing in the room were a table, two chairs, and about one million boxes of tissue. By this point, I was thinking I had a brain tumor. The doctor came in and said we've discovered that you have condition called Hydrocephalus and that means that you have too much fluid around my brain. This only commonly seen in babies. (I remember they kept telling me that and it was upsetting me! I wanted to scream "But I'm not a baby!!!" Her last words to me were, "You're going to need brain surgery. This is a life threatening condition."

The next week I was hospitalized in Lexington for a week. I was told to hold off and let's wait on surgery and see if steroids work. (All while I continued on with student teaching.) Well, little did we know that neurosurgeon that I will not name planned on keeping me on steroids for over two months. I gained almost 45 pounds, which is slowing coming off! (yay!) So, after those two months my family and I felt hopeless and knew we needed to get a second opinion. That's when we finally got to MUSC which I can truly say is an AMAZING hospital. The new neurosurgeon saw me on a Wednesday in April and I had the first brain surgery the next day. MUSC doesn't fool around.

So, the next chapter of my life continued and I was feeling great. I graduated from USC and had job interviews all summer. I landed a job in Aiken County and was so excited to begin my life-long dream of being a band director.

August came and school and band camp were great. Amazing students and I was just feeling really good until the headaches came back. I kept ignoring them with the positive thinking that maybe they were just stress headaches this time....nope...the hydrocephalus had come back. So, on September 7th of my very first teaching job I had invasive brain surgery to put in a shunt device that will drain the excess fluid for the rest of my life. I actually (believe or not) have a computer chip in my brain that controls how much fluid is drained. That was about the only "cool" thing I could find about having to have brain surgery twice. I went back to teaching 2 weeks after my surgery, and felt tired but was doing ok until 2 weeks ago when I was hospitalized again for high blood pressure, exhaustion, and tachycardia.

But through all this, it has really put life in perspective and how important it is to cherish every moment you're given because it is a TRUE blessing from God. I know my kiddos are waiting on me, I have wonderful family and friends, and I cant wait to get back to teaching. I love what I do and feel blessed to be alive! Thank you again to everyone who has been there for me whether it be in person, by phone, or even texting. It means SO much. I love you all!

My dear friend Nave shared this picture with me and it is so true, but easy to forget!