I was just reading a book about two a.m. in the morning when I got up to go to bed. I felt very dizzy and when I got up the stairs my wife told me she would take me to the emergency room. This was in September of 1999. My wife took me to the hospital, along the way I started feeling anxiety and I was sweating. Fortunately, our son was staying the night with his Uncle and cousins. She got me to the hospital and my heart rate was about 40. They thought it was a stroke or heart attack. They gave me something to raise my heart rate up and the x-ray in my head reveled a dark patch in my brain. Fearing it was a tumor they checked me into the hospital to run more tests.
Being a teacher at the beginning of the school year, I couldn't let my students spend time without something! I wrote a detailed plan for the substitute teacher the next day. I felt fine sitting in the hospital. The doctors waited until Wednesday to do and MRI of my brain. Still it was not clear enough. So the next thing they did was a brain catheter and shot some dye there and took pictures. The Doctor (Nha To, was his name) came in with a smile to let me know it wasn't a cancerous tumor like they expected, instead it was two brain aneurisms. At that time I had no idea what a brain aneurism was so I was glad. He told me I needed to see a neurologist to decide what to do about the aneurysm.
I thought "what's the problem I'm fine! 34, healthy and in the prime of life, I directed musicals and acted, taught and sang. As long as it wasn't cancer I would be fine." Yea, sure...
My wife and I did a lot of research on the subject of brain aneurisms and I went back to teach that following week. Over the next several weeks we found more about brain problems then we ever wanted to know. My wife and I decided to get the surgery done in Cincinnati, Ohio because Dr. Yah, who had been performing brain surgery, had the latest and best know how (20 yrs + exp) and the doctor performing the brain catheter was trying a new type of Glue that had just been approved by the FDA to use for Arteriovenous Malformations in the brain to plug them up before the surgery.
So my wife and I after much soul searching went with the surgery. On Friday, October 29th 1999 I went down to have a double brain catheter to hopefully plug up the veins leading to the malformation before the brain surgery. After several painstaking tedious hours for my family, the doctor woke me up and said it was not possible to get the glue close enough. So after a night stay in the hospital and not being allowed to move, I went home Saturday afternoon to trick or treat with my son, wife, and nephews. The actual brain surgery to remove the one arteriovenous malformation that was in the middle of my head a little closer to left side was schedules to be removed Monday morning (The other aneurism was on top of my brain and wasn't growing). I knew without a doubt I would make it through the surgery and be back to teach my students 2nd semester, which started in late January after Martin Luther King Day. Boy, was I wrong.
When I woke up they said I had been in intensive care for a few days after the surgery, and a blood clot had almost taken my right leg. My wife was staying there with me and my son would come right after school every day. After a week at The University of Cincinnati hospital my insurance said I could take an ambulance ride to the Dayton Hospital (lovely insurance), that is when I started to realize where I was and started to remember things. Even now writing this is very painful.
The first thing I realized was my voice was unintelligible and slow, (my wife told me later that she thinks I might have had a stroke after the surgery when the brain swelling went down) and I wasn't going to be up and running anywhere for a while. I was in the hospital in Dayton for about a week and then got to come home. I was very unbalanced, my mind was wishy washy and I could barely speak (the stroke had effected my tongue) and I had to have all my food and drink thickened with thickener. But I had survived! My wife gave up watching the children she was watching so she could take care of me. My son, who was 6 at the time, would say to me, "Boy, Dad I'll be glad when you get your old voice back." Little did I realize then I would never get my old voice back.
It has been three years since the surgery and with the help and fortitude of my school district and fellow teachers I have developed an online curriculum to give students a different way to approach school. I have my balance and coordination back, pretty much (I exercise with my 71 year old father 3 times a week), my speech is still slow and I don't direct plays or sing very well anymore, and my students in my classroom are just like any other kids. I'm definitely not the outgoing guy I used to be, I get tired easily and earlier. I take medicines to control my emotion and my tiredness. My wife and I conceived another beautiful baby boy who turned one this September. My oldest son is very happy about his little brother and tries to help me as much as possible.
My wife has been a great help to me, and my strength all through this ongoing ordeal. My speech keeps improving slowly and my grin is still a little lopsided, but I know I will keep improving. I had a keen business sense before my surgery and I have realized it is not as keen as it used to be. I still have times I get mad or frustrated in the evening because I can't say what I want to say fast enough. All the time that little voice of my son goes through my head "Boy, Dad I'll be glad when you get your old voice back."
I may not ever get my old voice back but the one I have will get better and better. I have full use of my body. I still can't drink out of cans or write very fast or very long but I am improving. The hardest part of work is not being in the classroom up front speaking. All I can tell everyone is to take it day by day. Thanks you all for your stories they helped all through this trial.