WEE WOO WEE WOO WEE WOO! Off in the distance, I hear the sound of an ambulance. As I lay there, barely conscious outside my car, waiting for the paramedics to arrive, I start to worry. I try to get up, but I can’t. Am I going to die here? As they arrive I begin to regain hope that I might not. When I get into the ambulance and they started asking questions, I try to respond but I can’t. What is wrong with me? What happened? As soon as we arrive at the hospital, I start to realize that we are at the San Antonio Memorial Hospital. What time of day is it? All of a sudden...

  My vitals DROP! The doctors come rushing in the room, trying to figure out what is going on.  They immediately want all sorts of tests done: blood tests, CAT scans, MRI, etc. Then a doctor approaches me.

“Hello Cora. My Name is T.C Callahan and I will be your doctor. Can you tell me what happened?”

I again try to speak but no words come out. And then it all starts to make sense.

  Earlier That Day
I woke up and ate, then I went out for a walk. I got home and sat down and started to read... I started to feel dizzy, so I lie down. Then, after I wake up, I think I will be healthy enough to drive to the hospital.  I get into my car, I feel dizzy again, but I tried to head to the hospital, then …. that’s all I remember.

As they start to work on the tests I feel dizzy, then I pass out. What is going on? WHy is this happening to me?!? Come on!! Are you just going to let me die here? They find out that I have a brain hemorrhage and I  need immediate surgery but… their brain surgeon is not there! Who is going to do the surgery?? They come in and ask me if I  would be okay with Dr. Cummings doing the surgery (He is the surgery resident and has been there for a couple of these  surgeries). I try to ask them where their other surgeon is and why he can't do it, BUT I CAN'T! So then they talk me into letting Dr. Cummings do the surgery and they have Dr. Callahan and Dr. Jordan there during the surgery helping him through it ( because he is probably more nervous than I am). I feel so relieved as  I think , “Wow! I might not die today!”

The surgery that they decided to do was the decompression surgery but they decided to get rid of the blood by a simple aspiration. During the surgery they got all of the blood from around the brain. They closed up the opening and sent me to recovery. I wake up soon enough, then they realized that the surgery had gone well for it being Dr. Cummings’ first time doing the surgery by himself.  I must admit, Dr. Cummings did an amazing job, I mean he must have, I am still alive, right?.

Later that day, after the surgery, they realized that I had some cognitive dysfunctions and I would need to have cognitive rehab after I was stable and ready to go. So I spend a day in the hospital after my surgery so that they could be sure that there was nothing else seriously wrong with me. I was also able to have some very simple conversations with my doctors and nurses.

  After the day had passed I was able to start cognitive rehab so that I could do all of my daily tasks on my own. Cognitive rehab took a couple of weeks, but after that I was able to do all of my stuff on my own. Soon after I was done recovering from surgery and the brain hemorrhage I had to go and thank all of my doctors, especially, Dr. Paul Cummings, surgery resident, T.C Callahan, and Jordan Alexander.

Needless to say, I found out that if you are feeling dizzy that you should probably just sit down and call someone, and  not get behind the wheel of a car and get an in an accident like I did. Well, I must say that was a very exciting day I got to go to the San Antonio Memorial Hospital. Which is where my favorite show, ¨The Night Shift¨ takes place.