It's today

It's April 10, 2011. Today marks 8 years since my "rebirth." Essentially 8 years ago was the day I was going to die.  It was clear, I was dying. As I lay on that gym floor, falling in and out of conscience I knew I wasn't well I also knew that I was too weak and powerless to do anything about it. I had almost succumb to the situation, that was about to be. 


I've been asked what I was thinking, and, feeling laying on that gym floor. I wasn't thinking anything. I was so oblivious to what the world around me. I was feeling excruciating pain. It was pain that seemed to encompass my entire body. The totality of who I am was wrapped inside a Migraine. I do recall a fleeting moment, in which I thought: "Someone needs to find me!" I could not tell you how much time lapsed between that thought, and that thought materializing. 

I soon saw Niki and Vanessa standing above me. Vanessa's long hair was tickling my nose, and she was all decked out in her costume for Anything Goes." I was trapped somewhere between pain, surrealism and a musical! That pretty much summed up all of my time at Five Towns. 


Niki and Vanessa kept asking me questions. The biggest was "what's wrong." I wish I knew. I couldn't move. I couldn't think, I couldn't talk and, I felt no pain. I was in a moment of no pain, and no fear. With all the frantic questions and actions happening around me, I didn't have the thought  process to be afraid. I finally got enough energy to tell them where to find my cell phone, and he to call. After that I checked out. I don't know where I went, or what happened, until several days, when I woke up. 


I still can only know what happened based on stories that are relayed to me, and the small amount of medical documentation I was provided with. The story goes like this ... 


8 long weeks of Migraines culminated in, what was, an intercranial Brain Hemorrhage, that was about to take my life. I was dying on that gym floor. I got to Stony Brook Hospital, with only hours to live. Quick decisions, and trust, an 11 hour surgery and a 3 day medically induced coma and here I am.


 I don't even think Vanessa or Niki even realize how instrumental they were in me being here. I still, to this day, have no clue how the two of them knew to come look for me. Hell I can't even figure out how it ended up being the two of them. This all took place during a costume fitting, for Anything Goes. How the actress and the Stage Manager ended up together, is beyond me. And their mutual decision to "find me" still blows my mind.


They made a decision to save my life, without even knowing.