13 Years Ago..., Part 2

Over the break, I picked up a second job to make extra money.  On my way to work on December 28th, I found myself sitting on the side of the road, my knees hurting so badly, didn't know where I was or what had happened.  Come to find out, I had another seizure.  God had His protection over me, however.  It turns out I drove through a red-light in the turn lane in a usually busy intersection and ran into the car on the other turn lane.  I totaled my car, the car I hit, and then hit an explorer.  While this may not sound like a good thing, it really was.  The intersection was near the high school, but since school was out, the traffic was especially light.  In fact, no cars were coming through the green light.  Also, I had not been in the turn lane, but it was empty, so I had managed to get over into the turn lane.  Also, I was sitting on the side of the road.  Though I totaled my car, I was able to walk away.  I did have a broken collar bone from my seat belt, and had fluid in my knees, but that was it.  The other car had some injuries, but only because they had not been buckled in.  However, this began a difficult phase. 

I no longer had any aura to warn me of an oncoming seizure, and they were random, not in triplets anymore.  I now had taken all the medications available, so went back to the first one, and added a second.  Even more meds.  However, God continued to show Himself to me in new ways.  While I was worried that he might run off like others had, Keith stuck around in spite of it all.  He chauffeured me around a lot, too!  Unlike before, I had seizures more sporadically.  And now, I even had them during tests.  God left His fingerprints on those tests as well.  When I had a seizure, though they were only about 1 minute, it usually took about 20 minutes before I could think straight or talk sense.  The first seizure during a test I lost about 20 minutes of time.  My professors were aware of my seizures, so when I told him, my professor told me I could have a little more time at his office, but he only had 10 minutes before his next class.  I took it, and when the test were returned, I had scored the highest grade in the class.  The second incident was in a class of 2 students (engineering).  We had unlimited time, so time wasn't an issue.  The cool thing was that I scored 102 on the test (extra credit), but the only part I missed any points on was before the seizure.  Everything was perfect afterwards.  God used that to teach me that He could even take my test for me, if I did my part and trusted Him with the rest.

This round of seizures was more difficult.  College schedules are crazy.  I worked full-time every other quarter.  I lived 20 minutes out of town.  My family was very patient.  I felt like such a burden sometimes, but they kept on anyway.  I learned that God would sustain me when I knew I couldn't keep going.  I knew He would redeem me when I couldn't.  Then I learned something new about Him.

I had changed neurologists a little while after my accident.  We had a new one in town, and when he met with us, he suggested that I was a prime candidate for a surgery that they did in Augusta.  It was a big deal, though, and pretty expensive.  At the time, I didn't want to lose the opportunities I had at school, so I continued on the medicine route.  However, in 1997, things changed. 

In June 1997, I finished up my last quarter as a co-op and engineering major.  I had decided to do Math Education.  With that change, along with no noticeable change in the seizure condition, and concerns about my life ahead, I decided to find out about the surgery route.  That's where this adventure begins...!

(cont. on Part 3)