Picture this. It’s race day and we’re up earlier than any human should be just to get a parking spot. We sleep in the car before we have to eat breakfast and head to the starting line. The gun goes off and the race begins.

That was my morning on March 5, 2017 as I was about to participate in the Seaside half marathon/5k in Seaside, Florida. Originally I had signed up for a half marathon but did not feel ready for it so I ended up walking the 5k with my mom. The 5k was easy and flat with a beautiful view of the houses and beach. People danced on cars in costumes with signs and played music as they cheered us on.

After the race, on top of all the t shirts and merchandise they give out, you get food and beer. That year it was my favorite, shrimp and grits. By the time we finished the race, it was still early in the morning so that was breakfast number 2. We went back to the house to pack and clean before heading home. Before getting back on the road we stopped for lunch and had some “Alabama Catfish”.

In the car, on the way back to Georgia, I started feeling like I was having an anxiety attack. Having had several before I didn’t think it was unusual and tried to myself down. I put on my Lana Del Rey Pandora station, relaxed a little, and then I was in the hospital.

There was no blurry vision, no tunnel vision, or anything that would have warned me that something bad was about to happen. My life had experienced a literal jump cut into a new scene so fast at first I didn’t think it was real. I thought I was dreaming and would wake up from it soon.

What felt like no time to me had been forever for my family. As my dad drove us all back home, I slipped unconscious and had started to seize. I continued to have a gran-mal seizure for over 20 minutes and would not regain consciousness after that.

When we arrived at the hospital, I felt like I was in a dream state. I could hear everyone talking and rushing around me but I couldn’t feel my body and everything looked bright. I heard my sister tell them that I had just had a seizure and was certain that I was dreaming because I had never had a seizure before. Suddenly, I realized that something wasn’t right. When I was able to snap out of it, I felt what my body had just endured and it was the worst pain I had ever experienced. As I was freaking out from shock and pain, my family calmed me down as we waited for the doctor and I came to grips with reality.

After getting a CT scan of my head, the doctor came in to tell us I had experienced a cerebral hemorrhage or bleeding on the brain caused by one of my blood vessels working. The bleed had caused had caused the seizure.

At first the doctors and nurses thought that I had fallen or something physical had happened to cause the damage to my brain. I had a hard time convincing them that I had not been physically injured because they found it hard to believe that something was actually wrong with a seemingly perfectly healthy 21 year old. The neurologist on duty pushed for an MRI of my brain while the other doctors thought that there was no need and that my brain would heal in time.

The next day, I was taken to the MRI room. With headphones on, I remained still for about 30 minutes waiting for the MRI to stop thinking maybe I had hit my head and forgot. Maybe it really was physical like the doctors believed it to be.

Soon, a doctor came in and told me something I never wanted to hear “You have a brain tumor”.  It took a while for the words to sink in as I tried to process what I had just heard. Brain tumor? What was going to happen to me? I tried convincing myself that my life had not just been flipped upside down.

When I was well enough to come home from the hospital, we drove back and made an appointment with a neurologist to see what was wrong with me.

After not getting pneumonia the first time I tried to do the Seaside race and ending up in the hospital for the next one I did, it’s safe to say that the race seems to be unlucky for me. The race is one that I highly recommend because of its flat trails and beautiful views but not one I will be able to do again.

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