Have you ever woke up in an ambulance and couldn’t remember how you got there? It was the end of my seventh grade year when I passed out and entered into a seizure. I was rushed to the hospital and then went to St. Louis Children’s Hospital and had an EEG and MRI. That was when I found out that I had to have a very rare brain surgery. This brain surgery was the most difficult obstacles I’ve ever faced.
       My most difficult obstacle was a very rare obstacle. My surgery was called a Chiari Malformation Decompression. What caused this was my brain being bigger than my skull. That meant that my brain stem dipped down into my spinal cord. A brain stem lets fluid go around your spine, but instead my fluids went into my spinal cord breaking down nerves. If we didn’t do the surgery, I would’ve lost the ability to walk in my early 20’s. Even though I should’ve been scared, I wasn’t.
       The surgeon was Dr. Matthew Smyth. My surgery was held July 25, 2013 at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. During the surgery, Dr. Smyth stopped the surgery and went out to my parents. He found that there was more fluid in my spinal cord than the MRI showed. But as soon as he cut my C1, the back of my C2 vertebrae, and some of my skull, he could see the fluid going the right way.
       When I woke up, Dr. Smyth told me I did an excellent job and my parents would be here in a few minutes. Then i passed out and when I woke up my parents were there. We all got into the elevator and went into the recovery room. I stayed in the hospital for three days, and then went home. I was back playing basketball six weeks after the surgery.
       In conclusion, I am very grateful to have had my seizure so I could find out I needed brain surgery. I still to this day have to go back and get MRI’s. I like the quote, “Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight at the eye”. This was said by Hellen Keller. I like this quote because it is what I did: I didn’t give up.