One year ago

One year ago, I was 28 years old and my husband of 6 years was 30. My husband was on a ventilator at OSU, in what I referred to as a drug induced coma. He would not respond to my voice or my touch. I was in the ICU with my family and friends when a doctor told me that they thought something was or actually was not going on in my husband's brain. I was told that the fact that his tongue could potentially get cut off, was not at all an issue to deal with now. A doctor actually let my family and friends think that Neal was brain dead. For days we would all go back and visit hoping to get a response from him and nothing. It was days before tests were run to prove the doctors wrong.

I drove him to the hospital just 12 hours earlier and he knew my name and his name (although he could barely talk since his tongue was swollen throughout his entire mouth), but could not even tell me what year it was. He did not even answer let alone acknowledge my question "What year is it?" He simply stared into space as if my question never made it to his brain. I immediately called my sister and said meet me at the hospital right now, something is really wrong. Upon arriving at the hospital we were taken to a trauma room. We had never visited this area of the ER before, which was not a good sign. Neal was put on a ventilator and taken away for tests. Six hours later we saw him heavily sedated on a ventilator and still had no answers. My mom stated it best, this was a real life NIGHTMARE.

Thankfully the images of this nightmare are slowly fading. Neal likes to joke about this incident. I in turn do not think anything about it is funny and wish I could forget the month of October 2007 forever, perhaps even the entire year! Who would have thought we would be where we are today. Neal is in the best shape since we first started dating 13 years ago. I think we both have a new, improved outlook on life.