I guess the story starts on December 8, 2008. I had been sick for a few weeks before that, and I now I know it is all related, but at the time I did not know it. On December 8, I had a normal day. I did not feel great, but I went to the store, I went to the bank, I got a massage, I picked up my wife from work...everything was pretty normal. That night, I went to bed a little early because I did not feel well at all. At about 4 a.m. my wife woke up to me stumbling to our bathroom. When I returned, she called the local ER to find out if I should go. The room was spinning, I was nauseated, I had severe headache...I really did not feel well. The local ER wanted me to wait until 8 a.m. and go to my regular doctor. I said I did not know if I could wait so we called some other 24 hour nurses. They advised me to go to the ER to have a severe sickness rule out.

When I arrived at the ER, they did a CT on me, gave me some medicine for my nausea, and gave me a spinal tap to rule out Spinal Meningitis. Some time during the day I was transferred to the Des Moines VA for observation. When my condition did not improve (in fact, it got worse), a neurologist was consulted. She ordered an immediate CT, and told my wife that she did not need to see the results to know I was having a stroke. What the CT revealed was that I had infarctions on both sides of my cerebellum, I was stroking in my brain stem (3 or 4 different strokes) and would require immediate surgery. The doctor thought I had less than 4 hours before I died from the swelling. I was transferred to Iowa Methodist where Dr. Piper did an emergency Craniotomy to relieve the pressure from the bleeding and tried to remove the dead brain cells. He prepared my family that the surgery was an attempt to save my life, but I only had a 50/50 chance of surviving the surgery. If I did survive, I stood a 30/70 chance of waking up from ICU, and if I did wake up, I would almost certainly have many deficiencies from my stroke.

I had surgery to remove both sides of my cerebellum and to remove the other parts of my brain that were stroking on December 10. On December 18, I left ICU to a "regular" room. On December 20, I was transferred back to the Des Moines VA for recovery. On December 22, I was transferred to the Knoxville, IA VA for rehabilitation. The Rehab staff was on Christmas vacation, so I did no begin Rehab until December 29, 2008. The only thing I can say is that my recovery was miraculous. I do not say that lightly. I went home on pass on January 1, 2009 after only 3 days of rehab, and was released permanently on January 6, 2009. The nurse that gave me my last medicine inpatient said that he had never, in all his years at the VA rehab, seen a faster recovery from a stroke. I was back in my office part time on January 7, and went back to work full time on January 19. I returned to the pulpit (I pastor a church in Knoxville, IA) on January 25.

Every doctor I have been to (I have been to more than a dozen doctors) says that my recovery has left the medical and entered the miraculous. They all concur that, medically speaking, I may get the ability to walk, to talk, to preach, to teach, to drive, etc. sometime, but less than 2 months after a severe stroke: it is not medically possible. I give all credit for my recovery to God. The VA hospital was great, the nurses were great, the Rehab specialists were great; none of them could have sped my recovery. Oh, by the way, I turned 38 this past September. I was not what you would consider a "high risk" stroke patient. I had low cholesterol, my weight was under control, my blood pressure was controlled. My stroke was caused by a collapsed venticular artery that probably occurred when I played high school football. The artery tore and the excess blood formed a clot that went to my brain. I will forever be termed a "stroke survivor", but I refuse to let myself be classified as a classic stroke survivor. I rode a bike, I drive, I played basketball at the local Recreation Center...all things that each doctor said I should never do again. I thank my wife for staying with me, my children for visiting, but I thank God most for sustaining me. I live for my wife and my children, but I live because God protected me.