When Darkeness Breathes...

XVIII. Piece by Piece

At 23 years old I had a severe attack. I was out for a normal day of shopping. It was at my car, that I felt the feeling leave half of my body. The entire left side numb and unresponsive. I remember feeling odd, tingling sensations racing ahead of the nothingness. I lost consciousness. My mother found me. When I did not return home on time, she went out looking for me. She said she'd had a horrible sensation, like little bolts of lightening racing along her skin. She'd found me slumped over into the car.

She drove me to the hospital. Test after test. MRI, blood work, urinalysis. They threw out one neurological disorder after another, Epstein-Barr Syndrome, Multiple Sclerosis. But all the results were inconclusive. In the end, it was ruled a massive migraine.

*One thing of note: the ER doctor remarked that the brain MRI had some odd color variation, vary slight on the shading of otherwise completely healthy tissue*

Now you see why my memories coming back out of order was actually useful. I now knew that these variations were actually multiple brain biopsies that were preformed.

Regained Memory:

My head was anchored down with some type of rubbery devise. Like a belt. I could not shift in any direction. I could however, see myself reflected back at me, from the shiny metallic walls. There was no mess. This room appeared pristine, like the surgical ward of a hospital. I could see multiple protrusions radiating from my head, like an inside out clock. It didn't hurt. I noticed that there was no pain. No suffering. But I could see rivulets of red on my reflection. Then they arrived. The Greys.

They proceeded to inject small vials into the hollow spikes that surrounded my head and shortly afterward, remove the fluid. With each injection, there was an increase in the pressure of my head. Like an instant headache. With each removal of fluid, relief. I lost count of how many times it occurred. But I closed my eyes. To tired to care at this point. Just relieved there was no pain.

Afterward:

I was forced to go to therapy for weeks. The feeling came back in my left side within days. But the limbs felt heavy and my leg often drug. Tripping me continuously. I would drop cups that I held. My hand releasing the handle for no reasons or throwing things I had in my hand while in motion. Oh the headaches? The always there headaches? Even they went away. Nearly twenty years later, they finally went away.

©2016 Aelfwynn MacGregor, AMB