It is an unbelievable story, but it's true!

I believe in miracles. I think that they do happen. I have just not been witness to one before.

The roller coaster riding of our life became even more dramatic, if that is possible, last weekend. We started out with a plan to enjoy a restful weekend to recover from the last doses of the
"Big Chemo" treatments and the excitement of our Baby Shower for our daughter-in -law the week before. We were also going to see our niece row in her last home crew event and Senior Day for the TUFT's soon to be graduate.

We had not seen Laura row and we knew how much she loved being a member of the TUFT's Varsity Crew. It was her last home meet before she would graduate. We could finally see her compete. We packed the car to head off to the beach house for our restful weekend that would follow her meet in Boston. Off we went early last Saturday morning. We arrived at the new

boathouse for the TUFT's Crew teams and looked for our cousins, who were setting up the "tailgate party" as senior parents do.

Lynn was up there early, it was a big day. Lee said that she was complaining of a headache, probably stress related, she gets migraines on occasion. She stopped for a moment. The headache soon escalated to severe and dropped her to her knees. She was sitting down when I arrived upstairs at the boathouse and she was holding head at her right temple area. She said that she had never felt anything like this before. It was getting worse. I was worried and getting nervous. We had just arrived and I wasn't sure... I was scrambling with my thoughts of possibly ruining Laura's Senior Day events... for what could be a migraine.

I remember saying "someone call 911."

While we waited for the ambulance she began to fade away. Her color was very red, flushed in the face and she was wet with perspiration. Her daughter held her gently and calmed her as we waited for the ambulance. I kept asking her to look at me so that I could check her pupils. They were normal so far. I asked her to smile and it began to look weak, but OK. The ambulance took forever.

Finally we could see the ambulance at the gates. It sat out there for -what seemed like a lifetime. I kept going to the window to see if it was getting any closer. But it was still at the gates. There was, apparently, a chain with a combination lock on the gates to the road leading into the boathouse and they could not get through. Eventually they would cut the chain and get through. It took FOREVER!!!! But the reality was that it was under 5 minutes.

She began to vomit. Her pupils were still equal, but her smile had drooped down on the left side of her face. Her face was scarlet red and she was no longer talking. I fought to hold back my tears. Her daughter remained calm and held her while the ambulance attendants began their exam.

They put her in the back of the rig and we followed. We wove onto the highway and into Downtown Boston traffic, silently inside our car and honking to all those on the outside to stay out of our way!

We arrived at Massachusetts General Hospital and we were met instantly by the Stroke and Neuro Trauma Team. A confident very young Neuro resident,Dr. E.C., met us at the door. They sent her husband to sign her in at the registration desk and I went with Lynn. I told them that I was a nurse and her cousin. They let me stay. She was taken into a cubby and they began to cut away her clothes to access her. Talking loudly and throwing off things left and right saying, "It was possibly a stroke or a bleed." IV lines were put in everywhere. Within a few minutes she would be taken into CAT Scan. It seemed like just minutes later that Dr. E.C. came out to tell us that the CAT Scan shows a massive bleed on the right side of her head. He said that it was likely fatal and it was still bleeding. She would be taken immediately into Angiogram to find the source of the bleeding . He returned again within minutes to tell us that they had found an A-V Malformation (an abnormality formed before her birth) and it had ruptured. He had already placed a call to the Chief of Neuro-Surgery, Dr. O, and he was on his way in. She would need surgery immediately to survive this.

Dr. E.C showed the CAT Scan to Lee and me . The bleed was massive.

"It would, in a best case scenario," he said, "destroy her language center and paralyze her left side, with possible blindness, IF she survived the surgery."

He cautioned that she was gravely ill. Her only hope was to remove the large clot quickly and find the bleeding.

We were told to say our good-byes. They lead her off to the OR. They were now breathing for her. Her husband remained strong and clear as he signed her permissions for the surgery and said his good-byes. Her young adult daughters were sobbing and holding each other after kissing her good-bye. I was watching them as they gave their good-byes, perhaps forever.

Miracle number 1.

It was to be a 3-4 hour surgery. We were not sure she could survive. At around the third hour the Chief Surgeon came down to tell Lee .... she had survived. They had removed the clot. They were able to stop the bleeding. They found the A-V Malformation and were able to remove it. She would be in surgery for another 2 hours. But she made it!!!! OH MY GOD !!!!

Miracle number 2.

We were allowed to go into to see her in the Neuro Intensive care Unit. All of us. We circled her bed. They had warned us of all of the possibilities, that she would not be able to move or to speak or to see. They lifted her from her medically induced coma every 2 hours to check her "neuro signs" to access the swelling on her brain. We were there for one of the first trials. Anna her nurse, told us what we could expect. We were all to be shocked again!

She opened her eyes, she looked around and she smiled at us all!!! There wasn't a dry eye!

The next day she was breathing on her own, up to a chair and eating her dinner.

The day after that, she walked the halls and used the bathroom on her own, she had already learned how to read again, by using her finger to follow the words across the pages.

Miracle number 3.

Yesterday, just four days from the boathouse headache, we took her home. She is walking unassisted, talking and just her old self again. There is a minor problem with her vision. She is blind on the left side of each eye. Her hair has been shaved off on the right side of her head and her stitches make her look like a baseball. She is fully alive and well and ready to learn to work with the "left visual field cut" that she has been left with. The reminder of the day that she almost left us all.

She called me this morning to tell me that she loved me and that she had a great nights sleep in her own bed. What could be better????