While we were coming home from a teaching, speaking, book-signing trip in Round Top, Texas, my left eye went black/blind and I had only a small sliver of vision left as we were leaving Amarillo. Kelly and the kids were with me and Kelly was driving. I had been feeling extremely run down at this point in our two-week trip and we were all eager to get home. Instead of home, we turned around and headed to the emergency room in Amarillo. My eye regained vision within a few minutes but by the time we arrived at the hospital (20 minutes after the vision loss) my left fingers were tingling.

They immediately did blood work and a CT scan and decided to admit me because they thought at this point I had suffered a TIA. Because my sister (who is four years younger) had a stroke within the past 6 months they were taking it very seriously.   At the point I was admitted it took almost 30 hours for other tests to be run. They ordered an MRI (this was my third one in my life to date) and an ultrasound of my neck and heart.

My whole stay in the hospital was three days and two nights and the evening of the second night I made this video. This video was made after my MRI but before we knew any results from all of my testing. I read my talk that I had just given a week before at Tara Royer Steele’s event, The Gathering.  I had planned on reading my talk after I got home but while I was getting the MRI I knew that reading it in the hospital was the right thing to do. My talk was about abundance and how that grows out of the heart and mind. When I wrote that talk I was not in the hospital waiting on results.

This recording was originally made the evening of October 6, 2018.

 

Late on the second night of my stay, my results came in and they let me know that they did not find any signs of a stroke, tumor, clots, etc. in my brain, heart or neck and I was free to go. We were relieved hearing this news but still frustrated and scared not knowing what HAD caused the temporary blindness. I have dealt with very severe a-typical migraines for the past 17 years but this was very different and only impacted one eye. If you suffer from migraines you know that everything is symmetrical and symmetrical is good and anything on only one side is a huge red flag.

I have been home a few weeks now and my first appointment was with an ophthalmologist. It was an extremely thorough testing and he did not see anything structurally in my eye that could have caused this and did not see any sign of clotting etc. Since then we are continuing with blood tests, genetic testing, and functional medicine because this is where I usually find all underlying causes. As we discover more I will share more. Right now I don’t have answers but I am taking daily steps to increase and honor my body and rest. I am trying to diligently find answers and to take care of myself in the process. The changes I am making are things I needed to make anyways and now I have a huge red flag telling me I HAVE TO because something in me is broken right now.

Thank you to all of you that sent messages, prayed, shared your own stories and just shared love in general. I felt like I had my own little army of beautiful people lifting me up. What a priceless gift. Thank you with my whole heart!