The
day after my 29th birthday, I went to run down the stairs, but I
lost my footing on the second stair—causing me to slip backwards. Instinctively, I reached my hands out for anything to grab on to and
catch myself, but there was nothing but air. Before I knew it, it felt like
someone swung a bat at the base of my skull. I blacked out for a second, and
thought I was going to throw up. A consuming white noise rung in my head for
several minutes. I laid there and thought, did
that really just happen? My head,
neck, spine, and tailbone were throbbing with pain, and to make matters worse,
my husband was out of town on a business trip.
But life must go on, right? I still had to be a mom and meet
the demands of my day. In my mind, I had no other choice but to try to ignore
the pain and continue on as normally as I could. I took my daughter to
gymnastics, with her three siblings in tow. I
can do hard things! I’ll be fine. I
tried to be mentally tough, even though with each passing minute I felt weaker
and weaker. As the day continued, I was struggling more than I knew how to
respond to. My head was spinning and my brain was in a fog.