Ray, USA
After being released from the hospital and the doctor's care for a sub-arachnoid haemorrhage (in English, this is an internal bleed in the back of the head which doctors indicated was potentially life threatening), I felt a need to put pen to paper to memorialise my experience with the hope and desire that what I relate may assist others in realising that they also have the ability to take an active and direct role in their own individual healing process. For the reader to have a fuller understanding of the setting and circumstances of what I am writing about, I should relate the events and the time sequences of my accident.
At approximately 8.45am. on March 2nd 1993, I was jogging when I developed a pain behind my left ear. I continued running for approximately one-half mile until the pain intensified and spread up and across the top of the head. The more I ran the more nauseous I became. I finally was forced to walk the remaining one-half mile home, becoming weaker and more nauseated with each step I took. At the time, I thought that I had dislocated a vertebrae in my neck because it had become increasingly difficult and painful for me to turn my head.
When I got home I laid down with my feet up. This only made the situation worse. I asked my wife to drive me to the chiropractor to have an adjustment on my neck. Upon arriving at the chiropractor's home, he took one look at my neck and sent us directly to the hospital in Aberdeen, Washington. Upon arriving at the emergency room, the physician ordered a CAT scan. The CAT scan was completed around 10.30 a.m. it revealed that a pool of blood was collecting around my brain stem. The emergency room physician wanted to administer morphine for the obvious pain that I was suffering. I refused the morphine because I innately knew that I needed to keep a clear head. Upon learning what the problem was, I prayed for what was in my highest and greatest good, knowing that it could be my survival or my death. I remembered feeling very comfortable with this prayer, since I knew that I had been and was in God's hands and would continue to be regardless of what happened. At a deep level I knew that if I was to survive and heal that I needed to participate in the process. I began focusing my energy, that is I began to focus on the back of my head and sent feelings of well being to that area. I visualised the blood vessels in that area of my head and sent feelings of wellbeing to that area. I visualised the blood vessels in that area of my head being normal and whole without damage or injury. In this process, I also visualised that I was healed and walking on the beach with my wife during the upcoming vacation. I further started breathing healing energy in to the affected area of my head. I did this by mentally telling myself that I was breathing in the breath of life and visualising that breath going to the injured area of my head and healing the blood vessel or vessels that were leaking.
As the time passed, the pain was making me weaker and weaker. I knew my wife was worried and praying for my recovery. I asked her to call some of our friends and ask them to join her in her prayers for my recovery. She made several calls throughout Washington, to Arizona, Colorado, and California to enlist others to pray with her.
Since the hospital in Aberdeen did not have a neurosurgeon on staff or one available, the emergency room physician made the decision to have me transported by ambulance to St. Peter's Hospital in Olympia, Washington, approximately 60 miles or so away. We arrived at St. Peter's Hospital at approximately 12,00 noon. The neurosurgeon saw me around 1.00pm and ordered an angiogram to locate the location of the bleeding so that he could go in and repair the leak surgically. An angiogram is the procedure where a small wire is inserted in the artery in the groin, which wire, in my case, travelled up through the aorta to the blood vessels leading to the brain. Then once the wire is at the problem area, dye is injected into the blood stream through the wire to enhance the x-ray image to obtain an accurate view of the leak in my situation. Fortunately from the time I arrived at St Peter's Hospital until I was seen by the neurosurgeon, I was left alone in a curtained cubicle. All during this hour, I continued to breathe in healing energy and visualise the blood vessels being healed and whole. After the neurosurgeon talked with me for a few minutes, I was again left alone until I was taken for the angiogram, I also used this time for breathing and visualisation.
The angiogram began around 3.00 p.m. My wife had been told prior to the beginning of this procedure that it would be a relatively quick procedure that would take approximately an hour since the amount of blood that had collected around the brain stem as revealed by the CAT scan indicated that the leakage was significant. The team stopped the procedure around 5.30 p.m. which was over twice as long as originally contemplated. They could not find the location where the leakage had occurred, even though they diligently pursued their attempts to discover the source of the bleeding. To their surprise, the results of this procedure were completely negative, as they could not locate any source of bleeding whatsoever. This result surprised and stumped the neurosurgeon and the neurologist who was also conferring on my case by this time. To their further amazement, I was not exhibiting any of the expected symptoms of brain injury such as disorientation, loss of physical sensation, blurred vision, loss of muscle control, or uneven strength between left and right sides of my body.
The next day the neurosurgeon ordered a MRI in another attempt to determine the site of the leakage. The results of this procedure were also negative in that it did not disclose any source of bleeding either, even though it did confirm that a significant amount of blood had collected around my brain stem.
Both of these physicians told me that they could not explain what had happened. The physical evidence was there that I had been bleeding in the back of my head, since the CAT scan and the MRI revealed a considerable amount of blood had pooled around the brain stem. Yet the source of the leakage had completely healed as though it had never occurred. The neurologist asked me if I had an explanation for this and I replied that the area had been healed spiritually through my efforts and prayers and the prayers of my wife and friends. I continued to improve so that by March 4th, I was up and walking around, taking a shower, etc. I was then discharged from the hospital on March 5th.
