Brooke's Journey Back

Originally published May 2, 2024

Where Has Brooke Been?

Where to begin? First of all, with a grateful heart. I can’t thank you enough for all the cards, notes, letters, and prayers you’ve sent my way. It’s a humbling thing to not be the daily voice of encouragement and to be the recipient of SO MUCH LOVE and cheering-up! There’s so much I want to tell you, so much God has been teaching me. Unfortunately, I don’t have my wits all together yet, so it’s scary. But this is what happened.

July 18th was a normal Tuesday. I was home alone and The Captain was at the boat. All of a sudden, as I tried to focus on a text I was sending to my parents, my eyes didn’t work. I couldn’t see straight. What in the world was happening? I thought something must be wrong with my contacts, so I got up to go change them and fell over. Fell completely to the ground. I crawled to the bathroom to change my contacts, still not convinced that it was anything more than that. When I got them changed, it wasn’t better.

I laid on the couch for a bit, then after arguing with myself and my phone for over an hour, somehow I was finally talking to 9-1-1. I still wasn’t sure what was happening to me, but God knew I needed help, and quickly. The police officer (thank you whoever you are) and the ambulance workers (thank you, too!) rushed me to the hospital and started treating me for a stroke. WHAT?! I was having a stroke? I had no idea. Test results in the following days concluded that I had two strokes. Yeah, I’m still having to let that soak in.

Now what? After many scans and many doctors and many many hours of rehab, I’m slowly getting better. I still have trouble with my vision and a (more-than-usual) lack of coordination on my right side, but everyone on my care team thinks I’ll make a nearly full recovery in due time. I want it faster than that…you know me! But I’m trying to slow down. Listen, not rush the process, and NOT get frustrated. (again…you know how hard that is for me, right?!)

God is teaching me something, and I’m trying to listen through this life-altering event. There are so many cool things that God did and is doing through this whole story and I can’t WAIT to tell you all of them. I promise to be back as SOON as they’ll let me and to share them all with you. Again, thank you SO MUCH for praying. Keep them coming, please!!

~Brooke

P.S. I saw this sign at therapy and wish I had seen it before my strokes, so I wanted to share it with all of you!