Your Life Can Change in One Minute

By Cheryl McElhaney Garrett

Cheryl is facing tough times during a fourteen-month ordeal with two diseases that could change her life forever. She relies on strength that God gives her to overcome the situations. Doctors have misdiagnosed her symptoms for twenty-nine years. She doesn't give up, even though she is in so much pain. She looks for doctor after doctor. Will Cheryl come out of her coma? Will she die or find a doctor who can cure her?

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Feb 29, 2012
• ISBN: 9781449741501

Cheryl McElhaney Garrett

God has saved Cheryl Garrett's life so she could write this book and share it with people about her experiences of three near-death situations. It is a true story about her life and what she went through to recover from two diseases that almost killed her. We should take nothing in life for granted, because it can change in one minute. God has been very good to her. She has lived in Corryton, Tennessee all her life. She has an EdS education degree. She was a stay-at-home mom until all of her children went to school. She has also taught school for fourteen years. She has three sons and one daughter. She also has wonderful parents who have supported her all through her life.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Why?

I opened one eye and could see only shadows. I opened my other eye and saw my family standing around me. I tried to speak, but only a coarse voice came out of my throat. I asked, Where am I?

My mother answered slowly. You are in a hospital.

My mind started racing and the first thing I thought of was: Why? My body felt like I had been in a car wreck. It ached and tingled all over. I tried to raise my body, but there was like a force holding me down. Then my eyes connected with my mother’s and I saw sadness in her eyes. I was so anxious to learn why she had that expression. I kept asking, Why? Why?

She came close to me and whispered, You have spinal bacterial meningitis for the second time in fourteen months.

I had disbelief in my mind. I am forty-nine years old and had it twice in my life. I felt like I had become a burden to my family and friends. I didn’t want to go through the pain and suffering that was inflicted on everyone last year. I felt that me not being here on earth anymore would make everyone’s life easier. I felt like I wanted to go away, and I went into a coma. I found out your life can change in one minute.

Chapter 2

Monday, Monday, Monday Morning

My feet hit the bedroom floor very softly. I had just said my morning prayer, which I did ever morning when I got up, and done my regular routine for the morning. I walked my dog, straightened up the house, woke up my daughter Faith, and got us ready for work and school. It seemed like a typical Monday morning in Corryton, TN where I live, but little did I know that the day would end at the hospital for the first time with spinal bacterial meningitis.

I arrived at work around 7:15 a.m. and everything was normal until 10:00 a.m. My head started feeling light and I was feeling nauseated. I was wondering if I was going to get a headache. My symptoms became worse as time passed. At the end of my workday, the feelings were so extreme that I decided it would be best to go home and sleep off my headache.

My daughter Faith which is 10 years old, walked me to our vehicle. She unlocked our van. My head and neck were aching so severely that I thought my head would fall off. She placed me in the driver seat and buckled my seat belt. She ran around to the passenger side and got in and buckled her seat belt. She asked me where the keys were located and I told her in my right pocket. She reached for the keys and found them then started the car. I remember placing the car in reverse and wondering if I was going to run the car through the building behind us. I vaguely remember driving Faith and myself home. Thank God our home is one mile from my work.

On arriving home, Faith had to help me out of the car. I started toward the door and my body was crying to lie down with each step I took. With each step, I thought it would be my last.

When I arrived in my bedroom, my head was throbbing. I fell on the bed and crawled up in the fetal position. I lay in that position for what felt like hours. My pains were connected to my heartbeat because every time it beat, my head would throb. My body was feeling like it didn’t belong to me. My neck would not move when I tried to look around.

Fear set into my mind and body. I knew the doctor had told me at my last visit that I had migraines. This was nothing similar to a migraine that I had had previously. My heart was racing so fast I could hardly breathe. My eyes would barely open to see. I thought about it and knew if I died I would go to heaven. I had been saved at the age of nine. I had been asking God to help me. My body would not obey my commands of getting up and moving. Fright and confusion were getting the best of me.

Faith came into my room and asked, Are you feeling better? I told her I loved her and I was getting ready to die. She started crying and said, Mommy, what should I do? My body wouldn’t let me answer her because I was in such pain. While her tears were running down her face, she lay beside me. She held me and told me she loved me. She said, Please don’t die. I felt her warm teardrops on my face. My son Brock had just arrived home from college. He heard noises upstairs and he was confused because I never was home before him. When he walked quickly into my room, he couldn’t believe his eyes. His mouth fell open. I was in a ball position and Faith was beside me crying, Don’t die. I love you.

Faith saw Brock and started to cry more. She said, I don’t know what is wrong with Mom. Brock looked at both of us. His expression on his face could tell all. He was scared and didn’t know what to do. Faith turned toward him and said, I am calling 911. Faith called 911 and answered all the questions that were asked. They would be sending an ambulance, and it would arrive in ten minutes. Faith told Brock that she hoped that the ambulance arrived soon. Faith knew an adult should be with them, and she called her Mamaw Viola to come to our house and stay with them until the ambulance arrived. Viola is my mother.

Brock and Faith were so scared that they were shaking.

It seemed forever until Mamaw Viola arrived. She came in the house swiftly, calling everyone’s name. She heard Brock say, We are upstairs.

Brock and Faith helped me down the stairs. When my children took me downstairs, my legs were like rubber and my body would not function properly. They had to almost carry me. It took all of Brock’s and Faith’s strength to put me on the couch downstairs. Mamaw Viola placed a blanket over me because my body was shaking so fiercely that my teeth were chattering. Faith told Brock she was going outside to wait for the ambulance.

When Faith saw the ambulance, she was so excited. She ran back inside to tell Brock and Mamaw Viola. She left the garage door open so the ambulance workers could come in. There was a Hello and Mamaw Viola said, We are here, come in. Viola could not believe this was happening to her daughter and family.