The Healing Fields: Sequel to ''Stroke: Brain-Assault''

By Madelina Agawin

The Healing Fields is about a woman who came out of a coma caused by aneurysm stroke. When she came back, she could not move, write, read, talk, walk, or understand meaning of words. She works hard and fights hard to be able to live the way able people do, although she is a wheelchair-bound physically-challenged individual. .

The book starts, More than a decade-and-a-half ago, my regular living became obtainable. Only because the ginormous concurrence of facts and events allowed me to live with half-body. With every fiber of my instinct and beliefs, I actualize real living with the aid of a wheelchair. It taught me to live in a disabled way which nobody realized possible.

The book discusses her medical experience and her natural treatments that keep her health in good stead without medication. Ms. Agawin says - I am disabled but I do not need to be handicapped. My disabilities are real, but so are my abilities.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 30, 2008
• ISBN: 9781462842353

Madelina Agawin

Madelina Agawin received a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from the University of Santo Tomas, Manila, and a master of science degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York. She also received a master of business administration degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Hartford, Connecticut. From Chicago, Illinois, she moved to the southeastern shore of Connecticut at the opening of the Thames River on Long Island Sound. New England fascinated her. She worked as a nuclear engineer after schooling, training, and certification for a leading defense contractor and the leading designer and builder of submarines for the U.S. Navy. Ms. Agawin currently lives in Southern California with her canine friend, Chagall.

Book preview

Copyright © 2008 by Madelina Agawin.

Photography by Larry E. Parks

Library of Congress Control Number:       2008900644

ISBN:         Hardcover                                978-1-4363-0477-1

                   Softcover                                 978-1-4363-0476-4

                   Ebook                                      9781462842353

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

42392

Contents

Exordium

1   

2   

3   

4   

5   

6   

Coda

Acknowledgments

Bibliography

About the Author

Dad, I think of you. Not for a brief moment but always.

I miss you—terribly.

My heart sings for you in praise and glory, dear God

You are an invisible friend who guides me

Through life’s highways and byways

Ever protective and loving

Ever great and marvelous.

Oh, I marvel at the sight of Your creations

At the sound of the breeze of the wind

At the music in the air that the birds hum each day

All these heavenly melodies

You and You alone can create

And unfold throughout the day.

My God, my loving God

Here I am your faithful, humble servant

Ever grateful… ever thankful

For the wondrous things that you bring

Into this life—wonderful life—my life!

—Myrna A. Militante

Another book by Madelina Agawin

Stroke: Brain Assault        ISBN 1-57733-074-9

Author’s Note

This book is not intended to diagnose or prescribe any medication based on my physical experience. It is intended to help readers understand the knowledge available to us.

Exordium

I am a hemiplegic. In the last quarter of 1991, I had a life-threatening full-blown stroke brought on by aneurysm—a sac swelling in the wall of my artery similar to an inflated balloon reaching its limit. It exploded, thereby I was comatose. After I came out of the coma, I could not move and see full view. I could not read, write, talk, walk, eat, and understand words. I opened my eyes to the reality that I could not live the way I used to.

Thousands of people in the United States are affected by stroke, known as cerebrovascular accident (CVA)—the number one cause of major long-term disability and the third leading cause of death by disease. Every sixty seconds, someone suffers a stroke, and every three and a half minutes, someone dies from stroke. Each year, stroke hits 600,000 Americans, killing about 160,000 of its victims, and over one million survivors become permanently disabled.

I accepted the challenge to fight the unthinkable—to relearn reading, writing, talking, walking, eating, and the meaning of words. All from zero. I worked hard to prove I could be physically independent despite my physical impairment. Because of my incredible recovery, I wrote my first book titled Stroke: Brain-Assault. The book records the years following the stroke and provides techniques I used in my recovery. Stroke: Brain-Assault illustrates land and water exercises to help overcome the effects of a stroke. Five years after my stroke, I went back to graduate school and completed my MBA degree, with flying colors.

This new book titled The Healing Fields, is a confirmation of how I beat the physical and mental barriers to be an able person, although I remain a wheelchair user. I believe in natural healing although Western medicine has its part.

It took me until this day to explore the new possibilities of learning from the beginning and to know to color outside of the border. I beat the odds that I would be a living vegetable for all time. I met a perfect storm.

This is my story.

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1   

Life Goes On

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched. They must be felt in the heart.

—Helen Keller

More than a decade and a half ago, my regular living became attainable. Only because the ginormous concurrence of facts and events allowed me to live alone with a half body. With every fiber of my instinct and beliefs, I actualized real living with the aid of a wheelchair. It taught me to live in a disabled way, which nobody realized was possible.

Having been in two hospitals and a healthcare center for seven and a half months in 1991, I lost all semblance of normal existence. Every part of my mental and physical body had to be rebuilt after coming out of a coma. The right side of my body was paralyzed. I had to relearn to talk, read, write, walk, and understand words. My five senses—sight, hearing, feeling, taste, and smell—were ruined, which were hard to rebuild. But my emotional integrity and trust in God made me come back.

Because I could not talk, I had to determine the essential features of my mind. My brain was very slow, but somehow my body and mind were connected. My brain was not. I could not communicate by language and speech. My mind was telling me one thing while my heart was doing something else. The two major elements—brain and speech—could not converse. The only way I could get to them was going around them.

To learn to read, I had to say words syllable by syllable and the basics of phonics. I could not say some words because my mouth, tongue, and vocal cords did not jell. My vocal sound was hoarse and unclear—of lower level than normal. I had to learn to write with my left hand. It was not easy, but I came to terms with the possibility of turning to my left hand. Although we have two hands, I did not realize we can survive with only one hand. God has given us the power to use what we have.

Before my accident, I was a right-handed person. But I had no choice but to learn to be left-handed. I did not have to learn to write with my left hand. I learned to hold the pen, then it came out naturally, although my penmanship did not come out as good as my