Miracles for Mickey

Stay caught up! Read -  "Brain Surgery." I had brain surgery on a Friday. I spent one night in the ICU and two nights on the fourth floor before I found myself being rolled right back into that icy operating room. That weekend was pretty uneventful. I slept...a LOT. I went on a few walks, took a shower, and watched a lot of Family Feud and River Monsters. But there is one very important thing that happened that weekend, and it has changed my life ever since. I discovered the hospital mac & cheese. You guys. I can't even explain how good this stuff is. It is LITERALLY the best mac & cheese I've ever had. And I promise I'm not crazy. It's not just the pain meds talking. My friends and family all agree that it is pretty dang good. So moral of the story - if you ever stay at the Utah Valley Hospital in Provo, Utah, do yourself a favor and get the mac & cheese. Anyways, another amazing thing I was able to experience over the weekend wa...

Stay caught up! Read -  "My Doctors Didn't Save Me" Brain surgery is a funny thing. It's funny because it's hard to adequately describe the experience. No two experiences are the same, and it's hard to know what to expect. No one can really prepare you for what might happen before, during, or after surgery. Not even the doctors. But the one thing that I have found to have in common with other brain surgery survivors is this - We all remember that day perfectly. April 22nd, 2016. My alarm went off early that morning and along with being tired and annoyed with the ringing coming from my phone, I felt something else. I felt excited. I know that's not the emotion most people would feel the morning of brain surgery, but I really was excited. I was excited to feel better. I was excited to get relief from all my awful symptoms. We arrived at the hospital early that morning and they immediately checked me in and took me back to one of the prep rooms. I c...

Stay caught up! Read -  "Broken Hearts" Okay, I should probably clarify. My doctors did save my life. Multiple times. But there have been many people who have saved me, and they weren't always wearing a white coat and holding medical tools. My life has been saved by normal, every day people who have a desire to do good. People who make the world a better place by looking for those in need and helping them, without even a second thought. These people are my angels. These people saved my life. Thursday, April 21st, 2016 was a busy day. I woke up the same way I had been for the past month - tired, in pain, feeling like I was going to throw up, and with everything spinning. Things were so bad that I was getting to the point where brain surgery couldn't come soon enough, even though it was only one day away. I really just wanted to stay in bed for the next 24 hours until we had to leave for the hospital, but I had things to do. I had to go to my softball game ...

Stay caught up! Read -  "Is This Patient Still Walking?" I didn't want to tell anyone about my tumors. It was such a scary, confusing time in my life, and I wanted to figure some things out on my own and with my family before announcing my situation to the whole world. I wasn't ready for the massive amounts of stress and worry I knew this would cause everyone in my life. I've never been one to put myself at the center of attention, and I knew that once my little neighborhood and school found out about my brain tumor, I'd be the talk of the town. But sometimes, no matter how hard you try to keep something a secret, (especially this BIG of a secret), people find out. And since I knew that was probably going to happen sooner rather than later, there were a few people I needed to tell first. They needed to hear it from me. One of the first people that needed to know was my softball coach, Jill. It was pretty obvious she had to be informed since it...

Stay caught up! Read -  "Brain Tumors and French Toast" There's a lot that has to happen after finding out you have a brain tumor. It's sort of like finding out you're getting married! Just...not as exciting. There's lots of research, lots of phone calls, lots of emotions. But the biggest thing, (and probably the most obvious), is you need doctors. You need to find someone who knows what the heck is going on, because you definitely don't. That's the story I'm going to be sharing with you today. I'm going to tell you how we found the right doctors. I know that doesn't sound super exciting, but hang in there. My mom and I walked out of the hospital after my MRI on April 18th, 2016 and I asked her to do me a favor. I asked if we could keep this quiet. I didn't want to shout to the whole world that I had a brain tumor. I didn't want to cause mass amounts of worry. It was already so hard to see how my mom was reacting to the news, ...

On the morning I was told I had a brain tumor, there was only one thing on my mind. French toast. Lets just get one thing clear - I am NOT a morning person. Not at all. Not even a little bit. Any day I have to wake up before 9 a.m. is not my most favorite day. Since I'm not a morning person, I've never been much of a breakfast person either. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love breakfast food, just not earlier than 9 a.m. My MRI that morning in April of 2016 was early. I had to be at the hospital around 7:30 a.m, so my stomach was definitely empty. My mom had promised we could go to the Kneaders across the street and get french toast after, so I wasn't too worried about my noisy tummy. The MRI technicians that day were super happy and cheerful, which was confusing to me. How could anyone be so happy and cheerful that early in the morning?? My MRI lasted about an hour, but they had to keep pulling me in and out of the machine to either adjust my positio...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Okay, so maybe Christmas is technically over, but since we are now officially treating every day like Christmas... MERRY CHRISTMAS!! I knew I wanted to do at least one blog post about Christmas and I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I've spent basically the whole month of December trying to think of exactly what I wanted to say. And you know what I came up with? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I was stressing out really bad because it was Christmas and I was focused on getting presents for everyone and I was stressed about school and doctors appointments and I was trying to think of a good Christmas themed story that I could talk about and for some reason I could not think of a single story. I thought of taking an easy route and just going with the classic, "What Does Christmas Mean To You" topic. And of course when I think of what Christmas means to me, I think of Jesus Christ. I think of his birth and his life and how much he has ...