Bri's Story
Our brains may forget the traumas we survive, but our bodies, especially our nervous system always keep score.” That’s what comes to mind when someone asks me how I’m as strong as I am with all that’s happened to me over my lifetime. They don’t see the anxiety on my face, or see how often I keep my head up, even when I feel the weight on my shoulders. Losing my sister, and best friend at 15, was unbelievably hard. I’m now raising her beautiful daughter, who is now 17 years old. But Losing my mother at 21, that almost broke me. I’ve watched drs’ shock my dad back to life. So, I’m pretty acquainted with trauma. April 17, 2019, I survived a massive heart attack, brought on by medical error. There’s nothing quite like hearing the heart monitors going off as a flat line and hearing them doing CPR…but it’s just black and cold, and you know in that moment you are, in fact, dying. Yet, you see nothing, and you cannot feel your body. That changed my life completely. Things I once could do, became a challenge. The following month, I was diagnosed and hospitalized with Congestive Heart Failure, at the age of 31. I now live life of a regimen of life saving medications. Multiple times a day. For the rest of my life. My brain hasn’t let me forget, my body hasn’t either.. it has kept score. But my love for life, my adventurous spirt, my happy free loving self refuses to be defined by my traumas. I refuse to have self-pity. I still see the mountains I want to climb, taking steps daily to climb them. I see my challenges daily, and I face them with faith. I will not let anything stop me from living what life I have left, in fear, or sadness. There’s so much life left in this body, mind and spirit. So much love and laughter. I live day to day…. FEARLESSLY!!!!
Our brains may forget the traumas we survive, but our bodies, especially our nervous system always keep score.” That’s what comes to mind when someone asks me how I’m as strong as I am with all that’s happened to me over my lifetime. They don’t see the anxiety on my face, or see how often I keep my head up, even when I feel the weight on my shoulders. Losing my sister, and best friend at 15, was unbelievably hard. I’m now raising her beautiful daughter, who is now 17 years old. But Losing my mother at 21, that almost broke me. I’ve watched drs’ shock my dad back to life. So, I’m pretty acquainted with trauma. April 17, 2019, I survived a massive heart attack, brought on by medical error. There’s nothing quite like hearing the heart monitors going off as a flat line and hearing them doing CPR…but it’s just black and cold, and you know in that moment you are, in fact, dying. Yet, you see nothing, and you cannot feel your body. That changed my life completely. Things I once could do, became a challenge. The following month, I was diagnosed and hospitalized with Congestive Heart Failure, at the age of 31. I now live life of a regimen of life saving medications. Multiple times a day. For the rest of my life. My brain hasn’t let me forget, my body hasn’t either.. it has kept score. But my love for life, my adventurous spirt, my happy free loving self refuses to be defined by my traumas. I refuse to have self-pity. I still see the mountains I want to climb, taking steps daily to climb them. I see my challenges daily, and I face them with faith. I will not let anything stop me from living what life I have left, in fear, or sadness. There’s so much life left in this body, mind and spirit. So much love and laughter. I live day to day…. FEARLESSLY!!!!
