While I was in that coma, I had a stroke on the left side of my brain, and when I woke up, I was paralyzed on the right side. After months of physical therapy, I received deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery in 2014 because my relatively young age and good health made me a good candidate for this invasive procedure. It had a profound impact on my life.
I am cognizant of the fact that I shouldn’t be alive right now. I was left for dead on the Long Island Expressway, and this led to my right-sided tremor and vision and speech problems. That makes every moment I have now a precious gift.
Gratitude is the best thing I can possibly have that money can’t buy. It informs everything I do. For example, right now, my vision is blurry because my optometrist is trying a new lens on my glasses. But rather than be upset about this, I’m grateful that I have an optometrist, that I was able to travel to go see him, and really, that I can see at all.