*This experience is a highlighted version. The full account will be released in book form.

The last, “normal”, day I can remember was May 9th, 2023. I woke up, like any other day, fed my dog, drank my morning coffee and went about starting my day. I wasn’t feeling great, a little worn out from working on a landscaping project in my yard the previous day, but good enough to work on the project again that day.

I put my pup in the truck and headed to Home Depot for supplies around 11am. On the way out of the parking lot, I saw a couple of friends and stopped to say hi. While conversing from the driver’s seat, I was suddenly hit with weakness and strong nausea. I didn’t know where it came from or why, so I ended the conversation and drove a couple of miles home.

The symptoms subsided by the time we got home and I decided to put in some work on my yard project. I didn’t think much of it, thinking, maybe it was just bad coffee. At 1pm I headed to the grocery store to pickup some lunch. When I was walking down the coffee aisle towards the registers to exit the store, everything changed. I collapsed. By the time I hit the floor I was cognizant. The collapse was brief, but now I was feeling ill, and very weak. I started to think that I just had a heart attack, maybe a stroke. My limbs were tingling, my head felt swollen, and I was feeling dizzy. A couple of people saw what happened, but I regained my composure, exited the store, and drove half a mile to the emergency room.