WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS

PROLOGUE

Have you ever felt pain piled up as a heavy stratum in your chest? The sudden fragility of your bones that leaves you clueless to the ferociousness of this world? Like a wounded lion, you lay in total obscurity, oblivious of the light... What's the worse that could happen to me now? I can't breathe...

January 10th, 2012

We were having dinner... you know, the one where a group of people sit together to eat their last meal of the day *scoffs*... which by the way was going perfectly. My husband and our two beautiful kids, sat side by side me on our six-piece dining set, masticating their meal with utmost satisfaction.

Suddenly, I felt a slash of pain move through my spine... followed by an infliction of intense agitation that overwhelmed my entire being. I started to jerk uncontrollably...I couldn't control it, didn't know how to. It sent me sprawling to the floor. "Mummy, mummy", my kids screamed in terror as they both ran to where I laid and knelt beside me shedding tears. My husband who already had me in his arms looked down at me in utter confusion. "Baby, what's happening... oh God, please help us" he shook me vigorously. "Manuel, run, go upstairs to my room and get me the car keys", and that was all I heard. Blackout.

That was how the seizures started.

I woke up two days later with little or no memory of how I had ended up in the hospital. My head ached badly and I felt so frail. Well, for the past two years, this has been my unfortunate routine and it sucked so bad to the bone. I turned my head slowly and noticed my handsome husband, who I've been married to for six years now, sleeping uncomfortably on the brown sofa at the extreme end of the room. From my right hand ran a lot of wiring-like tubes down to a control machine I couldn't quite decipher. I was getting used to all this, the smell that wreaked from the hospital atmosphere, the cries of newly born babies heard from a distance, the ache I felt as I woke up, the unseemliness of the whole situation.

Today marked like the hundredth time I've been rushed to the hospital due to a strange seizure that landed me in a coma and left no traces thereafter. It was so depressing to realize the hell I was putting my family through. Over and over again, the seizures kept reoccurring and silently, I watched as my family relieved every bit of fear and torture they had over losing me. Money had never been a barrier to get me the best help... there was more than enough. We had gone to every doctor in the country and had still gone overseas to find a solution to this never-ending disaster, all to no avail. We prayed and prayed yet, God never revealed anything... not to us or our Pastor. Each and every one of the doctors we consulted had assured us that nothing was wrong with me, and that I was hale and hearty. There were traces of identifiable malignant cancer whatsoever or any reasonable explanation for the strange ailment. I was subjected to a lot of tests, X-rays, and checkups, I would literally refer to myself as a lab rat yet, nothing surfaced. Even the endless prayer, fasting, and deliverance still couldn't proffer a solution. I had done and tried everything... and now, I was completely exhausted. It was taking my life away, messing with my marriage, and ruining my kids' childhood. Samuel never complained instead, his love and affection for me grew. The funny part is, after I woke up from each coma, I felt extremely okay until I had another episode. My mum, God bless her soul, her efforts to get me the best treatment was applaudable but, where did that get me?