Debra Courtney:  

Life Well, the past is the past. I am living in Anderson, CA right now. I recently spent several weeks in the hospital, some of it in a coma. I collapsed in early April due to peritonitis, streptococcal pneumonia, burst appendix, bad gall bladder, grangrene in my intestines and sepsis. While in the coma, my lungs collapsed, I died twice and I had a small cerebral accident (stroke). Before the emergency surgery was done, the Dr.s were trying to notify next of kin. Subsequently, they put in a tracheotomy and a feeding tube. At this point in time, I am disabled. With the in home physical therapy and nursing, I am recovering nicely. While I will always be disabled to some degree, I am determined to not let it stop me from doing the things I need to do for myself. My physical therapist calls me his "project". Just one of these illnesses should have killed me. The several that I had, according to the Dr.s, was a guarantee of a trip to heaven. Since I blew that guarantee out of the water by surviving all this, I can only say that God isn't finished with me yet. That there is something I'm supposed to do, or someone's life I'm supposed to affect, or some lesson I'm supposed to learn before God calls me home. After I came out of the coma, I spent a good deal of my time examining my life. And some of that examination was not pleasant. I can only hope that at the end of this long road to recovery, I am a better person for this experience. Everyone needs some improvement. Mine began when I woke up from the coma. A few words of personal wisdom: DO NOT ignore your health. Eat well, get plenty of rest,...Expand for more