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So back when I was 20 years old, I ended up getting this one disease that I guess could have killed me. Back when I was in college, there was this one week when I had the worst headache of my life. On Sunday, I felt like a small headache. Come on. But on Monday, it got so bad that I had to stay home from class. I was hoping it'd get better after a day or two, but it kept getting worse. And it was a weird headache, too, because I was incredibly sensitive to light. And I remember being in a dark room, and my mom was on her phone maybe like 20ft away from me, and the light from her screen 24ft away made my head hurt. So this went on from Monday to Friday. And I normally don't like going to the doctor because I'll be fine, but the pain just got too much. So I made an appointment at my urgent care, and I asked my sister to drive me. So we got there, I saw my doctor, and after maybe five minutes of doing the usual checkup and going in and out of the room, she looked at me and said, yeah, you need to go to the hospital. And I felt that that escalated quickly, so I declined. And I told her, it's ok. Okay, I'm fine. I'll just go home. To which she responded, no, you don't understand. I already called the hospital. You need to go. So I go back in the car, and I ask my sister if she could drive me to the hospital. And I recline my seat, cover my face, and I survive the drive. So when we got there, my sister stayed in the car, and I went in, and immediately they started drawing my blood. At least I thought they did. But for some reason, I felt. Felt the needle, like, continue to go into my arm, and it, like, started hurting a ton. Turns out they were inserting an IV into my arm, and I almost passed out. So after that, I remember sitting down in the emergency room, and someone in charge started looking at my papers, and they started yelling, why did you allow this patient to be here? He's gonna contaminate everyone. And at this point, I still didn't know what I had. I just had a headache. So they gave me a gown, and now I'm lying down in my own room. And some people came in and gave me the news. Turns out I had something called meningitis, or inflammation of the meninges around the brain. And they told me that they needed to run tests to see if my meningitis was viral meningitis or bacterial meningitis. And the reason why Is because I guess bacterial meningitis could be fatal and I could die. So one of the tests they needed to do was called a lumbar puncture. And they told me I needed to lie down on my side while they put a needle in my lower back. And fun fact about me, I hate, hate shots. And lying down on my side in such a vulnerable position while doctors behind me stabbed me with metal, it just didn't sound fun. And to make it worse, they told me that it was important that I didn't move at all because it could hurt me or something. And. And I remember freaking out so much that the nurse, like, was like, hey, would you like some. Some painkillers? And I was like, yes, give me the painkillers. Honestly, everything happened pretty fast. And my. That the needle was huge, like a few inches long. Oh, yeah, my parents were there. So I guess while my sister was in the parking lot, she called my parents and they came to the hospital. So while they're there keeping me company, suddenly a bunch of doctors come into my room, like three of them, and they're telling me that they need to run a bunch of tests and they need to give me a lot of drugs. So if for some reason during this treatment, things go wrong and I need to be resuscitated, they needed my permission to be resuscitated. And so they started handing me the papers. And I looked at them and I said, no, it's okay. You don't need to resuscitate me. And the doctors and my dad looked at me like I was a crazy person. And my dad asked the doctors if he could have a private moment with me. So the doctors take back the papers and leave the room. And my dad was all, so why aren't you signing the papers again? And I said, well, if I go under, then I'd just go to heaven, right? I'm good. And my dad looked at me with this blank expression, and he quickly said, just sign the papers. And then I remembered the Bible also said, to honor your father and mother. So, yeah, the doctors came back in, and I ended up giving them permission to resuscitate me. So some time passed, and the doctors came back into my room to give me my test results. And they told me that the test results were kinda inconclusive. And I'm gonna butcher this because this happened, like, over a decade ago. But they said something about, like, white blood cel count, and if I had a low amount of white blood cells, then I had viral meningitis. And if I had A high count, then I probably had bacterial meningitis, which was the fatal one. And if this were a spectrum, my count landed somewhere in the middle. But it leaned towards viral meningitis. But it still worried the doctors because my count was high enough to where they couldn't fully rule out bacterial meningitis. So the doctors decided to admit me into the and give me my own room to stay overnight. And this whole thing's kind of confusing me now, because in my mind, I didn't think I was that bad. Like, I only had a bad headache. But now I'm being admitted into a hospital, and I'm given my own room. So from the emergency room, they wheeled me off in my hospital bed to my room. Okay, and really fast. I do need to share this one bit, because out of my entire experience at the hospital, this part that I'm about to say is the thing that hurt me the most. So if for any reason you guys are queasy, now's the time to, like, skip ahead and not watch this part. So when I got into my room, there were a few nurses with me because a couple people had to push my bed. And if you remember, I had an IV in my arm, so I was connected to a bag. So someone had to push my bag to keep up with me. So once they parked my bed, the nurse made sure everything was hooked up well. But as the nurse started walking away, the guy tripped on my IV tube and yanked the IV that was in my arm. And I remember my arm feeling this burning ripping sensation. And when I looked down at my arm, the IV was still attached, but my blood actually came through the tube and started making its way to the bag, maybe like, a foot or two. So the nurse looked at it, went to the saline bag, and pushed my blood back inside me. And I know that nurse probably did a lot to help me, but at that moment, I genuinely hated. I did not like that guy. But at the time, I was, like, really weak, and I couldn't do anything about it. So all it kind of looked like was like, ah, so it's Friday night now, and I remember my family leaving my room, and I was lying down, thinking that I may actually have some kind of disease that could be fatal. I mean, I just signed permission to resuscitate papers, and I had a bunch of doctors telling me that I needed to stay in the hospital. And after coming to terms with how bad things were, the thought came to my mind, what if I never wake up? And that made me really pause and think about my Life and I thought of my family and my friends. And at the time I was already medically trained, so I also knew that life was really fragile. And after reflecting for a little bit, it was a little surreal because faces of everyone I loved started flashing one at a time, like a fun anime scene. And I remember smiling and praying to God and I remember saying something along the lines of, God, my life is so full of love, probably more than what most people experience in their lifetime. So thank you. And I was probably being dramatic because 20 year old me was pretty dramatic. But I remember going to bed that night thinking that I got to live a full life and that if God wanted to take me home, then I'd be okay with it. But then I woke up and it's Saturday morning now. And now even more doctors enter my room. So there's about five now. And they introduce themselves and they say that they're the team assigned to me and my case. And now I'm thinking, how bad am I and why do I have a team of five doctors? And then they ended up giving me like even worse news because they said that they need to take blood samples every six hours and I hated needles and so they needed to wake me up at midnight and 6am Just to stab me. Oh. And it turned out that I was also incredibly contagious. So everyone needed to wear gloves, a gown, and a mask whenever they entered my room. So some time passed and all my friends and family started visiting me in the hospital. And then my Bible study leader and his family visited and people from church visited and got me snacks. So all of that was really nice. And so more time passed. And the entire time I was in the hospital, I was given a bunch of antiviral and antibacterial medication through my IV bags. And I forgot the exact amount of time, but I think they pumped me full of drugs for like 72 hours. Oh, and I remember on Sunday night that my auntie Laura came to visit me. She's actually not my real aunt, but she was a good friend's mom and we were all really close and. And she also worked as a nurse, so she came to see how I was doing and we talked for a bit. And I remember she wasn't wearing a mask or a gown. And when we got done talking, she leaned in to hug me and I tried stopping her because I knew I was contagious, but she said it was fine and she hugged me anyway. And I don't think I could put into words just how much that hug meant to Me, because that was the first time someone touched me, let alone hugged me, in several days due to how sick and contagious I've been. So, yeah, Auntie Laura, if you end up watching this, I just want to say thank you so much because your risky hug meant the world to me. So I was finally discharged from the hospital Monday night, which was bad because I missed a very important project that was due Monday and I couldn't turn it in late, so I failed the class. And I also missed my friend's baptism, that was that Friday. So sorry, Adam, I still haven't forgotten, but at least I was alive. You know what actually surprised me? That I had meningitis. Because as a former emt, I needed to know the symptoms for meningitis. And the two that I needed to remember were light sensitive headaches and having nuchal rigidity or having a stiff neck. But I didn't get a stiff neck until after I got back from the hospital, so me having meningitis never crossed my mind. So all in all, it took me about four weeks to fully recover, mostly because my body felt incredibly weak all the time and I was always low on energy. And I remember once I got back, I was at Search and Rescue, which was a volunteer program that I was in at the time. And I was telling everyone how I ended up getting meningitis. And someone in our group was surprised and they were all like, what? You got meningitis? And then they told me that they knew someone who was 23 years old, but they ended up dying from meningitis. So, yeah, praise God that I'm alive. And if I could tie all of this to a Bible verse, I would use Philippians, chapter 4, verses 6 through 7, which says, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. And the reason why I'm using this verse is because at this time, despite the fact that my physical health was in shambles, my spirit actually felt at peace. And even though I was young at the time, I was actually content with my life, even if it ended there. And I don't think that the peace that I had was indicative of how level headed I was. Rather, I think it's an indicator of the type of peace that God can give us despite our circumstances. And it was a peace that I accessed through prayer and gratitude. So if by some chance right now you're going through a tough time. I hope you make it a point today to access. Access the peace that you can have through Jesus. And one of the ways that you can do that is to own the fact that no matter what, Jesus loves you. Hey, guys, thank you so much for watching. And if you haven't already, please subscribe because it helps us a ton. And, yeah, we'll see you guys next time. God bless you.