When a brain aneurysm ruptured during a workout on June 9, 2023, Serena’s life changed in an instant. After three brain surgeries, a difficult recovery, and a health scare years later, Serena shares her story of survival, faith, and gratitude.

---

Have you ever started with what seems like just another normal day in your life, but it ended up being quite unexpected and extraordinary? Very clearly, the day like that for me turned out to be June 9, 2023.

I woke up that morning at 5:00 AM, drank my cup of coffee, said my Rosary and prayers, and spent my time in prayer with God as I always do each morning, also remembering the very long list of people that I was specifically praying for and praying over for that day.

The next part of my daily routine was doing my Insanity workout video. It usually lasted around 45 minutes. I didn’t feel any different; I felt as strong as I always did while doing this video.

About 10 minutes after I finished, I was drinking my bottle of water and all of a sudden with the “snap of my fingers”, excruciating head pain hit me, it was actually earth shattering head pain, not like anything I had ever experienced before, I ran back to my bedroom and laid in bed, and the pain was so severe that I started violently throwing up, over the side of my bed onto the floor. I had my cell phone with me so I quickly called my boss and told him I had the flu and I would not be going to work that day.

My son, Preston, who was on his way to Montana to visit his dad, I was watching his golden doodle, Duke. Duke was lying at the foot of my bed because he knew something bad was wrong; I know he sensed it. Again, the pain in my head was so excruciating that I couldn’t even get up and go to the bathroom to throw up; I could only lean over the side of my bed, and this proceeded for almost the next 30 hours.

What was truly miraculous is that during almost those 30 hours at home, I never lost consciousness. That was a huge gift from God, because had I lost consciousness, I would have had some pretty serious cognitive deficits and disabilities. I also have to say that precious Duke literally never left my bed; it was quite extraordinary that he stayed with me that entire time…

The reason why I didn’t call anyone at this point is that I thought that I had the flu and I didn’t wanna make anybody sick. I finally called my daughter, Caroline, and told her what had been going on and that I was afraid that I was severely dehydrated and that I needed to go see a doctor immediately.

She took me to an urgent care, as soon as they saw me, they said I needed to go to an ER immediately, when we got to Mercy Hospital, they put me in a wheelchair, there just happened to be a physician walking through the ER and he asked what was going on, and as I told him, I snapped my fingers and said the most excruciating head pain happened that fast while I was at home this morning. My daughter told him that I’ll probably need a CT scan; he agreed and said that he knew immediately what was happening. They rushed me back to have a CT scan of my head with contrast.

They got the results back pretty quickly and determined that I had had a ruptured brain aneurysm. It did not seem real, and I thought that I was hearing things and imagining this, because I was 51 years old, very healthy, young, and strong, and had never been sick. There was an enormous sense of urgency at this point to do emergency brain surgery.

Caroline had to make arrangements for her dad to come over and pick up Duke from my house. They also asked my daughter to sign a DNR form; she said, at only 18 years old, that she was definitely not going to sign that because “my mom will fight to her death to live.” Praise God that my daughter knew that!!! They told her at the hospital for her to go home to my house and pack everything that I own because it was gonna be a really long time that I was gonna be in the hospital.

As it turned out, they were going to airlift me from Fort Smith to Sherwood, Arkansas to CHI St. Vincent Hospital, but there was a tornado hitting in Fort Smith that day, so they had to put me in an ambulance, and so the proposed 15-minute helicopter ride was going to end up taking 2 1/2 hours in an ambulance. At this point, the head pain is still so bad and they are trying to give me medicine to help with the pain, so I was kind of out of it sometimes.

During the ambulance ride, one thing that was very clear was that both of my parents who had passed away a couple of years before this, actually appeared as a vision as two angels, they said, “sweetie, it is not your time, you’re going to be just fine.” It was such a miracle from God, because from that precise moment, and even until now I have had absolute peace throughout this entire process and experience and circumstance. It was the greatest gift that God could’ve ever given me at that moment!!

By the time we reached CHI St. Vincent in Sherwood, I was informed that the Neurosurgeon was not going to be able to perform emergency brain surgery that day because he had already done six or seven brain surgeries that day. They were going to have to keep me stabilized until early the next morning. That was another miracle, that they were able to do that throughout the night and that I survived.

In the meantime, my sister, Mary Ruth, who lives in Connecticut, could not find a flight to get her to Arkansas. That next morning she finally found a flight, the morning that I was being taken in for brain my first surgery, June 11.

The most amazing thing is when I was wheeled into the operating room, I will never forget this, the Anesthesiologist grabbed my hand and asked if he could pray over me, I smiled and said, absolutely, I am very strong in my faith in God and I know that prayer works and I thanked him, Then Dr. Ali Krisht, my Neurosurgeon, also prayed over me, and again I stayed in such peace knowing that everything was gonna be just fine because I had the hands of God guiding my incredible medical team and I felt the presence of my parents.

My first brain surgery started at 7:30 AM and was finished at 1:30 PM. They let all of my family in to see me in ICU around 5:30 PM. My oldest son Morgan, who was living and working in Thailand could not make it back, but they stayed in constant contact with him over the phone. My other son, Preston was stuck in Colorado at the airport. His flight was canceled so he was very worried. My daughter, sister, brother Edd and some of my aunts were there at the hospital, waiting and praying. Everyone was so happy that I had survived my first brain surgery, which was a craniotomy and also clipping of the arteries surgery.

Day one, after those surgeries, on June 12, the physical therapist team was surprised because I was able to stand up and walk across the room to the sink, they were trying to determine if I would need to go to rehab center after I would eventually leave ICU. That same day, on June 12, they had me walk down the hall, it was my “first walk” after surgery, and again, everyone was so surprised that I did it, I was exhausted, of course.

Day two in ICU on June 13, my sister, Mary Ruth was finally able to stay with me, she said it was a very rough night because the anesthesia was worn off and the pain was severe. Meds were not frequent enough or strong enough, She said, even though I was in a tremendous amount of pain and very swollen, I was still very nice and sweet to all the ICU nurses and I thanked them a lot. My blood pressure spiked that night. The doctor said it was due to all of my pain so they changed frequency of meds so I could relax more and keep my blood pressure down, at this point, the fear of stroke was the biggest worry of all.

Two days after the first Brain surgery, PT had me up walking the halls again, everyone was laughing because I just wanted to get it over with so I could lay back down and they were amazed at how fast I would walk considering how difficult it was.

On June 14, Preston finally made it to the hospital, he had been stuck in Colorado, he and Gracie also would visit every single day along with my sweet Caroline. This was a particularly busy day with visitors, as my dearest friends, Scheri, Christie and Angel came to visit me. Clifton also visited me as well. It was day 3 post surgery, my eyes were still closed, but I distinctly remember hearing everyone talking but I couldn’t see them.

This day was also very special because, while I was in ICU and my eyes were closed I remember being very aware that this was God’s amazing plan for my life, because I started visualizing with my eyes closed that I was going to write a book, and tell my story to the world, and inspire a lot of people and that this was my platform and it was so clear to me that this was God’s plan all along, it all made sense to me, and I was very excited, because I knew that God’s plan is always so much bigger than we could ever imagine!!

At this point, I was having a tremendous amount of head pain, and so my sister would keep ice cold wash rags on my head and eyes to comfort me as best she could. At this point, the nurses said that the goal was to get the EVD drain out of my head within the next few days, Tylenol 3 was working ok, but it certainly was not enough for all the pain that I was in, I specifically remember every day when they would take me down to get my daily CT scan of my head that they would place me on a hard board and it was excruciating head pain.

Still hands-down no pain even came close to the unimaginable pain then when they would put the art line in my arms, it continuously monitors the blood pressure directly from the artery, typically someone in my condition will get one art line, during my four weeks stay in ICU I was given a total of four art lines… the head pain head had consistently gotten a lot worse, they finally decided June 15 to start giving me some real pain meds instead of Tylenol 3 and my sister told me to make sure that I tell the nurses that when they asked what kind of pain I had to always say that it was a 10 to make sure that I would get the proper medicine, because also the pressure in my head was building.

On this day, they pulled back on the “help” drain and the pressure in my head went up immediately. The goal for this day was to slowly start, weaning me back from the assistance of the drain to see if my brain could self regulate the cerebral spinal fluid, this caused a significant amount of head pain and pressure, at this point, they hoped in the next few days that it would work and that they could finally remove the EVD drain.

June 16, my head pain was significantly increasing because they are weaning me off the drain to 30, I’m pushing through and determined. Mary Ruth and Caroline had to go back to Ft. Smith and take care of my bills, clean my house and take care of some other things and they were both very anxious to get back as quickly as possible.

June 17 when my sister got to the hospital early that morning my aunt Anna, who had stayed with me that night said I had a really tough night with a lot of head pain and pressure because they’re trying to wean me off of my EVD drain. This day, they weaned it to 60 so my brain was having to work extra hard. My sister just kept lots of continuous ice cold rags on my head so I could rest as much as possible. On this particular night, I was in a tremendous amount of pain and they were watching my blood pressure go up and down all night long and it was very clear that my brain was struggling to keep the fluid balanced.

One week, day seven post surgery June 18. I got to open my eyes for the first time, this was a little bit of a celebratory day.

By June 19, the biggest problem on this day is that my brain was having to try and manage the cerebral spinal fluid and I was in a whole lot of head pain and pressure and the pain meds weren’t helping at all. Today they were wanting to remove the EVD drain but my brain could not manage so they said that they would need to do a third brain surgery where they would have to put in a VP (Cerebral) shunt. This is where they implant the shunt in the back of my head, and the tubing runs from my head down my neck into my abdomen and releases the cerebral spinal fluid into my body.

June 20, the day of my third brain surgery for the VP shunt. My family was assured that once the shunt was implanted that I would start feeling much better and my blood pressure would be more regulated because I would have less pressure and pain. Another miracle by God was that I survived the third brain surgery.

June 21, the day after my third surgery, my aunt Rochelle spent the night with me in ICU, because she had been a nurse for many years, I was in good hands. The biggest fear at this point was the huge risk of Vasospasms, which was a more severe type of vasoconstriction, this is the sustained, involuntary contraction of a cerebral artery. My family’s biggest nightmare came true, they had to get my sister’s approval to take me immediately back into the operating room to get an angiogram to dilate all the vessels in my brain. This was the worst scenario, but thank goodness by the grace of God, I survived it and they put me in a new ICU room.

June 22, the doctors office gave me epinephrine and other meds to keep my blood pressure extremely high (230/90) because they wanted to keep all the vessels in my brain open with blood rushing through so I wouldn’t vasospasm again, the next 24 hours were extremely serious and scary and the high blood pressure gave me a ton of pain, my sister said it was terrible to watch me in that much pain, she said it was excruciating!!

June 23, I had slept ok that night, but had a tremendous amount of head pain so the nurses put another art line in, unfortunately I pulled it out in the middle of the night and there was blood everywhere and it was very scary. Over the next few days they slowly allowed my blood pressure to lower, unfortunately with the vasospasms, it sent me back another week in the ICU.

By June 24, they were in fear of additional vasospasms, so I’m extremely uncomfortable and in a great deal of pain, we are trying to stay ahead of my pain at this point, it’s terrible because I haven’t been able to walk or get out of bed in days and I was pretty upset that I had to stay another week in the hospital.

June 25, my brother Edd and Amos got back from vacation and visited, they told us all about it and after talking for a little bit, I was exhausted. By evening, the weather started changing and within 30 minutes a tornado was ripping through Sherwood, Arkansas. The hospital lost electricity and only had generator support. Power was out all over Sherwood and North Little Rock, crews were working very hard to clear the streets and work on electricity. The hospital didn’t have any ice to keep me cool so my sister went to Sonic and bought two giant bags of ice so it could keep the wash clothes for my head ice cold.

As the day went on June 26, the hospital got hotter and hotter so we closed all the blinds trying to keep the sun out in the room cool, nurses started to make calls to see if they could move me to another hospital and transport me to Little Rock where there was air conditioning. After 15 days in Sherwood ICU it felt strange to leave to go to Little Rock to a new ICU, but the air conditioning was gonna feel great.

June 27, I slept pretty well in the other hospital with the air conditioning. The medical team finally has my blood pressure down to a more normal level, and the doctors felt good that I would be out of the window for another risk of vasospasms.

I got to go home July 1, my home recovery begins… for the entire month of July, every single day I had to have 24 hour care so all of my family and friends who took turns staying with me and cooking for me and taking care of me. My cousin Scheri, stayed with me a few different times, from being in the hospital for so long, my hair was completely matted and unbelievably tangled, I laid on the floor and slept at home and she sat with a comb and a brush and a pic and worked on my hair for 13 hours to make it beautiful again, I will forever be grateful to her for that!!!

I also had my physical therapist, Nini, which came to my house several times a week and worked me out very hard, she was an integral part of my recovery, and I’m so grateful for her. I also had an occupational therapist that came to my house multiple times a week who was extraordinary and kept my brain very sharp. My sister had to go home and go back to work in Connecticut, she was such an integral part of helping to save my life and begin my recovery.

August 11, my sister flew back to Arkansas and we spent the entire day in Sherwood at the Neuroscience Institute to have my check up with Dr. Krisht, my CT scan looked clear and everything looked great!! I just kept hugging Dr. Krisht and thanking him for helping save my life!!

As I was recovering in Arkansas in August it was so hot that I couldn’t walk outside or drive yet, I was not allowed to drive for seven months but once I was cleared to fly, I went to Connecticut on September 21, which is extra special because it was my mom’s birthday, so I could recover for a couple of months at my sister’s house with much cooler weather.

Here is where the real recovery happened, the days were in the 60s to mid 70s and I immediately was able to go outside and walk in the cooler temperatures, my sister and I would take a walk every day or me and my niece, Olivia would take a walk, then I would try to take a second walk up and down the street in the evening. In between all of that, all I was doing was sleeping, sometimes 17 hours a day. I would take long naps every day and their two dogs, Bentley and Brewster would lay next to me, especially Brewster, he was a lot older and he would sleep next to me on the sofa every day…so precious. I absolutely loved recovering at their beautiful home in Connecticut, it made me so happy to be around my family.

By October 1, I was feeling very good and keeping myself busy so I decorated the entire house on the inside and outside for Halloween!! Fun, fun, something I have always loved doing.

In the fall with all of the leaves starting to change it was breathtakingly beautiful, and was such an integral part of my recovery because I absolutely love the fall season. My sister took me to a pumpkin carving activity, we passed out candy to the trick-or-treating. We even carved pumpkins to put on the front porch, and we dressed up in Halloween costumes. While I was there, we participated in a volunteer day at an equestrian farm, it was so much fun, we got to paint a lot of the fences where they kept the horses.

By November we were walking 3 miles, which was a huge accomplishment for me at this point. The night before I was to fly back to Arkansas, my sister took me to New York City, which is one of my favorite places to visit, we had such a blast, in Times Square, and in Central Park, and at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, and Rockefeller Center. It was extraordinary!! I was so grateful to have had that time as part of my recovery with my beloved family in Connecticut.

When I arrived back in Arkansas, I was told that the company I was working for did a massive downsizing, and I was let go of my job, subsequently my medical insurance would go away too. I immediately had to start putting out my résumé to get another job as quickly as possible, as my bills were not going to stop coming. I did get hired by another company, but it took quite some time, I was about to lose my duplex and subsequently become homeless.

Also, by the directive of my Neurosurgeon, he did not want me to live alone over the next year. There wasn’t anyone that I could go and live with, so at that point, I didn’t know what I was gonna do. My son, Preston, said that I could move to Conway and live in his apartment with him, but that wasn’t really feasible because I just got this other job. I had a dear friend, Lisa, that stepped up and said that I could live with her for that year. I was so grateful and will forever be grateful that she found it in her heart to take me in to her home.

I spent the next year working from home with this other company and I had started running every day, I would run 30 minutes a day six days a week and I did that for 2 1/2 years. This company then let me go after one year of employment, not because of anything that I did wrong, they said they couldn’t afford to pay me salary anymore. What was amazing is I had been let go of two companies and miraculously I had absolutely zero brain deficits and zero physical deficits.

After the second Company let me go, my one year was up staying at my friend’s house. I got a temporary job with another real estate development company locally for just six months, and then they let me go because they could no longer afford to pay me either.

This was absolutely financially devastating for me, because I was now unemployed. I proceeded to send out 750 resumes all over the country because I was so desperate for a job. Being unemployed, collecting unemployment, which was very little money, and my bills kept coming in and mounting debt, I was extremely stressed, worried and devastated. I told everyone I would rather go through 10 more ruptured brain aneurysms and 20 more brain surgeries than to be unemployed, because I was about to be homeless.

However, I do believe this was all part of God’s plan because my faith in God grew substantially during this time. I believe he wanted me to know that I am supposed to solely depend on him and not anyone else ever!!

During this time, my car motor stopped working, and I needed to get another motor, but I didn’t have any money so I went without a car for 2 1/2 months. Finally, my dear friends, the nuns at St Scholastica Monastery, stepped up and loaned me the money to be able to buy the motor that I needed.

Just when I was about to lose my home, my car, and everything else that I owned, a friend of mine, Scott, said that he had a friend that owns a company that is looking to hire someone that he could teach to run the company and eventually take it over. I could’ve never imagined how big of a gift that was for me at that moment in time to be able to start earning a paycheck and be put on salary. Also, through the grace of God, I met a gentleman by the name of Zach, who is a Managing Partner for JEI Inc. He hired me on the spot as a Business Consultant for them on the side; we knew that first meeting that God connected us in business. Very soon, I will have an opportunity to work for JEI full time.

After the 2 1/2 year mark after leaving the ICU and all my brain surgeries, I miraculously started to run 55 minutes a night six nights a week, it was truly unbelievable… so as I was coming up on my three year anniversary from my ruptured Brain Aneurysm, we were having lots of celebrations and looking at pictures from when I was in the hospital and what I looked like today, and it was again, truly miraculous!!

Unfortunately, just one short week after that, my daughter and I had just finished a walk around 9:30 PM, I went home and took a shower, and by 11:00 PM I texted my Neurosurgeon and called my daughter and told her that I was extraordinarily dizzy and the room was spinning so badly I was afraid and didn’t know what to do. He texted me back and said that I needed to go to the ER immediately and have a CT scan of my brain.

My daughter picked me up and took me to the Mercy Hospital ER. At this point, I was extraordinarily dizzy, and I proceeded to start throwing up over 10 times, which caused me a tremendous amount of head pain. I was terrified, and so was my daughter, that my shunt was malfunctioning. The last three years had been so phenomenal, and I felt like superwoman, so I was very worried as to what was happening.

They called me back pretty quickly, and my blood pressure was pretty high from the pain, I couldn’t stop throwing up, my daughter and I cried a little because we were terrified, knowing that if it were in fact, a shunt malfunction that the next day I would have to have another brain surgery and we just weren’t prepared for that, it would mean another full year of recovery, no driving for seven months, and all the risks…not to mention that with this new company, they did not offer medical insurance.

That night in the ER, their CT scan and other machines and their Wi-Fi were not working so they could not give me a CT of my brain until the next day. Meanwhile, they put me in a room, and I must say that from the time I got in that room, they treated me like a princess every single day. That night, my daughter stayed with me in the room and sat up in a chair with a blanket and got zero sleep because they were in my room every hour on the hour doing bloodwork and checking my blood pressure continuously.

The next day they were able to do my CT scan, and it showed that I did not have a shunt malfunction, thank you, Jesus!! I was still having a tremendous amount of dizziness, but they were starting me on a lot of pain medicine and medicine that would knock me out, thankfully. They were still very concerned because they didn’t know what was going on; they did an MRI and discovered that I had had a mini-stroke and pronounced mitral valve prolapse. What was amazing was that once again, I had zero deficits or effects from the mini stroke.

My doctor said that I have got to significantly decrease my stress; he wasn’t just saying it, it was more like a warning. At this point, I know how blessed I have been by God, and I am taking this warning very seriously. He also said that I cannot run or even walk outside until the fall season, when it’s a lot cooler and has low humidity.

So I was in the hospital for a few days, they released me, and I went home and stayed at home and rested and healed for a week, and then I went back to work. I sat my boss down and told him that I can run his company, but I’m gonna do it on my terms, as low stress as I possibly can because my health and my life depend on it. I have also started consulting on the side with another company, and it’s truly incredible.

Currently, I have started the Oblate program with St. Scholastica Monastery here in Fort Smith; it is a two-year program, and I just finished my first year. I will officially graduate and become an Oblate next May, 2027. As a layperson, I will enrich my local community through Prayer, service, and spiritual outreach. It is another avenue for me to expand my walk with Christ. I am also grateful for all of the support from the Brain Aneurysm Foundation.

I feel like with everything that I have experienced and been through over these last three years, God was writing my book and certainly giving me tons of material to continue writing. When I get to the ending of my book, it will be published and shared with the world. All the Glory goes to God!!!! I continue to thank him every single day, and I’m so grateful to God for my incredible life that I am living with my family and my friends!! I pray that my story inspires so many people, and that they truly know that with God, all things are possible!!!!