I was captain of my college’s women’s club rugby team when I had a ruptured brain aneurysm. I had only been captain for about a month but I was so happy because I was finally figuring it out. I was figuring out how to take initiative and how to lead the team.

And then came our fitness test. A couple laps around the field, and as many situps and pushups as possible in one minute. The situps went fine. Then came the pushups. I remember my teammate telling me “just one more, keep pushing.” When the minute was up, I collapsed, exhausted. I pushed myself up off the ground and boom, my head exploded.

I staggered over to the water bottles, crouched down, and lost my balance. My head was in the worst pain it had ever been. I thought I had just overexerted myself, that maybe I was having a bad reaction to my period, and that maybe I was just dehydrated. I thought my pain would go away in a minute or two so I didn’t say anything or try to bring attention to myself.

Thankfully, my teammates noticed something was wrong, and my coach refused to let me go home to “sleep it off.” She rushed to bring her car around and it wasn’t until I stood up that I started panicking: my vision was blurry and I was seeing double. Now I knew it wasn’t just a bad period day.

With my coach and one of my teammates, we rushed off to UrgentCare. I don’t remember how long we waited but it was definitely awhile. I remember some random guy in the waiting room condescendingly telling me that I was going to be fine, he saw this all the time, I was just dehydrated. My manners, despite the intense pain, stopped me from cursing him out, instead I muttered some swear words under my breath.

I remember my teammate called my identical twin sister and she declined my call because she was studying. My friend texted her on messages but because my sister and I text exclusively on WhatsApp, she knew immediately something was wrong. I remember throwing up from nausea, fluids from an IV that didn’t help, and the doctor finally telling me that I should go to the ER. Hours of waiting in excruciating pain just for that.

When we got to the ER, I received a CAT scan. I was so scared when they broke the news that my brain was bleeding. Tears leaked down my face but no sound came out. That’s all I remember before I woke up late the next day after the surgery: platinum coils in my brain to seal the ruptured aneurysm.

It was Rosh Hoshanah, the Jewish New Year, and instead of enjoying a feast with 30+ family members, my parents and siblings gave up their holiday to spend it around a hospital bed.

I spent only two weeks in the hospital and only four weeks out of school. I was and am so lucky: that my coach knew something was wrong, that the surgery went well, that I recovered so quickly and with no long term effects. I have made a full recovery, have returned to rugby as captain again, and feel better than ever.

This whole experience has taught me that I am tougher than I know. I still don’t know why I had a ruptured brain aneurysm when my identical twin sister and my entire family don’t have anything (which I am so grateful for) or when I barely fit any of the factors. Nevertheless, I am grateful that I now have a greater awareness of aneurysms and the opportunity to help bring attention to this issue.

While I was incredibly fortunate to have such a positive recovery, many others are not as lucky. More research is needed, and I hope to use my experience to help raise awareness about brain aneurysms.