A Miracle

My very good friend Casey e-mailed me this story and I thought I would I share with you all. Yes, it is a long read, but it is an inspiration to all.

My Story

By Becky Breznau

After just graduating high school, I went for a surf trip down to

Trestles to catch some waves before my move to Hawaii. It would be just

a couple weeks before the big move and the beginning of the semester.

The whole move felt kind of surreal to me, even as close as it was. I

was sitting on my board as my friend was catching waves at the next

break over. He had asked me to paddle over to the better spot with him,

but for some reason I felt I needed to stay with the less than decent

waves in front of me. I was introduced to another surfer five minutes

prior, and he told me to paddle for a wave. The next thing I knew I was

sitting on my surfboard in a comatose like state as the world slowly

turned from black to light. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was

waking up from unconsciousness. The man I just met told me that some

other surfers saw my board hit me in the back of my head. The man said

I was underwater for about thirty seconds and he was about to come save

me, when I got up and straddled myself perfectly on the board,

unconscious. He said that he knew I was out of it, with my hair in my

face and my eyes rolled in the back of my head. I like to believe that

an angel picked me up and put me back on my board that day. There is no

scientific explanation as to how somebody could move, let alone lift

themselves onto a surfboard while unconscious.

I went to the ER later that day to see if there was any serious damage

done. I had hit my head pretty hard and they dismissed it, telling me

to come back if I had any symptoms of a concussion. Those symptoms came

at church the day after. I got very dizzy, nauseous, and had slurred my

speech a couple of times. So I went to the ER again the next day. They

knew I had a concussion for sure, but they wanted to make sure no

serious damage had been done. The doctors did a CAT scan of my brain

and that is when they found two tumors. One of the tumors was the size

of an egg and located in a dangerous position. It was in the left

ventricle, which is what allows cerebrospinal fluid to circulate and

keep the brain cooled. God had spoken to me the night before at church

and I knew that something big was going to happen. I kept on repeating

the phrase “Lord, give me strength” and I had no idea why. At that

moment and to this day, He has answered my prayer. When they told me

the news I was strangely calm and a peace swept over me like I have

never felt before. The next step was to get an MRI to see if I would

need surgery to remove them or not.

By the grace of God, we are friends and neighbors with a very important

man, Tony Nobles. He invented many medical instruments that are

commonly used and the exact device that was needed for my specific type

of tumor that resides in the exact location as mine did. There is no

way that this could be coincidental. He suggested that I go to Hoag

Hospital because my symptoms were getting worse and he was afraid it

was caused by the tumors. We went to Hoag and were admitted overnight.

They did a lot of tests that day, including and MRI scan. We woke up

the next morning and the first news we heard was from Tony. He told me

there was a chance that the tumors were cancerous and that I should go

to Germany where one of the best neurosurgeons in the world resides for

surgery. He also said that Hawaii was completely out of the question. I

was devastated to say the least. Up until then, my life had been going

along pretty much perfectly. I remember there was even a point when I

questioned why my life was lacking any struggle. When life goes

smoothly, I tend to lose my focus and appreciation for the Lord and I

was just noticing that about a month before this all happened. I

remember wanting something to happen so that I could put all of my

trust in Him again. I got my wish that day, in a way that was much more

intense than I could have ever imagined. Things switch gears pretty fast in

that hospital, and an hour later everything I had feared seemed to mean

nothing to the doctor when he came in. After looking at the scans he

decided that there was no need for an invasive surgery. He said that

I should get a check up in three months and decide what to do from there, to

see if it’ growing of not. I left the hospital confused and in a lot of pain.

I didn’t know what to do at this point because I had two doctors’ opinions

contradicting each other. We decided to make plans for Germany because

we trusted our neighbor and it felt that God had placed him in this situation for a

reason. Also, we were divinely appointed with an amazing neurosurgeon

and we wanted only the best if we were going to go through with our

plans. I had felt from the beginning that God wanted me to have the

surgery. I had hit my head on a surfboard for a reason and it all

seemed too perfectly planned to not take action.

I became discouraged when insurance called for a second opinion and we

met with a doctor who had similar thoughts as the one at Hoag. I

started to question God’s voice at that point and for the entire week.

Our plans were still set for Germany and there was only a week left

until we were to leave. My family was confused and so was I. They told

me that it was my decision to make and that was more pressure than IE2ve

ever felt in my life. In the end, I still felt like the surgery was

meant to happen and even though there was a chance that complications

could occur. I doubted that they would. I was very happy when we went

to get a third opinion and the doctor told us that the surgery would be

the best choice if I was going to live my life away from my house. I

have been planning on traveling around the world and spreading the word

of God, so I needed to know that I would be healthy if I was far away

from a good hospital. I would be trapped if the surgery didn’t happen,

just waiting to live my life until we finally operated and took the

tumor out. The tumor had already gotten dangerously large and it wasn’t

going to stop growing, but the good news was that it wasn’t cancerous.

Tony told me that leaving it in could be more dangerous than having

brain surgery. We left a week later on a flight to Germany. They did another, more

advanced, MRI scan of my brain and they decided to have the surgery the

next morning. We had originally planned on having it endoscopically

done with just a small incision in my skull, but Tony decided to do a

small craniotomy. He hadn’t told us that he was afraid that some

questionable material was in the sac, so he made a larger incision to

make sure. I woke up in good health and without any complications.

There wasn’t anything that didn’t belong when they cut

it open. Who knows what would have happened if I hadn’t been hit on the head

with a surfboard that day or if I hadn’t listened to God’s voice. It seems

like my whole life was scheduled around this incident, in order for my

life to be saved. If I wasn’t blessed with faith then, I probably would

have passed it off as a coincidence and wouldn’t have been able to put

my trust in doctors going into brain. The truth of the matter is that I

could have died within the next year or so. God literally saved my life

and has radically transformed it ever since. I have had such a deeper

connection with Him throughout this experience than I ever have before.

I am a walking miracle and will forever be grateful for this life. It’s

sad that something so major and life altering has to happen in life for

one to truly appreciate the power of our Savior, but I feel blessed and

privileged that I can now see things for what they are truly worth and

see God in such a marvelous light. It’s a hard thing to do, putting your life in the

hands of somebody that you can’t physically see and who is not tangible. But that is

where faith comes in. Faith is a beautiful thing and it allows you to

get through what seem like impossible situations at the time with a

hope. And when hope turns into truth, your faith becomes so strong that

you feel like you can move mountains. That is my story of the grace and

the power of our Lord. You might have trouble accepting that something

that seems so awful can be such a good thing and change somebody’s life

for the better. Bad things happen in life, but I believe that

everything happens for a reason and God used what was meant to harm my

life to save it. If there is anything that you take out of this story,

it’s that Jesus is still alive and miracles still do happen. Because of

faith and the power of prayer from so many loving people throughout the

world, I am alive.

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