Opinion | In My Chronic Illness, I Found a Deeper Meaning – The New York Times

Opinion|In My Chronic Illness, I Found a Deeper Meaning

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/10/opinion/in-my-chronic-illness-i-found-a-deeper-meaning.html

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Opinion

Disability

In My Chronic Illness, I Found a Deeper Meaning

By Elliot Kukla

• Jan. 10, 2018

• Read in app

Credit…Dadu Shin

I became disabled overnight in a car accident. The car accident was a dream, but the disability was real.

I dreamed I was driving through the ravaged streets of Oakland, Calif., at the end of the world. I turned the corner and careened inescapably into a white chemical blaze. I woke with a start, the white flash still burning behind my eyes, the worst headache of my life piercing my left temporal lobe. I remembered my mother having a brain aneurysm years before and knew the “worst headache of my life” was not to be ignored. My wife and I hurried to the hospital, expecting life to change forever. Once at the emergency room, things moved quickly: CT scans were ordered, crystal clear spinal fluid was drawn from my [...]