WEBVTT - How a Brain Aneurysm Became a Blessing 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:16.520 You, guys. 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:19.720 I don't know what to feel this week. I am happy, 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:22.560 I am sad. I am just a mix of emotions 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:24.400 right now. I don't know if you can tell. 0:00:24.400 --> 0:00:25.560 But it's just me. 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:29.440 It's just Mandy. This week, Tiffany sadly couldn't be here. 0:00:29.600 --> 0:00:33.040 She is on a plane somewhere over the United States, 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:35.559 somewhere over Idaho, I don't know, on the way back 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:38.919 from taping The Real in Los Angeles. So I'm here 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:41.120 on my own tonight taping the show. But like I said, 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:44.000 I'm not just sad. I'm also really really excited. I 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:46.879 have an amazing guest joining the show tonight. I have 0:00:47.000 --> 0:00:52.200 low key been stalking stalking Sharon Epperson for the past 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:57.120 three years throughout her career at CNBC, where she is 0:00:57.120 --> 0:01:00.960 the senior Personal Finance correspondent at the network. She's actually 0:01:00.960 --> 0:01:03.680 been there for twenty one years. It was just a 0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:05.959 couple of years ago that I ran into Sharon at 0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:08.759 an event at United Nations. I think it was around 0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:11.400 Women's History Month or some sort of gathering when we 0:01:11.400 --> 0:01:12.800 were both in the same room at the same time, 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:14.319 and I knew I just had to grab her. I 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:17.119 had to try and get her on Brown Ambition. So 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:20.399 I talked to Sharon's. She was so sweet to me, 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:23.160 so nice, so supportive. So I followed up with her, 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:25.000 you know, you follow up with the email trying to 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:27.760 get her on the show, and then it was crickets, y'all. 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:29.880 It was a little bit awkward, and you know, I 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:32.959 tried to send the casual follow up email. So Sharon, 0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:34.440 did you get my email Brown Ambition? 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:34.960 You know? 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:38.640 Remember me still didn't hear back anything, And it wasn't 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:42.679 until this past fall in September that I finally realized why. 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:47.200 In late twenty sixteen, Sharon suffered a brain aneurism, a 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:52.000 traumatic brain injury that required months and months of rehabilitation. 0:01:52.360 --> 0:01:55.960 She was out of work for thirteen months, and ever 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:59.360 since I heard her story, I knew I had to 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:01.480 get back into with Sharon, first of all, just to 0:02:01.520 --> 0:02:03.320 tell her how excited I am and happy to hear 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:05.640 that she's doing well, but also to have her come 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:07.840 on the show and share her story with you guys. 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:10.800 Because as much as Sharon's story is about health and 0:02:10.840 --> 0:02:15.600 what happens to us when the unimaginable finally occurs, it's 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:19.079 also a financial story. It's also how do you cope 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:22.480 when you have to leave your job for thirteen months 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:25.720 to deal with a health situation that's out of your control, 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:28.280 and that comes on so suddenly, in the middle of 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:31.280 nowhere and without further ado, I wanted to welcome to 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:34.440 the show, Sharon Epperson. Sharon, thank you so much for 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:35.480 coming on Brown Ambition. 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:37.920 Great to be here, Thanks for having me. 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:41.799 First, let me say I answer emails. I don't usually 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:45.880 take a really long time to answer emails. So now 0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:48.320 that you know me, now that we're friends and we're 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:50.520 going to do more together, you should know that if 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:52.760 you email me, I will email you back pretty much 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:56.360 right away if I can. And when I don't, something's happened, 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:58.320 and in this case, something major happened. 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:01.880 Right, So take me back to that day in September 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:03.679 what was it again? Twenty sixteen? 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:08.679 In September twenty sixteen, Actually, on September twenty first, twenty sixteen, 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:12.000 I was get in the middle of the busiest fall 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:14.800 probably of my career. I was planning to interview the 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:17.640 Treasury Secretary later that week. I had just come back 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:23.080 from hosting a Financial Planners Association conference. I was looking 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:25.600 forward to going to a Charles Schwab Conference in a 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:29.000 few weeks to do a show, and I was really, 0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:31.840 really busy. I also am a mother with two kids, 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:35.680 so my son was starting high school, my daughter was 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:39.360 in middle school, and it was the first couple weeks 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:42.720 of their school year as well. And so I try 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:44.840 when I can. I tried then, but now I do 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:46.560 it a lot more frequently. But I try to get 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:49.440 my time into exercise and take care of myself. And 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:52.040 I was actually at the gym. I'd already had my 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:55.760 spinach smoothie that morning, and I was at the gym 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:58.520 starting to exercise, and I really was just starting. 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:00.160 I wasn't doing anything. 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:05.360 Terribly excruciatingly difficult or anything like that. I was actually 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:08.000 just doing some stretching and lifting some light weights. And 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:10.520 all of a sudden, I was in a yoga post 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:13.840 and I felt the worst sensation I've ever felt in 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:17.359 my head and something that I can't really describe. I 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:19.560 don't get migraines, but it didn't seem like a very 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:21.039 bad headache or migraine. 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:23.680 It was just something that was very unusual. 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:26.760 And I also had difficulty moving my neck, and I 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:28.919 didn't know if I had just pulled a muscle or something. 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:30.440 I just didn't know what had happened. 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:33.719 But I immediately left the exercise class and went to 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:36.159 my car, which was kind of funny because then I 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:37.600 was like, what am I supposed to do now? Because 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:39.520 I came with my head, which means I probably shouldn't 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:43.320 be driving. So I texted my husband and I said, 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:45.120 you know, can you come pick me up? I don't 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:47.600 know what happened. My head really is bothering me. And 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:49.560 I text him in all caps and he happened to 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:52.919 be close to home at the time and was able 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:56.360 to come to me in a short while, which was very, 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:57.400 very crucial. 0:04:57.080 --> 0:04:59.680 To all of this. But we still didn't know what 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:00.000 it was. 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:02.840 And I thought again that I just wouldn't be able 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:04.960 to go to work, probably because I just wasn't feeling well, 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:08.240 but I would go home and rest and see what happened. 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:10.960 And so I emailed my job let them know I 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:14.640 probably wouldn't be coming in, and then my husband went 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:16.200 to go get me a coffee and came back and 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:18.039 I said, you know, I really still don't feel well, 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:21.320 and he took me to the doctor's office. My doctor 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:23.600 wasn't available. I saw the doctor that was filling in 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:27.960 for her, and he says, now I'm kind of this part. 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:31.359 I'm in and out of really remembering what happened, but 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:34.159 he said that I just really didn't look well, ad 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:38.240 been nauseous, I was complaining of my head. I was 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:40.520 talking about this worst pain I'd ever felt in my 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:42.120 life in my head, and he thought, I need to 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:44.440 get her to the emergency room right now. She needs 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:47.320 to get some imaging done and get a CT scan. 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:50.000 And so my husband took me to the emergency room 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:54.040 to a hospital nearby and actually a hospital in your 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:55.280 new neck of the woods. 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:56.280 That's excellent. 0:05:56.680 --> 0:06:00.800 And so I had that CT scan and the last 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:04.479 thing I kind of remember was the emergency room physician saying, 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:07.719 you have bleeding in your brain. What they discovered was 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:12.440 that a blood vessel on my brain had basically exploded. 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:15.720 And so what happens with what's known as a brain 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:18.600 aneurysm is it's almost like a balloon, like a little 0:06:18.600 --> 0:06:20.560 bubble on the blood vessel, and it grows and grows 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:22.680 and grows, and then eventually, you know, it's like you 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:24.320 put too much air in it put too and it 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:25.640 gets too weak and it pops. 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:27.080 And that's what happened. 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:31.520 What I remember was after basically having the CT scan 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:37.719 at White Plains Hospital, then going to Montafior and being 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:41.520 in the in the o R and having the anthesiologist 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:44.080 putting me under. That's the last thing I remember. But 0:06:44.120 --> 0:06:47.440 the thing that I wanted to that I actually haven't shared, 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:52.120 that really touched me was I wasn't scared. I wasn't scared. 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:54.760 And I don't know if it's you know, faith alone, 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:57.440 or just the environment I was in, or how wonderful 0:06:57.480 --> 0:06:59.719 the people were that were taking care of me, but 0:06:59.760 --> 0:07:02.760 when and the last person that I saw before I 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:05.760 went under was the anesthesiologist who was an African American woman, 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:09.040 and I looked at her and I said, you're my doctor, 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:11.360 and I just start smiling, like. 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:16.360 Oh my god, this is like so cool. And that's 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:17.120 the last person I saw. 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:20.720 I never saw my neurosurgeons before I went under, and 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:23.160 I now love them dearly, both of them as well. 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:25.840 But that was the last person I saw, and that 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:30.040 was pretty profound for me. She I knew she was 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:31.400 taking care of me, and I think she. 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:34.840 Did obviously hindsight is twenty twenty, But looking back now, 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:38.520 were there any signs or any you know, indications that 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:40.760 this might be a risk for you. 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:44.160 What I've learned and what I had to learn kind 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:47.480 of more recently, because it took me time to be 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:49.720 well enough to kind of do the research and took 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:53.560 me even probably longer to be emotionally ready to understand 0:07:53.640 --> 0:07:56.360 what had happened to me. But I did have a 0:07:56.520 --> 0:08:00.800 propensity to get an aneurysm. I'm African American. African Americans 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:03.560 are twice as likely as whites to have a ruptured 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:08.080 brain aneurysm. Women I did not have more aneurysms. Women 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:12.080 have more aneurysms than men. And I also have three 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:15.720 relatives that passed away from brain hemorrhages. Whether or not 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:19.680 they were aneurysms, I don't know, but my maternal grandfather 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:23.600 and great grandfather and my mother's oldest sister all passed 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:27.920 away from brain hemorrhages, and family history is another risk 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:32.240 factor that I never knew, didn't consider, never told a 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:35.240 primary care physician ever in my medical history about it, 0:08:35.240 --> 0:08:38.240 because they all three of them passed away when I 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:41.680 was before I was a toddler, so I didn't really 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:44.319 think about it, and I never knew the statistics of 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:47.960 the propensity, the greater propensity for Black women, And I 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:52.160 think that's something that I want everybody to understand and 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:55.599 be really conscious of when you have a migrain or 0:08:55.640 --> 0:08:58.760 when you're not feeling well with you anything with your 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:02.040 head and youarticularly if you already have high blood pressure, 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:05.360 or if you're a smoker. It's something to really watch 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:08.600 out for, and also to really talk to your family 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:12.120 members and find out what happened. My cousins, now that 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:15.480 I've told everyone exactly what happened and about our family history, 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:17.760 my first cousin was like, I didn't know what grandaddy 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:20.840 died of. I had no idea, you know, because her 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:24.680 dad didn't talk about it. So it's important. That's a 0:09:24.720 --> 0:09:27.000 time that we don't want to remember because we've lost 0:09:27.000 --> 0:09:30.040 a loved one, but it's very very important to understand 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:31.920 what has happened, you. 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:34.880 Know, Sharon, I have to say, just listening to your story, 0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:37.800 I'm sitting here and I'm realizing I only know two 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:41.160 people in my life who have had a brain bleed, 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:44.800 suffered a brain aneurism, and one of them is you. 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:48.000 One of them is also a friend of mine from college, 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:51.960 DeShawn Maria Harris, who five years ago, just last just 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:54.800 as past March, it was five years passed away in 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:59.040 her sleep from my brain anurism. DeShawn was only twenty five. 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:01.079 I want to say it. You know, I'm thirty now, 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:04.400 Deshaun was only twenty five when this happened. It wasn't it. 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:07.320 You know, Seeing someone close to me, not just an age, 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:10.520 but you know, someone actually knew passed away from that 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:13.480 injury was a huge wake up call for me at 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:15.440 the time. But I guess it wasn't until talking to 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:17.720 you today, and I'm putting two and two together. You know, 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:20.960 the two people I know who've had brain aneurysms were 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:25.920 African American women, And it's like you said, African Americans 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:29.440 are twice as likely, wasn't it to experience this type 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:32.760 of injury? And that's just I'm having a little aha 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:34.319 moment here. It makes me want to just call all 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:38.240 my aunts, all my cousins and tell them to see 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:39.240 a doctor asap. 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:42.120 Yeah. I'm in a mother's group with about one hundred 0:10:42.160 --> 0:10:47.600 African American women, and among our group, at least four 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:49.599 people have had a family member that has had a 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:54.560 brain aneurism, and one is still It's just a fiver 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:58.240 but has significant neurological issues, and the other two have 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:02.120 passed away. And so as you said with your friend Deshaun, 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:04.800 and I'm so sorry to hear this, but it's unfortunately 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:07.680 that is what usually happens. Forty percent of the time, 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:12.720 people are killed instantly by this injury, and those that survive. 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:17.880 Of those that survive, the majority of them two thirds 0:11:17.920 --> 0:11:20.720 of them have some type of neurological issues, some type 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:22.880 of neurological deficit that is significant. 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:25.959 And what if I know you're I think your inclination 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:28.280 when you first felt that pain in your head, you 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:30.800 know at the gym, was you know, okay, walk it off. Well, 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:33.080 you know we can manage this, call husband, have him come. 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:36.240 I mean, I think a lot of especially women, the 0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:39.400 instinct is to just push through it. You know, there's 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:43.319 other things. You have a busy day ahead of you, work, kids, responsibilities. 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:45.920 You don't have time to have a headache, right. What 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:48.160 can you say to that in terms of taking the 0:11:48.160 --> 0:11:51.280 time to listen to your body and to actually you know, 0:11:51.720 --> 0:11:53.640 take those things a little bit seriously. You know, you're 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:55.480 you're the one who can feel your own pain and 0:11:56.040 --> 0:11:58.560 speaking up and kind of being an advocate for yourself. 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:02.520 Well, I'm I'm definitely the type of person that goes 0:12:02.559 --> 0:12:04.560 at one hundred and twenty miles an hour, or I 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:04.960 used to. 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:06.680 And I had. 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:09.960 Truly the biggest week of my career. I mean, I 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:12.520 was going to interview the Treasury Secretary in the Obama 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:14.720 White House when there was an Obama that White House, 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:18.040 you know, and I was invited by Treasury to come 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:20.080 down and to participate in a conference and to do 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:23.880 this big interview. I was looking forward to doing a 0:12:23.920 --> 0:12:27.559 lot more, having a lot more visibility on CNBC, anchoring 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:29.480 a lot more, doing a lot more of the type 0:12:29.520 --> 0:12:33.320 of personal finance stories and segments on NBC that I 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:36.280 wanted to do. And I was about to, you know, 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:40.760 really start a whole new chapter in my motherhood in 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:44.360 terms of, you know, shepherding a high schooler through the 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:48.720 process and a middle schooler through the process, and then boom, 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:50.559 it all just came to a halt. 0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:51.559 And so. 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:56.240 I guess I could have powered through it, but it 0:12:56.320 --> 0:12:58.679 was just so unusual that I knew I needed to 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:03.120 stop and do something. But also, my husband truly saved 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:05.000 my life, because if I didn't have someone else to 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:07.800 say it to, or if someone else who knew me 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:09.760 love me and knew what I should be looking like, 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:13.040 and obviously I didn't look like myself and insists that 0:13:13.080 --> 0:13:15.000 I go to get medical treatment right away. 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:17.320 I may have just kept going. 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:21.520 If that had happened at work, would I have necessarily stopped, 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:24.400 or would I had to keep the game face, the 0:13:24.440 --> 0:13:26.160 TV face going and keep going. 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:26.760 I don't know. 0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:29.400 So everything happens for a reason, and I'm glad it 0:13:29.400 --> 0:13:31.880 happened when it did and where it did, And though 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:33.720 I was on my way to work, I hadn't gotten 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:36.160 there yet. All of that stuff is very very important. 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:39.400 I'm also one who never misses a doctor's appointment. I 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:42.080 kind of have been very blessed to have a career 0:13:42.160 --> 0:13:45.600 where I have a company that has provided health insurance, 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:47.679 so I know that that's often a reason why people 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:49.840 don't necessarily get the treatment that they want. 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:50.560 They're not covered. 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:52.679 But then sometimes they don't get the treatment because they 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:55.480 just don't get the treatment. And even those who are 0:13:55.800 --> 0:13:59.000 my colleagues that cover healthcare sometimes don't go and get 0:13:59.000 --> 0:14:01.400 to the doctor's office they need to. And it's just 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:05.679 so important because we research all the time. We're constantly 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:09.080 Mandy reporting stories and interviewing people and researching new things, 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:12.679 and I think there's nothing more important than researching yourself 0:14:12.679 --> 0:14:15.440 and knowing what's going on with your own body. And 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:19.880 if you aren't getting regular medical care, you can't really 0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:24.400 understand when something is going wrong because you may feel okay, 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:26.600 but the testing may not show that you are okay, 0:14:26.640 --> 0:14:28.760 and you want to get treated right away if something 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:31.920 is not correct. So I think it's very very important 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:36.640 to pay attention to your body to know what is happening. 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:38.800 But then also you can do all that and this 0:14:38.840 --> 0:14:39.280 can happen. 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:41.400 I mean, one of the things that is definitely in 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:43.800 my family that I am aware of, and many women 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:47.520 and many African American women can say the same as cancer. 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:53.520 And so I am religious about my mammograms and ultrasounds 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:57.000 and everything annually to make sure that I am getting 0:14:57.040 --> 0:14:59.560 tested and make sure that I do my own examinations 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:02.880 and everything, because I have breast cancer survivors and those 0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:06.200 who have passed away from cancer in my family. And 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:09.560 I had actually gone for those tests just a couple 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:14.800 of weeks before this happened, So you know, you can 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:17.520 you can be diligent and something and sometimes things can 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:22.040 just go wrong. But if you know that you're supposed 0:15:22.080 --> 0:15:23.680 to feel a certain way, if you know that you 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:28.360 normally wouldn't be, you know, kind of feeling this pain 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:31.640 and dozing in and out of consciousness and feeling nauseous 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:34.800 and all of that, you know, then you won't power through. 0:15:34.880 --> 0:15:36.960 But most of the time, I will say, when I 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:42.520 hear of someone who has not had a successful outcome, 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:46.120 either they've passed away or they are there, they have suffered, 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:50.080 you know, really severe neurological issues, their family members or 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:53.360 they themselves will say, I just powered through it. You know, 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:57.640 I just powered through it. And it can be it 0:15:57.640 --> 0:15:58.920 can be deadly to do that. 0:15:59.840 --> 0:16:02.840 Now, you said, you feel like it's a miracle to 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:05.120 even be alive. But I didn't want to gloss over 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:08.280 the recovery time. I mean you had to Yes, you survived, 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:10.440 which was amazing, but you had to take time off 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:13.440 of work months was it? And also like relearn how 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:16.360 to walk. So can you talk about the period after 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:19.840 the after surgery, the recovery and the impact it had 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:22.200 on your family and you know, in your career and 0:16:22.480 --> 0:16:23.480 your finances. 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:28.760 So the recovery period is not over. 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:33.520 I you know, I would people always say, and even 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:36.480 early on after you know, the first couple of months, 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:37.120 you look great. 0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:39.880 You know what's really the problem? You sound good? 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:43.240 You know. I was able to speak pretty much after 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:45.600 I had been in debated in all of those things. 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:49.080 But once I was all the tubes were gone, I 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:51.440 was able to pretty I was able to speak and 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:55.320 speak pretty clearly, whether or not other people realized. I 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:58.360 was making the right connections in my speech and I 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:01.360 was communicating effectively with which is, you know, as a 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:03.200 TV reporter, what I've done my whole career. 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:04.480 That's a whole other thing. 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:07.240 And that took a very long time to feel comfortable 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:09.919 enough to return to my career to do. 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:12.919 And I was away from CNBC for thirteen months. 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:16.800 I spent two and a half weeks, two weeks in 0:17:16.800 --> 0:17:20.520 intensive care, a couple of days in the hospital after that, 0:17:20.640 --> 0:17:23.760 and then I moved to a rehabilitation hospital where I 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:27.640 stayed for two weeks and every day I had physical therapy, 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:31.800 occupational therapy, and speech therapy. And my physical therapy was 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:35.240 indeed learning how to walk and maintain my balance again, 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:39.679 learning how to go up the stairs, learning how to 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:42.680 I didn't really have to learn how to dress myself 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:45.560 and all those things again. But I didn't need initially 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:48.160 need a little assistance or someone to just watch over 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:50.520 me and make sure that I did things correctly. I 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:54.760 think the biggest issues were definitely my balance, and it 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:57.680 was very strange to not walk for two weeks and 0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:00.320 then have a physical therapist come into my room and 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:02.000 I see you and say, okay, we're going to try 0:18:02.000 --> 0:18:04.440 to get you up now, and I thought, I haven't 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:06.560 even really sat up fully. You know, it's going to 0:18:06.600 --> 0:18:09.560 be very difficult, and it was. It was very scary. 0:18:09.640 --> 0:18:12.000 And the first walk that I took that seemed like 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:15.080 a marathon but was just walking from my. 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:19.800 Room and I see you just a couple rooms. 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:23.280 Down down the hallway, it seemed like such a long road, 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:27.200 and that road had so much pain on it because 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:29.800 there were people in those rooms that I knew probably 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:32.440 wouldn't make it, and there were people in the rooms 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:35.479 that looked like I probably had two weeks prior right 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:38.920 after my surgery, and there were family members that were 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:41.160 devastated trying to figure out what the next steps were 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:43.280 going to be. And I remember thinking, I just have 0:18:43.320 --> 0:18:45.520 to look at the door straight ahead. If I look 0:18:45.520 --> 0:18:48.159 in these rooms, I'm going to fall down and my 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:52.679 therapy continues. I mean, I think as having a brain injury, 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:57.560 I think having a neuropsychologist who really understands the impact 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:00.280 that a brain injury can have. You cannot see it. 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:04.240 I don't have a visible scar. People figured something happened 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:05.960 because I cut my hair off. I never had short 0:19:06.000 --> 0:19:10.360 hair for four decades. They so they figured probably something 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:11.760 might have happened about that. 0:19:12.119 --> 0:19:14.919 But you can't see it. So if you can't see it, 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:18.240 people think you're okay, and it's not true. 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:24.000 There's still difficulty in terms of fatigue, in terms of stamina, 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:27.560 in terms of focus, in terms of memory that can 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:30.040 last for months and months and months, for years and 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:32.840 years and years. And as a social worker told me 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:36.960 just today, actually, you know, people used to say that 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:40.720 recovery was in stages, and now they realize that it's 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:44.880 two steps forward, one step back, three steps forward, two 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:47.160 steps back, that it just ebbs and flows. 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:48.679 Like that, and that is very true. 0:19:49.080 --> 0:19:50.639 And as soon as I start to feel like I 0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:53.159 can I can work that twelve hour day, I can 0:19:53.200 --> 0:19:54.800 do these things, and I'm going to switch this and 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:56.320 do this so I can make this, and then I'm 0:19:56.320 --> 0:19:58.320 going to go this and take the kids here, and 0:19:58.359 --> 0:20:01.119 then the next day I can't move. I'm just exhausted, 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:06.840 And it's a different kind of exhaustion. It's actually has 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:10.359 we say I'm just wiped out for a brain injury, 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:14.400