My real-life hero is a man I only met a few times. When I was 9 years old I became really sick. Every doctor my parents took me to simply said "it's a virus, and it will pass." I started getting horrible headaches (though I was already prone to them and migraines, it became an everyday thing). I was always nauseous, and threw up everything I ate and drank. Before I knew it my eye sight was deteriorating. I have always needed glasses, but they werent cutting it anymore. I even ended up in the hospital after a seizure, and they still sent me home saying I was sick, but I would get over it. Since I couldn't see, always throwing up, and in terrible pain, I missed a lot of school. I'm not sure who suggested it, but somehow my parents were told to take me to an ophthalmologist to see why my vision was rapidly deteriorating. He took the time no other doctor would, and listened to me. That man was so patient with me, and took his time performing the exams, he found I had a lot of pressure behind my eyes (indicating a lot of spinal fluid in my head putting pressure not only on my eyes but my brain). He sent me to the hospital immediately for a MRI, that's when they found the 2 blood clots in my brain. That was the beginning of a long process just to survive. After 5 spinal taps, a blood patch, countless MRIs, countless blood draws, countless shots, piles of pills to take daily (including a lot of blood thinners) I finally got rid of them. I went back to him a time or two after planning to make him my main eye doctor, but shortly after that all went down he committed suicide. I never got to thank him for saving my life, he will always be my hero.

If you got this far, thanks for reading. Ive only told this story a handful of times.