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On the day of Danielle Tullo’s 18th birthday, she fell to the floor of her sister’s bathroom, convulsing in what was her second seizure in just three short days.
Her parents called an ambulance, and Tullo remembers asking the paramedics, “Can you not let me die? It’s my birthday, I really don’t want to die.”
At the hospital, the doctors began running tests on her, covering everything from the most basic toe wiggle to conducting an MRI scan to assess whether these seizures had been caused by a brain tumor.
At that point, Tullo was too groggy to ask the doctor why she was unable to perform many basic functions on the left side of her body. Her toes wouldn’t wiggle, her face was drooping, and simple actions like waving hi and drinking water were impossible.
Before the MRI scan, Tullo overheard the conversation between her father and the doctor, who was explaining that he wanted to confirm that Tullo didn’t have a tumor in her brain. The details were fuzzy, but Tullo remembered prayed to herself, “Please don’t let it be a tumor.”
But just as quickly as the seizures had hit her, Tullo returned to normal in just one day’s time.
She didn’t have a tumor, the seizures didn’t leave any lasting effects, and they weren’t anything serious as had been feared.
Tullo had suffered a concussion about two weeks prior. She’d been hit in the head by a door, but didn’t think it was anything worth worrying over, so she’d resumed her normal activities as usual – which had ended up bruising her brain.
The doctor placed Tullo on anti-seizure medication for the following year, until she felt ready to go off of it.
Now, Tullo is 23 – and she’s celebrated every birthday since her 18th with unbridled enthusiasm.
It’s not that she wants to be spoiled, but rather, her experience in the hospital five years prior has changed her perspective and made her want to “cherish life” and “acknowledge the fact that [she’s] alive – and able to “wiggle [her] damn toes.”
