Yup. I got very ill at 25 years of age and it stopped me in my tracks. Fibromyalgia. I went from highly intelligent and a leader to not even being able to think properly, with some amnesia. In hindsight, it was the best thing to happen to me. It made me think about everything and put life in perspective. Where was I was heading, what were my priorities? .
Life huh?
I was dead long enough that I ceased to exist. The front of my skull was reconstructed in an operation that took the 2 best oral maxillo facial reconstruction surgeons in Australia at the time 5 1/2 hours with a full theatre. The operation was recorded and became the primary training tool for oral maxillo facial reconstruction worldwide. I have chatted with people who were saved by that operation.
Side-effects:
1: Insidiously high IQ. It catapulted 10 points higher than Einstein's when I woke up 28 hours post-op, around 26 hours post-mortem and revival.
2: Insomnia. Initially I didn't sleep for 6 1/2 months. I haven't slept much since.
3: Pain. I mean skull feels like it doesn't fit in my head pain. Thermal overloading from the brain's activity level combined with 5 titanium plates, 25 surgical stainless screws and a wire kind of pain. I hope you never know it.
4: Chronic sinusitis. My nasal cavities are now miss-aligned due to the skull going back together not quite how it was before.
Bottom line: While in hospital I met a girl who didn't live long enough to see her high school dance or her 15th birthday and I had no idea what to say to her. So I studied psychology, psychiatry, clinical psychology and was lucky enough to find a master looking for a protege. Truth is I still wouldn't know what to say to that girl, but the destination was never important. That journey taught me what humility and enlightenment are.