Kassidy Brewer – A Brain Aneurysm Out of the Blue

Hi. I’m Kassidy Brewer.

At age 13, I suddenly had a ruptured brain aneurysm out of the blue. I was in a coma for 4 months total. During one of my brain surgeries, I had a stroke in my thalamus. It left me with ataxia only on the entire left side of my body.

Initially, the diagnosis was a ruptured brain aneurysm and then a stroke that caused ataxia.

It was summer 2008 and my 8th-grade year just ended. I was in the transition to high school, and it was 10 days before my 9th-grade school sign-ups. I also had two older sisters, so I was quite a jokester! Just an ordinary teenager, skateboarding with friends and getting into trouble. 

Nowadays, those times look very different. But I am totally accepting of where my life is at. Improving where we’re at is the name of the game and choosing to see the light is hard to do but it is possible with our hope for the Lord and noticing what you do have as opposed to don’t. Just because I have difficulty doing it. The things I did in the past doesn’t mean that I can’t do other things. It may look different from what others are doing but who wants to be like everybody else anyway? Today, I am an auntie to five little ones, ages 8, 4, 3, 1, 10 months. And love learning and expanding my knowledge. As of right now, I’m getting my certificate in Holistic Nutrition Coaching.

I’m a part of Toastmasters that drastically helps with my speech and memory. I highly recommend it to anyone, able or not. Toastmasters is a public speaking group that is in a professional environment and helps you to get out of your comfort zone and become comfortable with the uncomfortable. I cannot even begin to describe how much it has brought me to where I am today! Always expanding your knowledge and curiosity is something that I really like to emphasize because the curious are always learning something and expanding! As for me, I love baking and while it is a challenge, if you get curious about completing, you find a way! I do much of my baking on the floor, the measurements aren’t perfect but I did it myself! Curiosity is key to creativity! I also enjoy food, making my own food is a hobby of mine. I live with my mom, so we’ll prep food and I’ll later arrange them! In other terms, you will catch me baking bread, cookies, etc.… You can see my creations on Instagram at my account called @coffeewithkass and on my Facebook account called Unity- Mobility Health & Fitness where you’ll find all the goods!

You are you and only you so don’t try to be someone or something you’re not. And expand from there. No one can be two places at once so be 100% present where you are. You only have one chance at life so make it worthwhile.

I’m working daily to be the best version of myself. Yes, it’s hard but practise makes you better! That goes with everything that you do. My most challenging obstacle now is my word usage. That might seem to be the simplest thing to many people but it’s extremely difficult. Toastmasters seems to greatly improve this the most when it comes to pausing to reflect on what was said than just blabbing the first thing that comes to mind. Reflection is one of the many things we can all do to improve our everyday lives.

I don’t have any experience raising awareness of Ataxia specifically but rather for anyone who has doubts and needs a little encouragement. Which I think might be everybody! I have a group on Facebook that does just that. It’s called Unity-Mobility Health & Fitness. I started this health and fitness page for anyone that needs a little motivation! It’s going to have tricks, tips, videos, healthy food, healthy sweets and more. Follow this page for updates and videos. I’ll help you find a possible way to the impossible.