Smiling Again: Coming Back to Life and Faith After Brain Surgery
“When I woke up. . .I quickly became aware that gliding through brain surgery recovery was not the big plan. Pain, paralysis, and single-sided deafness loomed ahead.”
Sally Stap was in the midst of a busy and successful 25-year career in Information Technology, juggling the usual concerns about job, daughters, and life, when the unthinkable happened: she was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma, a benign but large brain tumor.
Written with a poignant blend of honesty, dry humor, faith, and inquisitiveness, Smiling Again is a story of the persistence of life and beauty in spite of pain. Sally recounts the shock of diagnosis, a long and painful recovery from invasive brain surgery, her eventual retirement due to disability, and ultimately contentment and acceptance of a new life journey.
For caregivers and survivors, Sally shares practical lessons and tips that will help you find your own signposts of faith along a treacherous but ultimately exhilarating journey, including:
- Be optimistic, but don’t discount possible outcomes just because they don’t sound fun.
- Allow yourself to grieve because there is a new you.  
- A sense of humor will give you a better temperament than frustration.
Whether you are a brain tumor survivor or are facing another experience that has brought you to the end of yourself, Sally’s experience shows that even when the worst happens, God is present and visible in sometimes unexpected ways. The future you may not be the same as the old you, but it can lead you in new and rewarding directions.
1115958958
Smiling Again: Coming Back to Life and Faith After Brain Surgery
“When I woke up. . .I quickly became aware that gliding through brain surgery recovery was not the big plan. Pain, paralysis, and single-sided deafness loomed ahead.”
Sally Stap was in the midst of a busy and successful 25-year career in Information Technology, juggling the usual concerns about job, daughters, and life, when the unthinkable happened: she was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma, a benign but large brain tumor.
Written with a poignant blend of honesty, dry humor, faith, and inquisitiveness, Smiling Again is a story of the persistence of life and beauty in spite of pain. Sally recounts the shock of diagnosis, a long and painful recovery from invasive brain surgery, her eventual retirement due to disability, and ultimately contentment and acceptance of a new life journey.
For caregivers and survivors, Sally shares practical lessons and tips that will help you find your own signposts of faith along a treacherous but ultimately exhilarating journey, including:
- Be optimistic, but don’t discount possible outcomes just because they don’t sound fun.
- Allow yourself to grieve because there is a new you.  
- A sense of humor will give you a better temperament than frustration.
Whether you are a brain tumor survivor or are facing another experience that has brought you to the end of yourself, Sally’s experience shows that even when the worst happens, God is present and visible in sometimes unexpected ways. The future you may not be the same as the old you, but it can lead you in new and rewarding directions.
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Smiling Again: Coming Back to Life and Faith After Brain Surgery

Smiling Again: Coming Back to Life and Faith After Brain Surgery

by Sally Stap
Smiling Again: Coming Back to Life and Faith After Brain Surgery

Smiling Again: Coming Back to Life and Faith After Brain Surgery

by Sally Stap

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Overview

“When I woke up. . .I quickly became aware that gliding through brain surgery recovery was not the big plan. Pain, paralysis, and single-sided deafness loomed ahead.”
Sally Stap was in the midst of a busy and successful 25-year career in Information Technology, juggling the usual concerns about job, daughters, and life, when the unthinkable happened: she was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma, a benign but large brain tumor.
Written with a poignant blend of honesty, dry humor, faith, and inquisitiveness, Smiling Again is a story of the persistence of life and beauty in spite of pain. Sally recounts the shock of diagnosis, a long and painful recovery from invasive brain surgery, her eventual retirement due to disability, and ultimately contentment and acceptance of a new life journey.
For caregivers and survivors, Sally shares practical lessons and tips that will help you find your own signposts of faith along a treacherous but ultimately exhilarating journey, including:
- Be optimistic, but don’t discount possible outcomes just because they don’t sound fun.
- Allow yourself to grieve because there is a new you.  
- A sense of humor will give you a better temperament than frustration.
Whether you are a brain tumor survivor or are facing another experience that has brought you to the end of yourself, Sally’s experience shows that even when the worst happens, God is present and visible in sometimes unexpected ways. The future you may not be the same as the old you, but it can lead you in new and rewarding directions.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781614487968
Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
Publication date: 03/01/2014
Pages: 200
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.46(d)

About the Author

Sally Stap is a writer living in Michigan. She began her writing career after brain surgery and a long, ongoing recovery brought her Information Technology career to a halt. During her years as an IT consultant, Sally published magazine articles on outsourcing and pharmaceutical regulatory issues and spent a considerable part of her career interpreting information technology jargon for business organizations through written documentation and oral presentations. Struggling with head pain, facial paralysis, and single-sided deafness, she turned to writing to capture her experience. Her right brain, subservient to her left brain throughout her career, now regularly finds a voice through writing, as Sally strives to interpret her emotions and experiences through words.
Sally is a member of the Kalamazoo Christian Writer’s critique group and the Wordweavers and FaithWriters organizations near her home in Michigan.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: A Diagnosis from Left Field

Chapter 2: Delivering Big News

Chapter 3: Waiting for Answers

Chapter 4: Taking in Mayo Clinic

Chapter 5: The Blog Begins

Chapter 6: Final Prep

Chapter 7: Heading into the Fire

Chapter 8: Mayo Days: Monday

Chapter 9: Mayo Days: Tuesday

Chapter 10: Mayo Days: Wednesday

Chapter 11: Mayo Days: Thursday

Chapter 12: Mayo Days: Friday

Chapter 13: Mayo Days: The Weekend

Chapter 14 Mayo Days: Monday

Chapter 15: Hello, World

Chapter 16: Things to Be Thankful For

Chapter 17: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Chapter 18: The Philosopher Speaks

Chapter 19: Michigan Winter

Chapter 20: The New Year Arrives

Chapter 21: Waiting for Healing

Chapter 22: Return to Mayo at Three Months

Chapter 23: A Typical Day with Headaches

Chapter 24: Moving Forward and Rejoining Life

Chapter 25: One Tiny Movement

Chapter 26: An Eye-Opening Symposium

Chapter 27: Addressing Facial Synkinesis

Chapter 28: It's Only the Beginning

Chapter 29: Return to the Woods

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