{"id":1192,"date":"2009-10-01T12:04:49","date_gmt":"2009-10-01T17:04:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/?p=1192"},"modified":"2019-12-02T13:32:36","modified_gmt":"2019-12-02T18:32:36","slug":"as-funny-as-a-brain-tumor-part-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/as-funny-as-a-brain-tumor-part-15\/","title":{"rendered":"As Funny as a Brain Tumor! Part 15"},"content":{"rendered":"

The next morning, our last day in Disney, I woke up to my kids talking to each other. \u00a0I sat up in bed and just looked at them. \u00a0There voices sounded normal. \u00a0I couldn’t believe it. Matter of fact, I didn’t believe it. I put on the radio, it sounded normal. I was so excited and happy but I still didn’t say anything to my wife because I was afraid I was mistaken. “What if it was still messed up? Let’s not get overly excited, Steve”, I thought to myself.<\/p>\n

About 15 minutes later I told my wife. I then shared with her the whole story about the prayer I had prayed the night before. \u00a0She didn’t seem surprised. \u00a0I was shocked and in awe that God had actually performed a miracle for me and answered my prayer. \u00a0She just smiled and said “Of course, he does that all the time”. I just looked at her amazed at her faith. \u00a0“Not like this!” I said. \u00a0We went home to New Hampshire later that day and I was one happy camper.<\/p>\n

For the last five years things have gone pretty smoothly. \u00a0Normal life stuff. Nothing to write a blog about. \u00a0I’m happy about that!\u00a0\u00a0I don’t know the why behind all the things in this story and I doubt I ever will but part of me thinks this last story was so very important to me and my journey.<\/p>\n

You see, as you could probably tell as you read the story, I was growing increasingly more and more negative. \u00a0Many times I doubted if God existed. \u00a0Other times, I thought “Well if he does exist, he’s kind of a jerk!”. \u00a0Other times,\u00a0 I thought “Well, if he does exist, he could care less about me!”.\u00a0 I know many of you who are reading this might be thinking it was just a coincidence and God had nothing to do with it. \u00a0I just happened to pray that prayer the night before my hearing was to return to normal. \u00a0Believe me, many times I have even thought that myself. \u00a0But I keep coming back to that prayer that I said. I laid it all out like I never had before. \u00a0I told him that if I were to see him work immediately then there would be no question in my mind. \u00a0He did exist and he does care about me. He is involved in my life and working and moving. \u00a0The next morning, I woke up and was cured. \u00a0You might think it was a coincidence but I like to believe it was something else.<\/p>\n

Since that time in 2005, life has been good. \u00a0My girls are getting bigger everyday. \u00a0I’ve had many fun and happy times with them. More than I can count. \u00a0I’ve had great times with my wife who is my best friend. We bought a house that we all love and feel lucky to live in. \u00a0I feel very grateful and fortunate.<\/p>\n

I had someone ask me once if I had any regrets? \u00a0Would I go back and change something from my past if I had the power to do so? \u00a0Without even thinking about it I said “No”. I wouldn’t change a thing. Brain tumor, cancer, bacterial meningitis, Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis, headaches, shunt and even depression. \u00a0Those things have all worked to make me who I am today. \u00a0They have all brought me to this place. \u00a0It feels good to be here. \u00a0I don’t want to leave this place. \u00a0I’m afraid that if I were to change one thing in the past then that would change where I am today and who I am right now. \u00a0I like this place. No thanks. I’ll stay right here.<\/p>\n

I’m not sure what the future holds. \u00a0I’m not sure if I’m out of the woods yet. \u00a0I pray daily that none of my girls take after me with health issues. \u00a0That’s my biggest fear. \u00a0Every time one of them says they have a headache I get scared. \u00a0I’m hopeful though. It’s out of my hands. \u00a0There is nothing I can do. About me and my future or about them and their futures. All we can do is the best that we can and at a certain point we all come to a point where we are too weak to handle things ourselves. \u00a0Some people never get to that point until they are lying on their deathbed. \u00a0Some people have too many of those moments through out their lives. \u00a0I do believe that if we can look at those moments with the right perspective we can learn a lot about ourselves and the people around us. \u00a0There were many times during this story that I thought I was cursed. \u00a0Now as I write this story out, I have a different view, maybe I am blessed and not cursed, maybe I am one of the luckiest people on earth. \u00a0I think it’s a matter of perspective.<\/p>\n

Like I wrote earlier in the story, I’m writing this to those of you out there that will read it and get something out of it. \u00a0I’m not even sure what you will get out of it and I have already received many emails from people who were touched, moved or inspired in ways that I had not anticipated.\u00a0 \u00a0I do pray for those of you out there that are in a dark place such as I was in. \u00a0I’ve been there and know how sad and lonely it can be. \u00a0I pray and hope that you can and will come out the other side and end up in a place that is good to be in. \u00a0A place that you yourselves don’t want to leave. Thanks for taking the time to read about my journey!\u00a0 Take care and stay healthy! \u00a0 \u00a0Steve<\/p>\n

\"Neff<\/a><\/p>\n

Steve & Brenda with Sarah,Melissa, Jillian and dog Tucker<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The next morning, our last day in Disney, I woke up to my kids talking to each other. \u00a0I sat up in bed and just looked at them. \u00a0There voices sounded normal. \u00a0I couldn’t believe it. Matter of fact, I didn’t believe it. I put on the radio, it sounded normal. I was so excited […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":34614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[226],"tags":[224,288,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-1192","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brain-tumor-story","8":"tag-brain-tumor","9":"tag-hearing-problems","10":"tag-steve-neff","11":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/63"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}