Topic: Friends, I return! (Read 1145 times)

chopinlover01 · on: October 14, 2022, 07:22:32 PM

Hello, everybody!

My name (for those of you I don't know personally) is Harrison Richter, and I used to be on here a lot when i was in high school, when I was supposed to be doing class work

Back when I hung out here, as I remember, I was a bit of an arrogant little sh*t (as high schoolers who have some degree of talent often are), and I feel like I've tempered that a bit lately, especially within the last year.

Story time: last October, specifically October 30th, I nearly died. Previous to that October, in August of 2021 I had a seizure while smoking weed with a friend (a habit I have thankfully quit in the last couple weeks). In the hospital, they took some scans of my brain and found that I had an arteriovenous malformation, aka an AVM, (here's the mayo clinic link: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/arteriovenous-malformation/symptoms-causes/syc-20350544) in my brain, which they presumed caused the seizure. I started seeing some doctors and we planned to have a surgery to have this removed, but in the meantime I was sent home, because they only thing I could do was take anti seizure meds, and there was no sense in keeping me in a (somewhat valuable) hospital bed. This surgery was delayed due to the wave of new patients of Covid from the Delta variant, which takes us to the next part of our story.

On October 30, 2021, I had just moved into a new living space. Instead of college, I've been living and studying at a private music academy where classes and lessons are taught basically every day, and much more affordably than a college. So, I would get to hang out, participate in lessons (whether as a student or just playing in the lesson to assist), and be a part of the jazz community of Portland, Oregon. That day, I had gone grocery shopping, and beyond that, that's about all I remember. My landlord had invited everyone in my household (about 3 other guys) to all have dinner together. For some reason, I didn't come down. My landlord initially thought I was just being a rude 20 y/o, blowing him off like an ***. Then, about an hour later, he had the thought of "oh wait, what if Harrison is having a seizure or something upstairs?" When he came into my room, lo and behold, this is exactly what had been happening. I was unconscious, seizing on the floor, as the AVM had ruptured (in other words, a hemorrhagic stroke). In an instance that is seldom heard of, my landlord saved my life, calling the paramedics and getting me into the hospital.

Needless to say, it was quite disorienting waking up in the hospital, being told that I had almost died. When I first woke up, the doctors asked me what year I thought it was. Groggily, I answered "2020". When I was told by my mom that, no, it was in fact 2021, I continued to deny it, even accusing her that "you're gaslighting me." I spent Oct 30 through Dec 6 in hospital and rehab afterwards, and I'm happy to report that I've made more or less a full recovery.

In the meantime, I was supposed to have a gig with my own jazz piano trio at Portland's jazz club, The 1905. The band got an excellent sub for me, and they turned the gig into a fundraiser for my medical bills. They even put together a get well video for me, in which many people, inside and outside my community, wished me well. Perhaps the coolest part, they even got legendary pianist Brad Mehldau to say get well. And, in raising funds for the medical bills, they collected a cool 20 grand or so, which has been a godsend to say the least.

Musically, I've been continuing to pursue jazz music. If you'd like to check out what I've been doing, you can do so with this link:

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Hope you all are well, and anyone who I was friends with here, feel free to reach out with a PM or respond here.

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