Two years ago I had the opportunity to move a very historic house here in Flagstaff, Arizona. The home of Clyde Tombaugh, the discoverer of Pluto was offered to me, and I immediately jumped on it.

(See AZ Daily Sun article. Then after viewing use the BACK button to view this page

http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=40592&syr=2002 1)

Also, at the time, I was deeply in debt, $60,000 in credit cards at 21% interest. This very dire situation was, even at paying the minimum, a $10,000 payment per/year, not to be resolved until 2059. And being that I was making only a paltry sum of $16,000 per/year, and my wife making $2,000 per year on a part time job, I was either going to have to declare bankruptcy or to sell my house to pay the debt off.

I chose to sell my house, move and relocate to a better area for employment, being that Flagstaff is so costly to live in. With low wages and a high cost of living, that is the reason my wife and I got into debt over the last 10 years.

So, no sooner had I gotten an offer on our house, a friend of mine, Elton, offered his Clyde Tombaugh house to me… If I wanted to move it off his land then on the land next to my current home. Initially I was to pay 5,000 for the house, but then when things about a year later were under way and my bills mounting, before the move, Elton was kind enough to waive the fee and give me the house outright… But only if I could get it off his property for his building project. And this would get the house off his property and save him the cost of demolition.

This put a whole new spin on the prospect of selling our house. Instead, I would sell the land behind our house; pay off our debt, then use the remaining funds for moving, and re-setting the proposed Tombaugh house.

After looking into the entire dynamics of the process, it looked very promising.

The actual relocation of this house to my property, about 300 feet would cost $15,000. Then according to the building contractor, the new foundation and plumbing would cost another $15,000 to $20,000.

It all seemed good, and after the credit card debt was paid, we would have enough to do the project.

We took our house off the market and sold the land.

The project after a full year of preparation was on. Moving this house caused a big stir here in Flagstaff, AZ. I was moving a very historic property, and what a thing it was. The house is well maintained in virtually the same condition that it was when Clyde Tombaugh lived in it… Crystal doorknobs, brass fittings intact, crystal chandeliers, and solid white oak floors, and a very quaint sea green tiled bathroom from the 1940's.

Then as the project was underway, many things happened. I was put through the wringer by city planning and zoning every step of the way. Every expense was over budget, and there was no way for me to keep up with it. The new foundation, plumbing, electrical, gas lines, every step of the way the expenses mounted, and soon the bill was over the $40,000 that I had from the land sale. Now I was selling my hard assets, and taking loans from my father and ailing mother. The cost of this project is now in excess of $70,000 and to make matters worse, I am in personal credit card debt again, to the tune of over $6,000.00.

And though close to being finished, the house after two years of this is still not done, and now I may stand to lose it, as well as the historic home that I now live in, due to the mounting debts. And thinking that it is a historic property, there must be loans for it from historic preservation groups... Wrong.

They will cover only historic property that is on it is original location.

And if that is not too bad….

The story gets worse, much worse…

Last December, I was working feverishly to level out the floorboards of the home from underneath it in the foundation crawl space. And this was after 2 solid months of doing this in that dank and dirty space. Using a 10-ton lift, shims, and a hammer I found and realigned the floor so that the 1-inch crack that ran from the front to the back to the back room of the house closed as the floor was leveled out. It would have cost me a fortune to do it via a contractor, and being that I was running out of money I decided to do it myself. Dead tired after a full day's work, in the cold, and at night I worked till 12 midnight to level it out. It was just about done in December when one of two things hit me, maybe both at the same time. There was mold under that house, and spiders. I know that I was just after Christmas bit by something as I had a lump on the top of my head, and also the mold was getting to me as well. I was getting increasingly tired from the long days of labor. Come January of this year just after the first, I was so tired that I delegated the first weekend as a time of rest.

Well, rest I did… Almost forever.

Come the 4^th of Jan that afternoon I decided to lay down on the couch and take a long needed nap, something I had not done in a long time. I also had a headache, which I thought was related to my fatigue. I slept through the night and well into the next day. But when I woke up on that Saturday morning I was very disoriented. I cannot remember much of what happened after that, other than the fact that I was very tired, and also very confused in my thinking. In fact I cannot remember much of what happened that day, though my wife tells me that I was looking very tired. Later that afternoon, I took to the couch again for another nap. Again this time I slept through the night, my wife letting me stay there rather than disturb me. I slept throughout the entire next day, waking only for water and relief. I was getting weaker and weaker, and even more bewildered. My thinking was becoming very erratic. I went to the couch again, and soon fell asleep. It was not until the next morning, Monday Jan. 6^th, that the plant light awakened me. I found the light very bothersome, and wanted to turn it off. My wife had gone to work as a part time receptionist that morning, and was not home. I struggled to get up and then stagger over to where the light was to turn it off. But when I got there, and attempted to do so…

I was befuddled… I could not figure it out! How to turn off a light was completely beyond me!

Turn off the switch.

Pull the plug.

Unscrew the bulb.

None of these otherwise obvious options were apparent to me.

I sat down and contemplated it, completely bewildered that I could not figure it out. And also, my mind was going fast, my thoughts were getting very very odd and confused. And I also noticed that my right hand, and leg felt numb, and unresponsive.

Something was very wrong, and I sensed it. But I did not know what to do. I was losing my sense of reality, and even who I was.

It was very strange.

I rose to go to the couch, and as I was walking there, staggering to keep my balance, I stumbled and fell to the floor. Then I discovered I could not get up. No matter how much I tried, I could not lift myself up from the floor. Then I became nauseous, and vomited profusely a clear solution, almost like water. It was awful, and the heaving was extremely intense. I struggled to get up on the couch for quite some time, I have no idea how much time it was but I remember how hard it was. Once I was on the couch, my perception of the world around me went into a spin. I was having something like vertigo, a condition that in the past often afflicted me.

I tossed and turned on the sofa, trying to go back to sleep. I peeled my clothes off, because I felt hot, then I felt cold. Back and forth, hot and cold I went struggling to find comfort till my wife came home later that morning. She saw the vomit on the floor, the overall condition of the living room, and my condition.

By now I was becoming delirious, my words made no sense at all.

She asked me a question.

"Gosh, are you sick?"

And my response was like this:

"Pyramids are grey, but the ships have no meaning."

None of my responses made any sense to her, and they made no sense to me either. I was losing sense of reality.

She wisely decided that I should go to the doctor, and she got me to somehow cooperate as she got me dressed for the trip.

I was completely out of it, but aware that something was wrong as my entire right side was very numb. After I was dressed, she helped me out to the car, and how she did that I have no idea, as I vaguely remember helping me to the car and me staggering out into the snow to get there.

We drove to the doctor, and while I was in the car, vomiting profusely, unable to walk, he told my wife that if I could not walk on my own it would be best to take me directly to the hospital and that they would call him from there if it was serious.

She did that, and I was admitted via the emergency ward. The next thing I remember, is one doctor after the initial exam expounded that he thought that I might be having a stroke.

They sent me to radiology for an MRI. By then my right side was completely gone, I could not feel it, or move anything from the top of my head down to the foot.

Dead, completely dead.

My perception of reality was extremely weird as well, for I was functioning on only half a brain. The second MRI that Monday afternoon, Jan 6^th, confirmed that my left brain hemisphere had swollen, and it was during that second session that I went into a coma that lasted for six days.

I was dying and the doctors and neurosurgeons were perplexed as to what was causing it. They had done that day and the next spinal taps, artery checks for blockage to the brain, and other standard tests for stroke victims. None of the tests revealed a clear-cut stroke or what it was that had affected me so profoundly.

I was dying and the team of doctors could not figure out why. At 52 years of age, I was in perfect shape, with a resting heart rate of 51 to 55 beats per/min, and my blood pressure was low, 70;105. I had prior to this episode walked to work each day and usually would walk as much as 7 miles per day at a race walk speed; I had the heart of a twenty year old athlete. My condition made no sense.

There was no evidence that I had a stroke… but it was plainly apparent that a stroke like condition was underway.

What was it? They had to find out… So my wife was asked if they could perform a brain biopsy where a piece of my left hemisphere would be removed. She agreed, and signed the papers and this dangerous operation was performed while I was in a coma.

With the samples they found no pathogen, and decided to FED-EX them to a neurology lab in Kentucky that specializes in rare brain disorders. They found no pathogen, but from the symptoms, and the condition of the brain cells in the sample they determined that I had ADEM… acute disseminating encepalomylitis.

This is a very rare and dangerous condition that usually afflicts people after vaccinations, and usually restricted to younger people who must be vaccinated. Many of these wind up dead, or very severely disabled. At 52 years, my prognosis did not look very promising; in fact the doctors had braced my wife for the worst outcome.

And while I was in the coma, I knew that this was happening. I saw this among many other things.

I was in the ICU with tubes hooked up to me, and a breathing-feeding tube down my throat. And in that state, I saw my father, brother, wife and daughter along with the doctor, a neurosurgeon. I was very surprised by this, for I was seeing them clearly, more clearly than ever before. I had had an eye operation many years ago for detached retinas and my vision is after that very bad. I need very thick glasses to see anything at all. But I did not have them when I was in the hospital at the time, they were at home. But in this coma state, I could see everything very clearly. It was as if I was in a cocoon floating over my bed and I was seeing everything very clearly, and hearing too.

My brother was arguing with the doctor about my condition, maintaining that I would come out of it, but the doctor was adamant in his position based on his experience as a neurosurgeon.

He said: "I don't want to get your hopes up too high, but every one that I have seen in your brother's condition does not come back from it, and if they do they come back very disabled."

I heard this very clearly, and I was somewhat taken aback by it. This conversation actually happened, and I was there to hear and see all those involved, when theoretically, I being in a deep coma, could not have seen or heard what was being said. My brain was shutting down, I was in a coma with no responsiveness, but I heard and saw it all.

"I am dying," I thought.

"What do I do?" I thought.

But there was no pain.

And there was no fear.

And a very strange thing happened to me from that point, the image of my folks and the doctor vanished and I was seeing the crucifixion. I saw Jesus on the cross. It was nothing really spectacular. But I was seeing it, a static scene… the Cross and Jesus on it against a dark sky.

And then I was in darkness, an intense darkness.

There was a light in the distance, a very bright light.

But it was not distant at all, and if I had hands to reach for it I think that I could have.

It was like a portal into another dimension, and as it grew larger, the edges of it were like rays of light that had penetrated into equal rays of darkness that surrounded me. And these rays were scintillating, moving along the edges of this very bright and ever growing light. And I saw colors in there, beautiful colors like a rainbow, but more intense, pastel bright, beyond my words. And in the very center of this was gold and silver light, very bright. And I wanted to look away but could not. And there was a figure in there approaching me, and when it drew closer. I was there,

It was Jesus!

He was right there!

And he was looking at me!

In that light I saw that he wore a robe of silver and gold, and his hair was dark brown and he had a short beard, not long like some pictures. And his eyes… I remember them.

I am here, I thought.

I had by then forgotten where I had been or what had brought me where I now was.

I am here.

And He spoke to me, not with words that I heard, but to me in my mind.

"I am sending you back."

That is all that he said.

There was no explanation; just that he was sending me back.

And "Where?"

I thought. I did not know where I was to go.

And I was back in the ICU, seeing other things while I was in that coma and after a while I came out of it, emerging back into this world.

But I could not speak, nor recognize words, or common household items, or read a clock. And I could not move my right arm, or leg as my entire left side was dead.

Everything looked strange to me, and I was lost in this now very strange world. And all the while, I reflected on what I had just witnessed, Jesus, his words to me. And now I was back not able to speak or relate what I had in my coma seen and heard.

Slowly and painfully through the hospital rehabilitation program I regained the use of my right arm and leg, and my speech was coming back, though words and some terms still confuse me. And I did this against all that the doctors said regarding my case. They now call me the "Encephalitis Miracle Man", as they have never seen anyone come back from the state that I was in.

Six months after this horrendous thing that overtook me, I am still recovering. I have a new perspective on my life, it is as if I am at times outside of myself looking in, and there is a weirdness of perception with it. It is hard to explain, to find the right words, but I am certain that if there are others like me that have had this experience and lived to tell of it we would understand each other.

What am I doing now? Trying to pull it all together. I am going to church now, and seeking the Lord in things.

But the bills keep mounting.

The treasured historic Clyde Tombough House is yet to be done, and I am now out of money to finish it in its very last stages. I am having the pavement done with the last loan from my father, and still the landscaping, floors and finish work needs to be done. And there are no more funds to complete it.

This house has cost me my fortune, and my health.

But I am back after having a very profound near death experience.

My hospital bills have exceeded $80,000, and thankfully my insurance and ACCESS have covered that.

But the bills other than that continue to mount \, now that I am unemployed due to mental disability. I have applied for disability and was last week rejected, because they do not understand my case involving a very rare brain disease, and now SSDI wants me to hire a lawyer to explain it to their agency, so I am left out in the cold for now.

Before I even have my case heard I stand to lose everything, not only the house I live in, but also the house I moved and for this I am worried. I was intending to be ready for renting last September, but all the costs and project setbacks imposed by the city have put that to rest. Now I am looking to this next fall. I have due to my current medical condition changed my plans from turning it into a bed and breakfast, but a rental cottage instead. Like a time-share.

But…

I will need $10,000 to $20,000 to finish it, and also $10,000 for the roof of our house, which is in disrepair. I was hoping to have this done with money left over, but the contractors with their high fees took that money I was hoping to have months before I came down ill. And all of this does not even address the personal debt that my wife and I are falling into, which was the very reason that brought us to this current situation.

Donations?

Gifts?

Grants?

Both hands are out, and any and all help would be appreciated, and accepted with great thanks.

My PayPal is: steve_schoner@yahoo.com

Photos of my historic Clyde Tombaugh House, the discoverer of the planet Pluto, being moved. These are pictures and will take time to load, especially at 56K I will add some other photos of the home's interior later.