Haunted?

April 26th, 2025| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

Hannah-Ireland Durando, 24, a costume designer and actress from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, woke up one morning, having lost her “zest for life.” Tortured by headaches and struggling with forgetfulness. Particularly unable to recall the lyrics to her favorite Taylor Swift song, “Haunted.”

You and I walk a fragile line,
I have known it all this time;
But I never thought I’d live to see it break,
It’s getting dark and it’s all too quiet,
And I can’t trust anything now.

Come on, come on, don’t leave me like this …
Something’s gone terribly wrong.

Something had.

Ms. Durando was, until then, a self-described “party animal” and “extrovert” who “loved to hang out with friends. But doctors dismissed her complaints.

Can’t breathe whenever you’re gone,
Can’t go back, I’m haunted.
Oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh-oh.

Confessed Durando:

I woke up one morning and had no zest for life. I used to be really outgoing, a Marvel fan, and a huge nerd who would have movie nights with my friends. But nothing made me excited. I became lethargic, and would just rot in bed, which was unlike me. And the lyrics of “Haunted”: I was in the car driving to work, singing along, and then my head went blank when it came to the chorus. I just thought that perhaps this was normal as you grow up.”

She had already been put on anti-anxiety medicine and thought perhaps she had depression.

I genuinely convinced myself this is who I am now, as my emotions began to spiral. The doctors told me that women get headaches and that it is normal as people get older. They had no answers.”

A few months later, she went for a checkup and learned she’d gained 30 lbs.

All the doctors seemed to focus on was my gender, age, and weight. I felt like I was being ignored and not taken seriously.”

But then, one day soon afterwards, she collapsed at work one day.

I felt a stabbing pain in my left ear and my vision went yellow. I felt like I was being strangled; that was when I hit the floor.”

Doctors ordered a CT scan, which showed she had a tangle of vessels pressing on her brain appeared to show a tumor pressing against her left frontal lobe. It wasn’t a tumor, but a “cavernoma,” an abnormal collection of blood vessels that can bleed, or cause seizures of a stroke

Due to its location, she can’t have surgery to correct it, and now lives with painful migraines and needs regular occupational therapy for her balance.

I was told I had to live carefully from now on. I live in fear and uncertainty, as I could have a stroke at any time, develop slurred speech, or forget most things. I hope no one has to experience what I’ve gone through and that it inspires more women to advocate for themselves. I just wish I had said something sooner and that I wasn’t ignored.”

There is only One who will not ignore his people. Only One who truly knows.

Yahweh, You have examined me and You know;
You—You have known my sitting and my rising;
You have understood my thought from afar.
My wayfaring and my lying down You have measured,
and [with] all my paths You are familiar.
For there is not an utterance on my tongue,
[and] behold, Yahweh, You have known it all.
Behind and in front You have enclosed me,
and You set upon me Your palm.
Psalm 139:1–5

Yes, it is a blessing to be known … by him!

SOURCE: People Magazine