Then as the Rockford freshman looked through flashcards around 3 a.m. in her room in Emmons Hall, the left side of her body instantly became numb. Within days, she was diagnosed with Chiari Malformation, a brain abnormality, forcing her into surgery and to take an academic hiatus for the remainder of the spring semester.

But now as she returns to Central Michigan University, Mabin has a different outlook on life.

“How often do you wake up and say, ‘Man, I don’t have to get brain surgery today’?” she said. “It gave me a better appreciation for my health and just living in general.”

Mabin said the experience was a reality check.

As the numbness took over the left side of her body that day in March, Mabin began to seek a solution. After several attempts and no sign of feeling, she called her mom, Lisa Mabin.

“My mom told me I was mentally deteriorating throughout the conversation,” she said. “I was really disoriented.”

At that point, Mabin grabbed her roommate, Rockford sophomore Brooke Sargent, and headed to the front desk to call an ambulance.

“I can’t even put into words how terrifying it was to see her like that,” Sargent said, holding back tears. “I thought she was having a stroke.”

As she arrived at Central Michigan Community Hospital, 1221 S. Drive, nurses injected fluids into Mabin and took several tests.

“Everything came back fine in the end,” she said. “This entire thing was a disaster.”

Mabin left the hospital around 7 a.m., undiagnosed, with her parents and headed to Rockford to see a neurologist.

After meeting with the neurologist, she returned to Central Michigan University. But a message from her Neurologist March 25 urged her to come back and discuss test results.

Chiari Malformation is a structural defect where the cerebellum and brainstem can be pushed downward blocking the flow of cerebrospinal fluid, or liquid that protects the brain and spinal cord.

On top of being diagnosed with Chiari Malformation, Mabin said she also had a syrinx, a fluid-filled cavity within her spinal cord blocking the flow of fluid.

After being diagnosed, she was scheduled to have Chiari Decompression surgery April 5. A four to eight week recovery would follow.

Road to recovery

After the surgery, Mabin woke up with a bald spot and stitches in the back of her head. She was released five days later.

“There were times I looked at my mom and said it would be more comfortable to be dead than in the state I was,” Mabin said.

On April 29, three weeks after her surgery, Mabin felt a rush of fluid leak from her stitches.

She was rushed to the hospital where she was taken in to surgery for a second time because of a side effect of the procedure.

This time, Mabin awoke with 18 staples and a tube trailing out of her head to drain the excess fluids.

“It was horrifying to wake up with a tube coming out of your head,” Mabin said.

After a summer of recuperating, Mabin returned to CMU Aug. 9.

“I didn’t miss anything more than being in school,” she said.

Mabin’s mother, Lisa, said she really pulled through and came out stronger from the experience.

“It was one of the most shocking things we went through,” Lisa said. “It’s the most wonderful thing for a mom to see her daughter stay strong through something like this and have it be a part of the past.”