On Oct. 29, a Wednesday before Halloween 2008, 18-year-old Lacey Trailor woke up and had no idea who she was.

A biology major in her first semester, Trailor was taking 18 credits and was “constantly stressed,” she said.

Trailor said that she does not remember the incident, but her mother said that Trailor was studying and got up to go to the bathroom and suddenly collapsed. “When I woke up, I didn’t know where I was or who my mother or brother were.”

After numerous trips to the hospitals, MRI’s, cat scans, EKG tests and seeing five different neurologists, it was determined that she had transient-global amnesia, or long-term memory loss.

The doctors told Trailor and her family that 99 percent of amnesia patients get amnesia when they are hit in the head, and that she had a type of amnesia that one in 10,000 people get. “I was overly stressed, so my body shut down itself to protect itself,” Trailor said.

Trailor said that there are still some things that even to date she cannot remember, and that the process of getting her memory back was very emotional for her.

“I had to completely start over. I had to learn what my name was and what my face looked like in the mirror. When I began to get my memory back, the first thing I could remember was preschool. I could remember it like it was yesterday but it felt like I was in a coma my entire life. It felt like I had missed my little brother’s entire life. I even remember saying to my dad at one point, ‘What happened? You look so old now.'”

Starting to go back to school was difficult for Trailor as well. “I still can’t remember my English teacher at the time, and every time I would walk into the class, I didn’t know his name, and he always looked different. I had to drop my geography class too. I didn’t even know what an earthquake was.”

According to Trailor, she was able to finish her art, student development and small group communication classes but not without the help of two people.

The day before her accident she had begun dating fellow BC student Kameron Kephart. Although she did not remember him at first, Trailor said he was impervious to her recovery process. “He was always in the hospital with me, and he walked me to every class and always tried to help me and tutor me in my classes.”

The second person she said she could not have passed her classes without was her communication teacher, Andrea Thorson. Thorson had once had the same amnesia problem although hers was due to a car accident. “I couldn’t thank her enough, for all of the phone conversations that helped me out and really just going above and beyond for me. She taught me when I literally knew nothing. She really cares about her students,” Trailor said.

Trailor is now back in school and taking 13 units, passing her classes with A’s and B’s and is working at Hollister and at Meats and Eats. “A lot of things are still confusing, though it’s no where near how it used to be. Everyday is progress and opportunity.”