When I tell people I was in a car accident, it's hard to explain how serious it was. Here's what happened...
I was turning left from a stopsign and I was t-boned on my side, directly on my seat. I broke 12 ribs, my sternum, and my pelvis in 5 places. I ruptured both lungs, my bladder, a kidney, and my spleen. When they got to me, my heart rate was in the low 30s. I was told that if it goes lower than 30, you usually don‘t make it. I was drowning on my own blood and wasn't breathing. My chance of survival was 13%. I was in a coma immediately upon impact and stayed in it for 5 weeks. Two weeks into it, I inhaled vomit while being re-intubated, and got pneumonia, and almost died a second time. I had a traumatic brain injury to my brain stem, where the main bleed was, and my left temporal lobe. By the time I was put in a room, the surgeons had told my parents that I may not ever wake up. And if I did, I was expected to be a vegetable. My parents would have to feed me, bathe me, dress me, and push my wheelchair - for the rest of my life.
The healing and hospitalization was hard for me and my family, but it showed us all the strength we had - for ourselves and the other people in our family. We were a team. Now that I'm on my own and in college, things have gotten hard again. It's up to me to wake up in the morning, go about my day without falling on my ass, and go to bed ready for another day. It's important for people to know that you can still have a "normal" life despite abnormalities.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Chelsea, I love your blog site. I try to go about my days with out falling on my booty also :). You are such a strong individual - and yes you have had the help of others but its your strength that has gotten you where you are. I am signing up for your feed - keep me posted on how things are going!! I miss you at Creekview and hope you can come back and see us (well me) sometime.
ReplyDeleteWe expect life to change gradually over time -- and yet for some of us, there are sudden, dramatic changes. We go along with our lives, and then -- the breathtaking moment occurs. And becomes a part of us.
ReplyDeleteAlthough college is a significant challenge for everyone, I can appreciate how much more so it is for you. YAY for you!
I can relate a little bit -- ten years ago, I had an MTBI, and had to learn to do things differently. It changed my life -- all our lives. It took about a year for some of my senses (e.g., olfactory) to return, and I still have to work harder to keep a schedule, to focus, to remember tasks, to recall details, and so forth. I can do it -- I just have to work at it. It's difficult for me to recognize faces -- something which was once pretty easy for me. When our ways of interacting with the world have changed, life can feel very different indeed. So I feel that I can appreciate your courage and resilience.
It's wonderful news that your recovery to date has been so rapid and so impressive. You've made amazing strides! Also wonderful is that the brain does continue to heal. Healing can continue for years afterward -- I can attest to that.
With your strength and persistence, your beautifully positive attitude, and with your dear family uplifting you, there's no doubt you will continue to recover, and that you will live a life as amazing and wonderful as you are.
Thank you for sharing your story, and please keep posting. You are an inspiration!
thanks kerri! i miss you too :( me and a friend were just saying this morning we need to go back and visit our teachers. i'll definitely have to do that soon!
ReplyDeletejustine, i'm not sure that i know you. do i? thank you for all the nice things you said! i'm so thankful someone like you read this after only 2 posts. that's exactly what i was hoping for. it really helps a lot to hear that it gets better. i never imagined myself being this.. okay. you know? but there are still things that are REALLY hard and it makes me sad to know my whole life has to be different now. but i hope you're right and i keep healing! thank you again!