My Spinal Cord Injury
April 29th, 1996 is a date I will never forget. That's because
my whole life changed in an instance, I had to practically start
all over again. I didn't want this to happen to me, but it did. It took me
awhile to accept that I could not change what had happened, but
I eventually moved on. Despite what ignorant people think, I
have a life & strive to be more independent every day. My
disability is part of my life now, but it is not the only thing about
me. I don't want people to feel sorry for me, because I'm still here
and can still live a normal & fulfilling life. It's just a different way
of doing it than before. Of course it's harder & what I wouldn't give to
walk again, but that's just not in the "cards" for me right now.
Hopefully someday it will. If you are curious as what happened
to cause my injury, here is the story.......
In the early hours of April 29, 1996, me, my "friend" at the
time (Dawn), and a boy we just met (Shane) were
coming home from a night of partying at a little town
called Needles. I had assumed earlier that Dawn was ok to
drive, that was my mistake. All I knew was that I needed
to get home, because I had to be at school at 9:30A.M.
I was sleeping in the front passenger seat with my seatbelt
on & the last thing I remember was Dawn waking me up
to ask if I could massage her neck, she was tired. I did
it without question & fell back asleep. We would be home
in only 10 minutes or so. Obviously that never happened.
Dawn fell asleep at the wheel & woke up on the wrong
side of the road. She over corrected, which caused the
car to flip about 6 times and finally rested upside down by
the side of the road. I never knew exactly how I broke my
neck, but the result of the car accident shattered my 5th
vertebrae and cracked my 2nd, 4th, & 6th. This left me
a c 5-6 incomplete quadriplegic. I was transported by helicopter
to UMC Hospital in Vegas, where they operated on me to remove
the bone fragments and put a titanium cage in place of my missing
vertebrae. They also put a halo on me to stabilize my neck and
chest tubes and a vent for my collapsed lungs. Ten days later the vent
& chest tubes were removed, but then I developed pneumonia.
After a month & fighting off pneumonia, I was transferred to a rehab.
in Vegas where I stayed for another 2 months. Here I wasn't too thrilled
with what they were doing for me, so then I finally I was taken by lear
jet to Craig Hospital in Colorado, who specialized in spinal cord injuries.
Soon the halo came off and things started to gradually improve. I stayed
in Craig for another 3 months, so in all I didn't come home until 6 months
later. As anyone with a SCI knows, everything is so slow. It a long
way to recovery & to see results. All you have to do is keep working
at it, otherwise you give up & that shouldn't be an option;) Well
thanks for reading & if you have any questions or want to say hi drop me an
email.
Take care,
Michelle
