Celebrating 14 years of LIFE after the car accident

The more I think about it, the more I feel that my life is Upcycled.  In 1998 on New Years Eve (I was 17 years old), I was driving to a friends house for a sleepover with my brother Ben and my friend Megan.  It was a 45 minute drive and we were going early enough so that we would be off the road when there was a possibility of drunk drivers being out there.  We were almost to Lansing (driving on the highway) when a car facing the wrong direction hit the front right side of my car and we literally flew off of the highway.  We were almost airborne down the embankment and continued to travel at high speed through sapling trees on the side and into a tree so large the police told my brother that he could not wrap his hands around it.  I do not remember very much of those few seconds.  Upon impact, my foot that was pressing the break, go jumbled up and I was knocked unconscious, slumped over the dashboard.


That single moment changed the path of the rest of my life.  In a matter of seconds I went from being almost an adult to being like a baby again.  I was cut out of the car with the jaws of life and rushed to the hospital going in and out of consciousness for 11 hours.  I woke up after having the first of 9 reconstructive surgeries in a hospital bed.  The Doctor did not know if I would ever be able to walk again with my right foot.  I woke up and for some reason- I chose Life- that didn't mean that I was going to die.  That meant that I was going to have the outlook that I was going to recover and go through life like everyone else.  


Looking back 14 years later, I don't remember all of what I had to go though those first few months..It is a fog of pain, but I tried never let it bother me.  I know that I could have chosen to sulk and wonder "why me" for the rest of my life.  I kept up (to the most that I was able) doing so of what I did before- my involvement with a youth group, finishing my senior year of school..all the while going 3 times a week to physical therapy and having my family help me do the things that I couldn't do while I was bound to a wheel chair.  I used crutches as much as I could to get around so that I would not be seen as handicap.  I also like to think of the advantages that I got from this label- bigger handicap hotel rooms when we went on vacation, jumping the line at Universal Studios, front row parking at concerts.  The worse parts of the outcome seem to be just dealing with the insurance company - Hanover/ Citizens, why don't like to pay on legitimate claims.   It still effects me every day.  My body does not always agree with what I want to do since my ankle has almost no movement.  I have to rely on other parts of my body to do the things that it can do to compensate for this.  But- Thank God- most days (and thanks to my Physical Therapists that I currently go to) you cannot tell that I have this handicap. 


Since the accident my entire path in life changed, but I love where it ended up.  If it were not for this horrible twist of fate, I would not be the wife, mother, sister, friend, that I am today. 




Going into 2012...I want to remember one thing- Choose Life..Choose Happiness..Choose Fun..Have Faith.. and always look to green side of the fence.