CRASH
It was October 2nd, 2021. I’ll never forget it. I was driving home after a long shift at work when my life changed forever. It was raining. I drove through the green light, and another driver ran a red light and slammed into my car at 75 miles per hour. He slammed into my life at a 100 miles per hour. I went spinning into a streetlight. Everything stopped. I could see & I could hear, but I couldn’t move. The pain started kicking in. I could feel it. I just started screaming. Other drivers stopped and came to help. Someone called 911. I was rushed to St Paul hospital. The doctors took one x-ray after another. Dr. Sanchez, walked into the room and told me that I had a broken pelvis, broken ribs, and my left leg was broken in three places. This didn’t look good, and it didn’t sound good. Dr. Sanchez said that the recovery would be long and grueling with no promises of ever walking again. Here I was just trying to get home. Now my address was Constant Pain. The painkillers were not working. Sleeping was a nightmare. This just didn’t make sense. It wasn’t fair. My family and friends rallied around me. They did what they could, but I knew it was up to me. After one month,
I started physical therapy. My address moved from Constant Pain to Torture Street. The warden in charge of my physical therapy had it in for me. I think someone told her that I stole 500K from her. It was the worst Christmas of my life. I had to learn how to stand, how to walk, how to hold a spoon. I felt like an invalid. It felt that I would never get my life back. It felt like I would never leave Torture Street. In February, I started a new therapy with an actually nice therapist. I think she came down from heaven compared to that last one. I started making strides. I was able to sit up on my own for the first time since the car accident. I took my first step with a walker. By March I was walking with a cane. This was my beginning. I knew in my heart I was leaving Torture Street. I started journaling to make the days go by and to also remind me of the progress that I was making. In the group sessions, I started sharing my small victories and that seemed to help the other patients not give up. They became my new extended family. We looked after each other and encouraged each other when someone was feeling down. This CRASH changed me. It changed my perspective about life
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