High Speed, High Impact Part 4 by dejohnsrld Artwork by dolphin on FanArtReview.com Author View
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 High Speed, High Impact Part 4 In Part 1: I told about events that preceded my accident in which I was hit head-on by a semi. In Part 2: I described the first six weeks after my accident when I had five surgeries to my femur (upper leg bone) and had also developed a bone infection. I was released and taught how to use IV antibiotics at home. . In Part 3: Describes the next year and a half of repeated surgeries and trying to get rid of the infection. Part 4: How did I get from where I was to where I am today? After two years of having surgery after unsuccessful surgery, I was so weak that it was a major undertaking to open a can of soup and heat it up. It took about two years for my strength to return to normal. I still fall ill more often than I used to and I take longer to heal. After all of the stress my body underwent, I developed Fibromyalgia and have pain from that as well as post amputation pain. The best therapy I have found is not get too tired but to keep as busy as I can as that takes my mind off of the pain. I tried using a prosthetic (artificial) leg, but it had been so long since I had walked that my balance was impaired and I was having so many falls, that it was not safe to continue. I did give it a determined try for a year and a half. Getting used to not having enough money was hard. I got my first disability check seventeen months after my accident and one day before foreclosure papers were to be filed on my mortgage. I still only get about one fourth of what I had been earning. I have learned to do without many things I used to think were essential. Not being able to work was difficult. I had worked since I was sixteen and had worked very hard to put myself through college. Once I was no longer able to work, I started volunteering at an Adult Daycare Center two days a week, and thus feel like I do make a difference. After my surgeries ended I had a lot of anger and resentment over being disabled. I went through all the stages of grief. As I slowly worked through all of the problems I encountered, the anger and resentment lessened. I also found a support group for people with disabilities which has been a tremendous help. Probably the hardest change was to develop a routine in my life after being so sick. I had completely lost any type of stability. It didn't matter when I slept, when I ate, when or if I got dressed. The only thing I actually needed to do was to take care of my beagle. It took a long time to get a routine back, but at this point I go somewhere each day of the week. Being around others is the best medicine of all. When I was sick I would go for days without seeing another person and spend week after week never getting out of the house. Some comments on my life now: I'm usually pretty happy and if not I am happy, I am content. This is never what I planned my life to be like but there are some good things about it. I have time for crafts, hobbies, reading, and writing. I am so much more empathetic. I understand a lot more about others after having gone through what I have. I try to focus on gratitude, what I do have, rather than what I don't have. Every day is a new day and a new adventure. I've developed a spiritual life that I didn't have before.
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Wow. There is so much to learn from these words. I can hardly imagine how an accident and following illnesses would impact your entire life. This account really opens my eyes to the way that one moment can so drastically alter the course of an entire life. This must have been hard to write and I am so grateful that you shared your story. This list at the end is so powerful. It shows how you have taken all of your hardship and made something positive out of it. Happiness and contentment. What else can we hope for really but that? Thank you so so much for sharing. The list of four parts looks like an outline to me of a larger piece. Am I right? Are you working on putting these things you have written together perhaps into a book?
ReplyDelete-Anna
I really haven't been able to write about my accident until now. I have written 4 sections and would like to put them together,but haven't really put them together to see how they fit. Maybe,sometime we could look at them together. I would like to look at having them published. Debbie
ReplyDeleteFrom Ruth: This a very good piece. Since it is the last of four, although you have an ending, I would make it feel more like a wrap up somehow, as well as a looking forward. You have done it, but as Anna says (I assume that was Anna,) it feels like an outline, a bit skeletal. I would flesh it out.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I can't remember what your first three pieces were like, it's been so long, but I'd like to hear more about the stages of grief, anger and resentment, and more detail here. I think others could identify with it and it could show how you worked through it--as a model to others.
I will have to go back and read your earlier pieces. (I remember some of it, but can't remember exactly how you divided it up.) Well done!