The POSITIVE ATTITUDE for the Weary Soul group gives you the opportunity to share the miracles in your life during this fall season with a creative writing challenge . Join in on the challenge with the FALL SEASON OF MIRACLES CONTEST | Positive Attitude for the Weary Soul Group
On July 4th, 2009, I was enjoying fireworks with my family.
On July 5th, 2009 I went through a freak accident. I was parked in my driveway and had to get out of my SUV to get my family. When I stepped out of the car and closed the door, it started to roll backwards. I immediately opened the door and jumped in to stop it (my son was in the car and was 12 at the time), when it rolled off of the driveway onto the grass thus bouncing me out of the vehicle because I was not firmly in the seat when I tried to hit the brake with my foot.
Unfortunately, as I was bounced out of the vehicle, my foot got stuck between the brake and the floorboard as I was hanging upside down out of the SUV. So here I am hanging out of the SUV, going backwards, heading for the neighbors house. I thought to myself that this was really going to hurt as I went through my neighbor’s house and rolled into his kitchen. Somehow that didn’t happen and the SUV turned and rolled straight down the hill.
As my head was constantly banging on the ground, we rolled down the hill, behind the house with the door slamming into me. I was run through the metal fence in the back yard, and impaled. This action broke the back of my pelvis and freed my legs only to have me somehow land my lower half under the SUV and the other half was still impaled on the fence. I looked to the left of me to have what I call a “Matrix moment”. You know, in the movie, when a gun is fired and you see the bullet in slow motion and you see the swirls of air from the bullet being fired.
As I looked to the left, it appeared as if time slowed to a crawl – I saw the vehicle roll over my midsection as I screamed “NOOOOOO!” and it seemed as if it were an eternity when the realty was split seconds. There are some sounds that you can hear within your head and wish that you didn’t. The crushing and breaking of my bones was one of those sounds. I was entirely conscience through the entire ordeal until after that moment.
I died three times that day and underwent three separate surgeries (that day) over 15 ½ hours. I was paralyzed from the neck down for almost 7 days while in ICU.
My pelvis was broken clean through in 4 places with the right side crushed. My stomach was ripped open and I was partially disemboweled, my right leg was stripped to the bone from the knee to my groin and they knew that I experienced some head trauma, but could not figure it out.
Finally I was moved to a regular room, no longer paralyzed from the neck, had improvement, but no use of my legs. Over the next month in the hospital and an operation almost every other day, I was released in August.
I have springs and coils running through my stomach and intestines and my pelvis is wrapped in Titanium with 6 large screws drilled into my bones.
I spent the next 6 months unable to walk and living in a hospital bed in my basement with a wheelchair as my means of transportation when I could get in it. I was on an IV every day and had to give myself shots in my stomach twice a day because of being sedentary.
The doctors told me that I may not be able to walk again and that there was a chance that they would have to remove my right leg because of damage and massive infection. My attitude from the onset of the accident was that I was happy to still be here, so when the doctor informed me about my leg, I said to him “You have excellent prosthetics, right?” He about cried and could not believe my positive outlook. I explained to him that I could bury my head in the sand and cry or be happy that I’m here and be a father to my 3 kids and a husband to my wife.
Well, they were able to save my leg and I am proud to say through much pain, hard work and perseverance – I am on a cane after 2 years. I spent over 6 months in a hospital bed living in my basement, then over 6 months on a walker.
Last year the head trauma that I know that I experienced reared its ugly head. At first I started getting dizzy and then falling down unexpectedly (not that falling down is expected at all!). After that I started to experience blindness and having massive seizure-like symptoms that lasted up to an hour, 15-20 times a day. The doctors now don’t call them seizures, but spells because my brain patterns don’t change and I can fully hear and understand what is going on around me, I just cannot move or react.
I found myself hospitalized again, this time for over 3 months. I was blind almost ½ the day, for almost the entire 3 months, I could not walk or do simple tasks like bathe or get dressed and I could not figure out simple things like change (money), and could not read when I could see. I knew what things were when I saw them, however, I could not figure out what it was that I was seeing. It was very confusing and frustrating at the same time.
The staff at the hospital spent 4 hours a day working with me and then I spent another 4 hours a day working myself. The rest of the day I spent resting from working so hard or passed out from the drugs that they were giving me. The doctors, to this day cannot figure out exactly what is wrong, but have narrowed it down to say that they feel that I’m about 1 in 5 people in the world that have these issues. What they do know about it, they call it rare neurological disorder called Opsoclonus Myoclonos with Ataxia. There is so much more, however, I do not want to make this story longer than it already is.
I am much better now and I keep going through testing and trials, sometimes a week at a time. It does get extremely wearisome, however, I never give up hope. I will say, at times I feel like an Area 51 alien that they keep poking and prodding. I do feel that if something doesn’t work, then the doctors have narrowed it down more. I am down to one spell a day and move forward because I have a life to live.
All through this, I have been able (with the help of my partner) to keep my business going.
Aside from the miracle that I am alive and am on a cane, the real fall miracle is that I am now taking steps without a cane and work on it each and every day. My goal is that I will be able to walk without any aides by the summer. I firmly believe that with faith, perseverance and persistence and a positive attitude – just about anything can be accomplished. You just have to believe, not only in yourself, but just believe.
Not too bad given what I have been through. I consider all that has happened to me to be a miracle.
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