Scars

Adulthood

Chap. 16 (My Guardian Angel)

September 23rd, 1993 was another day that would live in infamy for me. I had just graduated from computer school with my Associates Degree in Computer Science and was working for a Graphics Company outside of Fairmont, WV. I had taken the weekend off to visit my sister and see my niece's, new baby. While I was there, I got a really bad head cold. While sitting at the breakfast table that Sunday morning with my sister before leaving to return home. She opened the refrigerator, pulled out a package and tossed it to me across the table. "Take this," she said, "it will make you feel better". It was the plop, plop, fizz, fizz over the counter cold medicine. I had just taken my prescription medications, so I grabbed a glass of water plopped the OTC in the glass and drank it down, fizz and all.

Telling everyone good-bye, I headed to the car to get it all packed for the return trip. After everything was loaded and everyone got goodbye hugs and kisses, I headed out on my way back home. Approximately fifteen minutes into this hour and a half trip I started to feel funny and heart was palpitating and then everything went blank. I had traveled ten miles but was not even sure how I had driven that far.

The next thing I remember was waking up screaming at someone that was trying to pick me up by my left leg and pull me out of my car. I screamed into his face and passed out again. About thirty minutes later I regained consciousness again while I was being loaded into the Life-Flight Helicopter for the ten-minute trip to the hospital emergency room. My arm had slipped off the gurney and was caught between mine and the other person's gurney in the helicopter with me.

I woke up three days later in a hospital bed, with a mouth full of wires and a doctor standing over me telling me what happened to me. He explained some of my injuries and that I would not be able to talk very well and that I had been in an automobile accident. I spoke my first mumbled words asking, "did I kill someone"? The doctor informed me that there were others involved in the accident, but that no one had serious injuries. I had a private nurse 24/7 at the hospital for the next thirty days. I was transferred to the surgical floor for post-op recovery. While communicating with the nurses and my husband at the time, I was getting information about what had transpired over the past 30 days. I had thirty-five broken bones because of the accident. Fifteen facial fractures which included replacement of both mandibular ball and sockets of my jaw bone. My chin was completely crushed and was not able to be reconstructed due to damage from the accident cause and effect of having no airbag. A metal plate was constructed, and a chin was formed for me by a plastic surgeon. Both orbital sockets were broken along with several small fractures, totaling fifteen. My left Femur had a compound fracture, with the bone protruding out of the skin about three inches. My left hip was broken along with my pelvis in two places. A pelvic ring was placed to add strength and stability to my pelvis while healing, my left hip was surgically replaced, and a femoral rod was driven into my left leg, so the femur would heal properly.

Two teams of Trauma Surgeons worked on me for a total of fourteen hours in surgery. All this info came from my nurses. They informed me that when I was brought in by Life Flight, I was talking and communicating with them in the Emergency Room telling them about my past medical history, my current medications and even gave them Doug's phone number to contact him. I have no memory of this what so ever. I was not formally diagnosed with PTSD, but I exhibited most if not all the symptoms. We, humans, are amazingly adaptable and it all starts in our brains. We can go through incredibly traumatic experiences, and thanks to our brains' plasticity (ability to adapt to a changing environment), we survive them to face other traumas without undue fear.

When my husband was finally allowed to visit me, until this point my visiting privileges were very limited and when they were allowed it was only for a very few minutes. Now Doug could stay if he wanted and he pretty much moved in with me at the hospital.