“Disability is a condition, it’s not who we are. Diagnosis is a prediction, it doesn’t have to determine our outcome.”

Did something catastrophic ever happen to you? Where your life changed in an instant? Did you wake up in a hospital bed, not knowing where you were, or how much time passed? It happened to me. I never thought I would be hit by a car at sixteen years old, while crossing the street on my way to school. Nor did I think once I survived the accident, it would live with me every day for the rest of my life.

I was flown to the University of Michigan hospital, where I underwent 12 hours of emergency surgery. My injuries were so severe, doctors predicted I might not make it through the night. The first several days were critical. My spine was dislocated, and broken at the L1-L2 level. I had a fracture in my C1 vertebrae. A broken left femur, a broken right tib fib, and a broken left tib fib. I was paralyzed. I’m lucky it wasn’t worse! And that wasn’t even all of my injuries. Continue Reading »