My Story

The car accident actually happened in Mexico, in the middle of nowhere. Somehow I managed to roll the car three times in a freak car accident.

My husband got me to the nearest town in an "ambulance" that was really the back of a pick-up. He then had to go out and buy bandages because the tiny clinic didn't have any. They got me cleaned up and bandaged for the trip to Merida, where they had a good hospital with doctors that were trained in Houston.

I stayed there 9 days and had numerous surgeries to reattach my collar bone and piece together both bones in my forearm. I also had broken ribs, a big gash on my head, a hole in my neck (from the door lock?) and no skin on the part of my chest that had been bashed in. I must have been a sight!

The doctors there treated me very well, and gave me honest answers about the lack of movement or feeling in my arm. They couldn't be sure the extent of the damage since there was too much trauma to be able to see my brachial plexus clearly on an MRI, but were honest about the different things that could happen--including permanent paralysis.

I was very lucky to have an amazing husband by my side. As scared as I was by the possibilities, I felt so incredibly lucky to be alive, and to get to continue to be with him. It was almost an ethereal feeling for me--I have never been so at peace. The worst had happened, so it felt like nothing could hurt me after that!