Nineteen Years Ago......

Sounds like so long ....but I remember like it was yesterday. I wrote here about my auto accident that many years ago, but I never included pictures.
Right before Thanksgiving.....I was driving home from work.....like any other day. Stopped to get my son some dinner , was going to a local sports bar to watch a game with my boyfriend (even remember the game....Dallas vs Green Bay). Was about a mile from home.....caught in some construction. Cars waved me through, but not everyone was paying attention. My car was struck from the back and pushed sideways into a truck going about 70 in a 30 mile an hour zone. I lost that particular battle....in fact, I woke up covered with a sheet.....basically was declared dead at the scene. I scared the crap out of those paramedics.
On to a backboard and off to the hospital.....I will spare all the details of that trip except an incompetent doc almost killed me , but a competent tech saved my life. I was back in the ambulance going downtown......broken C1 through C4......a bit much for a local hospital.
When I got there it was the first time I felt safe. They took care of all my other wounds....of which there were many, stabilized me and gave me a shot of morphine for sleep and pain.
The next morning I was put in a halo......basically a metal halo screwed into your skull so it remains stable....attached to a vest you can't get out of via metal bars.......like this.....

You can't move your head , obviously. So range of motion is zero. I spent that week in the hospital and the next 6 months in the halo......basically stuck at home. You can only watch so many movies or read so many books. When they finally took it off that April.....I was seriously scared my head would fall over like a bobble head.....but no. I spent three months after that at home before they would let me come back to work.
This is the most profound thing that's ever happened to me in so many ways.  I was so lucky in the long run that I had no other major physical damage.....but it also made me rethink my life. I hadn't been happy at work and basically wasn't so happy with me. I was given a second chance, really. I changed how work was for me......got a great gig travelling all over the world.....and I also realized I needed to give back somehow. That's how I got to rescue......one of the most rewarding things I've ever done. I have helped, with friends and rescues, to save so many dogs over the years.....so glad nineteen years ago didn't have the grimmer ending......
There are so many things I didn't add.....I could really write a book.....but I'm very happy to help the furkids and live to write about it......