Reflecting on my life.. Had some people from High School step back into my life recently... and there was some mention of how I changed since then... and yet I still am me!
so I thought I would republish something I wrote last year about events from the fall of 1999 when my life course changed drastically and I began to become the "lady" I am now.
September 11th, 1999:
I had graduated from high school in June, my hobbies were: running, swimming, walking, biking, skating, skiing, I had just signed up to learn how to snow-board and take some kick-boxing classes. I was living with my best friend in Regina and things were not going well she was on a Jesus kick and I was on a freedom kick..
It was less than a month from my 18th birthday and I had just finished my night of work at 7 am. I worked nights at the Royal bank processing student loans in Regina's north-end, I caught a ride to the bus station from girl from work who had just moved to Saskatchewan from Nova Scotia, my birthplace. I got on the bus, settled down in my seat put my headphones and was preparing to catch some sleep when a drunk native hopped on the bus (which was practically empty) and sat down right next to me and proceeded to talk to me the entire way to Whitewood. He bummed cigarettes off me and told me his sorry story about having to get to Winnipeg to see his brother who was helping him go through re-hab but he only had enough money to go to Portage Le Prairie (for those of you unfamiliar with the prairies that is about an hour from Winnipeg).
I being the retard I am, gave him cigarettes and money to finish off his trip. My brother picked me up at the gas station in Whitewood where my bus came in to drive me to the shit-ass town my parents lived in, that was so small the bus didn't even go there. My cousin Trinity was coming for a visit and my mom had just gotten out of the hospital after having passed kidney stones (which is supposed to be a tremendously painful experience). Here I was going home to take care of my mom, my brother Sean had stayed home with my mother to help her do laundry (because even in her condition my mom cannot sit still and do nothing; especially when specifically told to do so!) My brother Dan had picked me up in my family's minivans, my father was away working for CN with our jeep. I had offered to drive (even though I had not slept and shouldn't really be driving, he had not had his license long and we both love driving. He said no and so I hopped in shotgun and away we were.
Now in Saskatchewan the roads are mostly gravel (the hicks) so the quickest way back to our town (a half hour away) was by a gravel road. We had a really great chat and things were going well, I was sitting upright with my seat-belt on properly (unusual for me because I hated the seat-belt rubbing on my neck), he also had his on, (unusual for him cause he never wore his seat-belt when mom or dad weren't around). We had a great chat about life, my job, his school, our crazy friends, and the shit-ass town he lived in (and I had just moved away from). We were about a kilometer away from town, we could see it, and we hit loose gravel (which again for those of you unfamiliar with all this: it is like hitting black ice) no sign warning us, we were doing about 90 km/h when we noticed it up ahead and proceeded to slow to around 70 ish. Now my brother being a new driver, us both panicking................... Well to be perfectly honest.........ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We slide to the right, then left, then hit the ditch on the right hand side of the road, now thank god for Sask and the flatness in wasn't a deep ditch, we apparently rolled three times according to the piles of glass found afterward, I remember one flip, we rolled on our side, hitting my side first (which I think is why I got so banged up).
So I wake up and I am laying flat on my back thinking what the FUCK just happened? Why am I laying on my back, (turns out we broke the seats off) why can I feel the breeze on my face, and why is there glass on me? HOLY FUCK WHERE'S DAN? I rolled over to see my brother Dan not moving, not making a sound, not breathing!!!!!!!
The most terrifying moment of my life, I am his big sister, his protector and my brother is hurt what the fuck am I supposed to do, stay calm Jamie stay calm, you are not supposed to shake him, you are not supposed to move him, you can't freak out, don't cry, stay CALM! What should I do? Wait I know I'll pinch him, so I did.......
"FUCK OFF"
the most beautiful words I ever heard in my whole entire life were uttered on September 11th, 1999 at 10:32 am (you may ask how I know the time? Well I looked at two things when we started to loose control, the speed and the time do not ask why but I can remember that clear as a bell.....)
MY BROTHER WAS ALIVE HE WAS GOING TO BE OKAY!
I hoped, but he was coughing up blood, that can't be good and he was cursing like a sailor...Not unusual............. Next thing I know a guy is standing next to my window, I can't see him ( I am blind as a bat without my glasses, and had lost them somewhere; but me being an idiot thought it was cause I had hit my head). He puts a plaid jacket over me and asks if I am okay, hell I have NEVER been better; I was in SHOCK! I freak and tell him to look after my brother, next thing I know a car is spinning off, and a guy is standing over me........
It's George, my best friend and roommate's father, I exclaimed: George!, apparently he looked at me then my brother and back at me again, then again at my brother thinking he looks familiar ( I must have been fucked up cause this man was like a second father to me for several months!)
I wouldn't let anyone touch me at the accident, I wanted them to look after my brother, and they did! Because he had a collapsed lung which they could tell from the air bubbles in the blood he was coughing up; the cops were there to and my brother kept telling them to fuck off and leave him alone because he thought he was home in bed.
My crazy brother doesn't remember any of our accident or most of that day which is kind of funny since I could say that he was singing Britney Spears song to the paramedics and he couldn't say different (funny how I am laughing about this five years later but at the time I was out of my head with fear that my brother was going to die) I stayed calm enough to tell the cops: my address, my parents names, their phone number, and pleaded with them to call my mom (funny how a week before I was big and tough and on my own; yet when I needed her I was calling for my mommy)
Next thing I know I am looking at the roof of our van moving overhead......They couldn't open any of the doors they had to take us out through the back using the jaws of life (my aren't we special lol) Then we are at the hospital and Larry (a close family friend who is a pretty big guy who drives a nice motorcycle) is gently wiping off my blue nail polish. Then the moment of truth I see my mom and for the first time I remember that day I start to cry and complain of pain ("Mommy my tummy hurts") guess how the doctors knew Jamie had internal injuries? Sure enough he pushes on my stomach and blood comes out in the catheter bag. Then my dad comes and we have a moment (my dad and I are big softies, we cry a lot but shhh don't tell him I told you.) Now my brother and I both have to be rushed to Regina General hospital....Yea.......
Now my doctor (god love him) hops in the ambulance with us even though he didn't have to and comes with us to the nearest city hospital in Regina. I woke up somewhere along the way and sat up (very bad thing to do with internal injuries) and looked around for my brother the doctor came over and freaked. I seen my brother sleeping peacefully on the floor on a stretcher and calmly lay back down and proceed to fall asleep. I vaguely remember the lights of the hospital ceiling flashing by and bam I am in the operating room, my clothes are being cut off me (whatever hadn't been earlier???) but when they get to my beloved purple bra, and don't ask me what the fuck I was thinking but I would NOT let them cut the damn thing off me I sat up and help them take it off, but I do believe I had an IV in because the did end up cutting the strap.(but I safety pinned it later).
Then out like a light again and I woke up in my hospital room with my cousin Trinity, her friend Chris, Larry, Betty (Larry's wife), my friend Joy-Anne, my boyfriend Robin, my Mom and my Dad all standing around my bed............
Oh my god I am dying..........Oh my god where the fuck is Dan? and why is the room so foggy and why is my body fuzzy?
(now for those of you that don't know anything about my past I had never done any drugs ever in my life, except Tylenol 2 when I had my wisdom teeth out when I was 12, it had been the "hardest" drug I had done)
Here I am waking up on morphine and who the fuck knows what else in my system, and everyone looks soooooooooooo serious....First I was told Dan was fine but in another room.............They begin to explain what the doctors had done............Something about screws in my legs and having two black eyes...........Well I being the insane person I am on drugs for the first time cracked two jokes, one about them trying to crucify me (screws in my ankles) and another after about my boyfriend beating me (he almost shit his pants standing next two four of the biggest scariest people in the hospital who were all terribly concerned about my well-being hahaha but anyway back to my tale).
I entertained for a few moments.......It's all foggy and then prompty fell asleep.............The fucking hospital had some dumb rule about boys and girls sharing rooms so my brother had to stay across the hall from me (even though the girl in the bed next to me fucked her boyfriend on numerous occasions, thank god I was stoned and asleep but friends had witnessed it, those curtains are not that thick) so for however many fucken days I was convinced he was dead and no one would tell me, my dad would be in with him, and my mom with me and then they'd switch............
The day Daniel walked into my room and poor little Sean(my other little brother) was there as well; I lost it! I cried and cried AND cried I knew my family was safe and life was good.............
So there I was stoned for the first time in my life, with a cast (plaster cause of course it was a Saturday and late at night so I had to wait for my cool purple cast till the Monday) a long knee brace, tubes in my knee, my nose, my throat, my stomach, two IV's in my hand, and well, a catheter (I hate those fucking things!) I had 22 centimeters of my small intestine removed and had staples in my stomach from above my belly button to my bikini line............anyway..............
.For those of you who love to "cheer" people up in the hospital as the saying goes "laughter is the best medicine".....Well in my case it hurt to cough, sneeze and ohhh laughter was immensely painful.....I made a poor guy who came to visit me stop telling me a story cause I thought I might cry from laughing, it hurt so much and I was on some pretty crazy shit!
My brother had a broken elbow, thumb, and had a chest tube (which he says hurts like a motherfucker). He went home after less than a week with my dad. My mom stayed with me and my beloved grandmother flew out from New Brunswick to see me............They stayed with me to entertain me........ Cause I still couldn't see, and the hospital has a great collection of films which I could only hear and if I squinted a bit I could make out shapes lol......... My boyfriend at the time swears that we watched TheMmask of Zorro, but I don't remember.
My roommate came to visit me with our lease agreement, and showed me my face ( I was fucked out of my head) My mother almost strangled her to death, cause I wigged out with my literal black eyes, oh and she brought in some cute boys we were friends with...................... and my bag of pee was hanging on the side of the bed, I hadn't bathed since the day before my accident, and my face was five different shades of black, blue, purple, green, and red . I was a beautiful multi-colored mess! My boyfriend at the time told me that he loved me and I thought I was having a nightmare (hehehe).
After I had all the tubes removed and went through one of the most terrifying things ever: learning how to walk up a set of stairs with not one but TWO broken legs! It was a great accomplishment.... Here I was 17 years old learning how to walk again, having my mother bath me (humiliating moment) having everyone get excited when I had my first bowel movement (another embarrassing experience).
I was sent home, to my parents place, here I was the most stubborn little girl ( I had lost 25 pounds in the hospital after not eating for two weeks), I was one of those people who could do anything anyone else can, I was a strong competent female ready to take on the world before this had happen. Now I had to depend on everyone, to take a bath, go to the bathroom, walk, eat, it was a BIG change! My doctor even made a house call, unheard of these days.
Here I was the girl whose biggest fears was being helpless! Left completely helpless! I couldn't defend myself in any way shape or form, I could lay still. My brother's friend a month after the whole ordeal (my parents had purchased a new minivan) said I should be glad I broke both my legs because the new van had a CD player, and NO ONE would give me my damn crutches to beat him with.
After three years of being in and out of re-hab, having at least two surgeries a year and spending more time in waiting rooms than most old people do in church. I gained a *100 pounds from inactivity, birth control and pain medications. Last June** I had my very last hospital stay and I am so glad it is over.
(edit * I have lost about 50 of the hundred pound gain perhaps more since I refuse to step on a scale anymore.. I was a size 20 and have got down to a 15/13 **the last surgery was in 2002)
I still have the scars... I still have pain every once in a while.. but that accident taught me so many valuable lessons.. It made me appreciate pain, vulnerability and FAMILY!
I wouldn't change my life for a minute.