February 2020
10
back, my other friend was shot in the leg, and both of whom are still walking to this day. I am paralyzed from my L1 down and I suffer from a lot of neuropathy and I have osteoporosis as well. So my friend pulled over and called 911. They eventually came, cut me out of my clothes, and when they went to move me into the ambulance, that's when I experienced the most shocking, excruciating pain I had ever felt in my life. It was the nerve pain. I screamed from that point all the way until they had to use Ketamine to help knock me out because the Dilaudid wasn't working to help calm down my pain.
I remember waking up but I don't know how much later it was. I just remember waking up and the doctor asking me if I could feel this and I felt nothing. I didn't even look to see what they were touching; at that point, I felt like I already knew. So the doctor informed me that the bullet went in on my right side, lacerated my liver and went through both my kidneys before coming out on my left side. The doctor told me I would never walk again and I will live the rest of my life in pain and be dependent on pain medication. Which I was, yet I stayed on that medication about a year. I just got tired of being drugged up and I felt like I was missing a lot of life and my daughter's life. So I quit my medication cold turkey, went through the withdrawals and pain from going off cold turkey for about three
months. After that, I moved back down to Arizona for the warmer weather and to try to get myself on my feet and put my life back together.
It's been a hard journey. I thought I was OK and then, BAM I had a bed sore which got infected and I had to have muscle flap surgery which also meant I had to have a colostomy bag as well. I almost felt like I was back at square one because I had to mentally put myself back together again. Being 25 with a colostomy bag was pretty hard to go through. And after my bed sore, I felt like things were starting to be on the up-and-up. my health was starting to get better, I wasn't in the hospital every month anymore, more like every few months. Then all of a suddnet, tragedy struck again and my father was murdered by his girlfriend. So I put my health and life on hold for a little bit, went to California and buried my father. I cam back to Arizona a few weeks later to try to pick up where I left off and do something that he would be proud of. And that's just what I've been trying to do ever since last year. The major challenged I had through all this was my health most definitely. After I started to get a hold of my health, next in line would be my services. I didn't know who or where to go to make sure I was getting all the help I needed.
Continued...