The accident

This is the email I sent to a lot of people informing them of my accident:

My accident occurred on Sunday, July 15, 2012. Before I dive into the details, I want to let you know that I am expected a 100% full recovery!! It will take a long time, but I've already come so far. This is a detailed account so if you're squeamish or don't have much time to read it, save it for another time or don't continue reading any further.

Here goes...
So, that weekend (July 13-15, 2012), my pals and I went down to Virginia Beach for a wedding (July 13) and funtivities. And, on Sunday July 15, my pals and I followed a sick surf swell in the OBX. We woke up at 5am from VA Beach to drive down to Pea Island in Hatteras, which is about 20-30 miles North/South of any towns. Waves were lookin' fresh at around three to eight feet. Vicious! The waves were crisp, clean, and beautiful. I was there with one of my best friends, Lauren; my boyfriend, Kevin; and three of his best friends (JC is one of his best friends).

So, a surfing I went. Kevin and Lauren decided to physically watch me surf (rather than sit on the beach towel, they actually followed me to watch). JC also decided to surf near me halfway thru my first surf sesh. Total blessings they were so near! Upon finishing up my first surf sesh, I was paddling for a wave to take me to shore. I caught the wave and things went awry; I ended up getting jostled in the whitewater before I was able to stand up, and the board nosedived into the sand. I then either landed on the fiberglassed fin, the end of the board awkwardly, or hit a piece of debris in the water (since it was right after a hurricane). Whatever I hit left a massive gash in my upper left inner thig!. Once the energy of the wave went away, I knew I needed to head to shore because I was hit. Man down! Man down! I wasn't in too much pain at the time, but I was bleeding profusely and the water around me was super red (so then enters another thought: I definitely need to get to shore before a shark comes). I hone in on a stranger who is closest to me since the current moved me far away from Kevin and Lauren and JC was surfing behind me. So, I flail in the water for a bit, yell for help, and finally the stranger realized the severity of my incident and called for help. Once I knew I was safe, I unleashed my surfboard from my ankle and lost consciousness while still in the water.

The stranger screamed for someone to call 911. JC, hearing the stranger screaming for 911 and knowing that I was headed in immediately came to my rescue. They immediately helped drag me out of the water and on to shore. At this point, I was completely white and my eyes were rolling into the back of my head. On shore, JC shoved his hands into the wound to apply pressure and fight the bleeding. Kevin and Lauren, watching JC and a stranger drag some girl out of the water immediately broke into a sprint while thinking/praying "Please don't be Jeanne" over and over again. When they arrived and saw it was me, they said the feeling was indescribable. When they saw me, I was white. Completely white. There was a random lady on the phone with 911 already and reading Kevin's expression and body language just handed the call over to him. He handled the call, JC and two strangers helped to apply constant and full pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding (there were 2 tourniquets on me, 1 was a towel and 1 was a surfboard leash), towels on my wound to absorb the blood and prevent others from fainting, 3 people talking to me and keeping me conscious. Haha, I was having people tell me jokes and I was telling people jokes in order to keep alert, awake, and alive. But, basically, for 20 - 30 minutes, I was laying on the beach, in and out of consciousness, bleeding out, completely white, and strangers and loved ones were doing everything possible to keep me alive until the paramedics came.

The paramedics finally arrived on the scene and once they removed the towels, there was no bleeding taking place; all the people that came to my rescue managed to temporarily to stop the bleeding. Because of this, the paramedics didn't assume the worst because it wasn't gushing blood. As the paramedics were prepping me to get into the ambulance, my boyfriend Kevin told me he loved me for the first time, perhaps terrible timing, but he did not want me to die without knowing (he said he knew 2 months before, but never found the right time...apparently, when you're about to die, that's always a good time). Actually, after he told me, I shot him a look saying "really, right now? you tell me you love me now?" He said that look gave him hope, and he knew I wasn't going to die. Come to think of it though, it's pretty romantic time to say it...in front of everyone. So, from the beach, I was loaded into a truck that took me off the beach to an ambulance headed to OBX hospital. The paramedics commented on how lucky I was not to have severed my femoral artery because I likely would have bled to death in less than 10 minutes. The truth of the matter is that I did cut my femoral artery, badly...although no one knew this...and it wasn't discovered for a total time of 70 - 100 minutes (which doesn't account for the time I was left without my artery during transit and my second surgery).

Okay, back to the story, arriving at OBX hospital, 20 to 30 minutes later, I was being cleaned off and prepared for surgery. I wasn't allowed to have any pain meds because my blood pressure was so low. So, rather often, I would scream out vulgar words of pain!! It hurt so badlyyyyy. I would, however, apologize to the nurses for such inapropriate language ;). Kevin was in the room with me and the nurses at the hospital and they all were taking turns applying pressure and running around preparing me for immediate surgery. After a long 30-40 minutes I was ready for surgery (it didn't help that I was literally covered in sand). I went off to surgery while Kevin met up with the gang in the waiting room only to find out minutes later by the Dr. that I was missing 2 inches of my femoral artery and that I was being life flighted/helicoptered to Norfolk because OBX did not have a vascular center. So, to prepare for the helicopter ride, they clamped off my femoral artery for the entire journey (20 to 30 minutes). During this time, however, my leg was receiving no blood and no oxygen...and I was under so I didn't even get to enjoy the helicopter ride.

When I arrived in Norfolk, I had a completely cold leg and a team of surgeons were waiting for me in the OR. The surgery was a total success; the did a femoral artery graft using my great saphenous vein in my right leg (an important vein, however, veins are awesome and they can regenerate over time). They sealed off my vicious wound on my left leg with 19 staples and the sealed off my incision to retrieve my vein in my right leg with dermabond (a glue). Also, I was given/transfused a half gallon of blood that day...or 2 quarts of blood.

Miraculously, I have full circulation throughout my left leg. The worst case scenarios were death, amputation, and paralysis. Again, I say, miraculously, none of those happened. I am expected a full recovery. I am alive, and I have my leg. There are some areas where I don't have sensation; however, they say it is just superficial nerve damage and that my nerves may regenerate fully. Actually, as of now, I am starting to feel the tingling sensation (sometimes rather painful and weird) of my nerves regenerating. Also, my quads on my left leg are shot! For the longest time, I couldn't move them. I finished home health PT (where the PT comes to you at your house) about 2 weeks ago, and I can move my leg so much more than before. I am still in for a long recovery period, but I am mountains better than where I was laying on the beach. Multiple doctors and nurses have said it was a miracle. Basically, I defied the odds. It's unreal.

So many people contributed to saving my life that day and everyone is so thankful. It was really incredible just how everyone came together as a team to save my life. I am forever grateful to every hero and angel that was there that day (I mean everyone....from those pps who donate blood to the doctors to the heros on the beach). Every moment is imprinted in my mind and I will give a much better more thorough account next time I see you. I am definitely in for a longish and very painful recovery, but, there's so much hope! I have pictures of the wound too, which shows the progress from the first day where it was swollen, bruised, bloody, and stapled to now where the wound has sealed and it has no staples and all it is now is a vicious lookin scar. BTW, the wound is like 8 inches long. It's vicious. BTW, they found a blood clot in my leg too. I'm on blood thinners, and I have been for the past 2 weeks. Once my blood is thinner, I'll be able to start outpatient PT.

 So, I didn't tell you sooner because my energy has been up and down. Also, it's hard retelling this story sometimes because I am still in the recovery period so it takes a lot of energy to retell it.