Before The Accident that changed my life forever, my attitude was this: "It won't EVER happen to ME!"

I couldn't have been more wrong.

I now lie here in a hospital bed, waiting for the go-ahead, for the ambulance attendants to put me on a gurney and roll me out to the ambulance; the ambulance, in kind, will take me to the rehabilation hospital up the way, where I will then start physical therapy, in the hopes that one day (hopefully soon!) that I will walk again.

I am paralyzed.  Paralyzed from the waist down.  I have very little feeling in my hips and absolutely no feeling whatsoever in my legs or feet.  It's like my body ended right at my hips, but I know my body is still there, 'cause when I look down, I see my legs lying limply on the bed, like a pair of pale sausages.

I became paralyzed last month when I fell off of my horse, "Ginger".  Something sppked her, and she bucked, throwing me off in the process.  When I landed, I landed wrong; I knew I'd done something to my back.  There was this soft, audible "Poing!" noise, sort of like what you hear on cartoons,  incredible pain, and then ... nothing.  When I tried to roll over, so I could get up, I couldn't.  I just lay there on the ground, unable to move.

I suddenly became very scared.  I started screaming hysterically for my mama to come help (daddy was at work at the time); mama came out, and I told her to call for an ambulance as I was hurt badly.  I told her I couldn't move or get up.  

It seemed like hours, but the ambulance (and the EMT's) were there within minutes.  They soon had me on a gurney and after strapping me in place (so I wouldn't fall off), they put me into the rear of the ambulance, shut the doors, and soon I was being rushed to the nearest hospital.

In the ER, I was looked over.  Doctors asked me a thousand questions as nurses took my vital signs and samples from my body.  I still couldn't move (or feel) anything below my hips/waist.  I was becoming more scared as the minutes ticked by.  I had no idea what I'd done to myself, but I knew it was bad.

I just didn't know HOW bad.

Then I got the news that I would need to be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life.  The news nearly crushed me.  I wanted nothing more than to die, so I wouldn't have to put up with the misery any longer.  I didn't want to be in a wheelchair: I wanted to walk again, but right now, that was impossible.

Now I'm getting ready to go to the rehab hospital, where I will have extensive physical, emotional/mental, and occupational therapies.  I will learn how to do things sitting down in a wheelchair, transferring myself from a bed or chair to and from my wheelchair, reaching for things, and whatnot.  I will learn how to dress myself sitting down and how to do my shoes/pants.  

It won't be easy, but I'm learning that my life is not over, by a long shot.  It's just going to take a lot of getting used to and I just wonder what my friends are going to do upon seeing me after I get out of the rehab hospital.

~To be continued.~