Today is an important day for me. One I celebrate every year. Today is the day I celebrate my life and the fact that it was saved. 11 years ago today I was hit by a drunk motorist who was traveling the wrong way on a one-way freeway. The physical damage I suffered as a result of the accident was severe but the psychological damage was pretty extensive too. It would take me years to recover from all of my injuries I sustained in the crash. I still have some lasting damage today.

Recently, I took a trip back out to San Diego, (where my accident happened), and while I was there, I had the opportunity to stop in and see both my maxillofacial plastic surgeon and my oculoplastic surgeon. It had been many years since I had seen either of them and I had decided it was an important part of cleaning up my past and moving forward with my future. It was also just a nice opportunity to say hello again. So I went back to see them and let them know that things had turned out alright for me throughout the years. It was an equally important part of the healing process for me emotionally.

When I first went to see Dr. Joel Berger, a week and a half after the crash back in 2007, I had already been operated on by a different surgeon (not Dr. Berger), immediately after the accident when I was first brought in to the hospital. That experience left me with more problems than progress as it would turn out and when Dr. Berger operated on me about two weeks after my initial surgery, he basically had to start from SCRATCH. My face was so infected it was rotting from the inside out. I had to be put on a PICC line in order to receive antibiotics and I was on a whole cocktail of other medications including steroids which we soon found out I had a problem with when I lifted my then 250lb father up from his chair and then set him down a few feet away. #roidrage

I also awoke to find myself with a wired jar. I had known from day one that I was missing 4 teeth and a bunch more were broken and would need to be fixed, but it didn’t really sink in until after that surgery when the real healing finally began. Dr. Berger and I would see each many more times over the next few years, but he was the one to explain the process of dental implants to me and also about how it would be something that would take several years, much to my dismay, but he remained patient and kind with me always telling me how “we’ll get there soon, sweetie.”

The man who gave me my sight back is also pretty wonderful. Dr. Asa Morton is truly a wizard. Tall, handsome, confident and so talented. He walked into my hospital room and immediately knew I was seeing three of everything. I was terrified as I had always had perfect vision and didn’t know if I would ever be able to see properly again let alone close my eye completely. Fortunately, with a few surgeries and a little magic from a donor graft from the roof of my mouth, I was able to not only regain my 20/20 vision, but I can completely close my eye again and you can barely notice the difference in the droop of my eyelid on my right side.

It was so therapeutic to visit the offices of both these doctors when I was out there in October and like always, Dr. Berger insisted on seeing my teeth and my dental bite. I was able to share pictures with patients in the office of what I looked like before and now hopefully anyone else who might be going through a similar journey can take comfort in the fact of knowing that it takes patience but it will happen for them too. You can get through anything. Sometimes you just need to clean up the past before you can start celebrating the future. And what a GOOD future it is. Celebrate with me today, won’t you?