Update 2005

The evening of June 10, 2001 changed my life forever. I was only going to an
amusement park and hanging out with a friend. That is all I had planned for the day.
Instead on the ride home from the amusement park, Cedar Point, I hit a semi truck
while trying to pass another one. I don't remember the accident, even now. I only
remember what I was told. I don't remember the week before the wreck either. Like I
said before, only what I was told.

My friend and I had stopped at McDonald's to get a small bit to eat and stretch our
legs. He had been sleeping on the way home and looked tired still. He asked if I
could drive and I gave the snide remark "We're almost home, what could happen now?"
A few miles down the road I was passing one semi truck and hit the another one right
under its front wheel. My car was smashed up to the steering wheel, but luckily I
had remembered to put on my seat belt. And luckily I had reminded the passenger to
wear his too.

I was life lighted on an airplane to the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo, Ohio not
very far from where the accident had occured. From then on, I was in a coma for
seven and a half weeks. I remember very little of being in the hospital. I thought I
was cured then! I just wanted to get home and get back to my 'normal' life.

Even after being let go from the hospital and sent to MCO Works, an outpatient
facility for rehabilitation, I thought all I needed was a few days before work
started up again. Boy was I wrong! I started going there with a walker on wheels and
thought as soon as I was off the walker that work would start in days. I kept
telling everyone that I was alright and all I needed was to get back to working
again. They all smiled and said "maybe one day".

Once leaving MCO Works, I was given a few months off to help get more adjusted to
living at home and time to heal. From there I started to go thru Job Evaluation
Training with GoodWill Industries in Toledo, Ohio. The workers and teachers there
were all very nice to me I remember. I still go there from time to time to say hi to
everyone and see how they are doing.

Once the evaluation was finished they decided that it would be best for me to work
in an office. So, I went thru another evaluation at there called the School of
Clerical Technology. I found out that maybe one day I could handle doing data entry
work. So, I started the long process of taking classes, a little at a time, to teach
me all the things I needed to learn about data entry and the working world. After a
long haul of nine months, I graduated with a certificate of data entry. I thought I
had climbed Mt. Everest. I was so pleased with myself and in a state of shock that I
couldn't believe what I just accomplished.

On the other hand, getting into the working world was a different story. I had
problems finding a job with hours that could accomodate my sleep schedule. My doctor
has prescribed for me to sleep ten to eleven hours a night, with no exceptions to
the rule. And even now, I still sleep ten to eleven hours a night! But even though I
am not working yet, I have found an apartment in downtown Toledo where I live and am
now engaged. I ended up starting to date a guy I worked with before my injury. He
understands that I need more time and tries to accomodate my schedule with his. I
know the road ahead will be tough, but with him at my side I have less worries.

Maybe one day I will try to handle working. Today I handle life day by day, week by
week. I understand that with prayers, anything can happen. And that with a strong
person by your side helping you every step of the way, anything can happen. My hope
is that everyone has the love, luck, and holds the hope that I have.

Thank you for reading my story. Please write and tell me yours. I would love to help
as much as I can, if any.

Email Melissa Hartman

Original Posting

I don't know where to begin. I've taken a long road to my recovery. Most people wouldn't even believe what I told. So, I guess I'll start from the beginning and say what I have to say and hope you believe this to be true. If you do not believe my story, then ask my family if this is as true as I tell you it is.

Before my accident, I was going through a rebellious stage. I didn't quite know what to believe or whom for that matter. I just wanted to get out of all the hell my mind was going through. Which led me to hanging out with friends I shouldn't have even had, drinking way over my tolerance level, and doing only God knows what every time I should have said "No, no, and still no!"

The day of my accident, I told my parents I was going to Cedar Point (an amusement park upstate) with a few friends from work. I did go with a friend to the same amusement park, just another friend than the one they were thinking. I had told them that...I knew the girls were not working and with friends, so I knew I could rely on them not being at work to blow my cover. I was, however, with a guy I knew my father especially didn't favor and my mom would agree with him on that behalf also. Opps, my bad! We had been planning to go and come back early, no harm in that. I had to work early the next day, I needed to get a few good hours of sleep still...

So, we drove to about half hour, forty-five minutes from home and stopped to get food.

He asked then if I'd be okay to drive the rest of the way home. I said it was only about half an hour. What could really occur? One phrase I will regret saying for the rest of my life and even then some. So, we got back in the car, I said to go back to sleep, we're almost home. From that point on, I remember very little.

This is what I was told. I was on route 795 and trying to pass one truck. Then I hit another truck coming forward head on. I hit under the front wheel when they tried to get out of the way as did I. The entire front end of the car was smashed almost up to the steering wheel. I hit the steering wheel with full force. Yes, I had had my seat belt on, as did my friend Andrew, yet I hit the steering wheel so hard that I then had a traumatic brain injury. It is considered a traumatic frontal lobe head injury. I went into a coma for almost eight weeks.

But let me tell you, coming out of a coma is not like the movies. You do not just wake up all of a sudden, as if you were just taking a nap. You open this eye slowly and start gazing at this and that, not knowing what is going on. Your mind is confused and you can't think straight. You don't understand what is going on, why you are lying in a hospital bed, and foremost, even who you are to begin with.

I went through hospital therapy...carrying a monkey a friend from church had bought for me. I would not go anywhere without my monkey. They asked what the monkey's name was and I just said "it's Monkey. The monkey is a monkey. It's Monkey." So, Monkey went to therapy day in and day out and anywhere else I went. Even to the bathroom once I could get out of my hospital bed to use my facilities!

Once I forgot Monkey in the hospital bed and my father questioned where Monkey had gone. I then said "Monkey...Monkey is...Monkey got in trouble. Monkey is in my room still." So, from that point on, my father said about a lot of things, "Watch out. Or you might get into trouble like Monkey." So now, that is our inside joke with the family.

I still remember my first steps walking. I had gone to therapy at MCO (Medical College of Ohio) for almost a month then I believe, and I had stood up from my wheelchair. I was heavily leaning on the bars, on either side of me. The therapist had a belt wrapped around my waistline in case I started to fall. As wobbly as I was, I grasped the bars, and took my first step. Bringing my other foot forward was extremely difficult. I had to use all my strength to pull forward and not fall. After making that first step, I felt like I had just climbed Mt. Everest.

From that point on, it was just going slowly step by step and day by day. Once I got through my therapy at MCO Hospital, I graduated, and was sent to MCO Works. This is when I was taken home and started therapy there. My parents came with me for one day and said later that they couldn't believe I made it through that. It was for three hours a day, three days a week, for almost eight months.

A few times when getting dressed, I had forgotten which order my clothes were to be worn and put on my shirt and then my bra. My mother had to correct me time and again. She had gotten me to laugh, and taught me again that it is alright for you to laugh at yourself time and again, that everyone does silly things now and then.

I remember as I went through therapy telling everyone that I was alright and that I didn't need to go through all of this. That I would learn this over again, that it would just take a lot of time. I laugh at myself now thinking back. I hadn't realize how much I didn't know.

Once I graduated from MCO Works, I was so proud of myself that I thought I could walk on clouds and do even more than that. A heavy weight had been lifted from my chest and I figured I could do anything...that I could own a Fortune 500 company or something that extreme.

Once I finished there I went through job evaluation with GoodWill Industries in Toledo, OH. I figured I could handle the world then. I thought getting back to my old job would only be a matter of days. Boy was I wrong! They realized I couldn't stand very long nor could I handle noise nor commotion. So, they suggested becoming a receptionist or even better, a data entry clerk.

Which led me to what I am doing now. I am in class four days a week. About four hours a day. They decided I would do best with data entry, for I cannot handle noise or distractions easily. Once I graduate next month, they will find me a job on the bus line in Toledo somewhere. I will start off part time and see where that leads me. Wish me the best of luck...I know that I will need it!

Email Melissa