My Life by Bethany

by Bethany St. Andrew
(Lincoln Park, MI 48146)

My story begins on December 18, 1987. My parents had an attic in their garage that was accessed by ladder through a small opening. I had climbed up and when I went to step on the ladder with a box in front of me, the ladder slipped. My last view was of the ladder falling, then blackness. When I awoke, I found myself in the bathroom, pouring a cold bath. My first conscious thought was that I had to get into the water to stop the bruising. But I didn't know who I was, what had happened or what year it was. I estimate it was 20-30 minutes before I remembered what happened. I defintiely had coup-contrecoup injury, I had what was know as a subgaleal hemmorhage. I had what looked like a soccerball on the back of my head. I went to the hospital 5 hours after the accident, They did a skull Xray and sent me home. Next morning I nearly passed out sitting down.

I didn't have the issues of a long coma and having to relearn things like walking. But in the years after it, I found that I couldn't learn new things easily - in fact it would take me 5 or 6 repititions to learn anything. I had long lasting seizures, only I didn't know that they were. I would have optical illusions - such as I would see something jutting out of the wall and duck- only to see a second later there was nothing there. To this day, I cannot remember people's names and have tended to call people by other names.

I do sometime blow off the handle easily, and can find my self crying occasionally for no reason. I cannot stand to have lots of background noise, and today's music really irritates me if it is just a little too loud. Even motorcycles bother me.

I could no longer drink. I also would act like I had ADD. I could easily jump from one subject to another. It didn't bother me but I once drove an interviewer crazy. He asked me if I had ADD.

I moved out of state for the heck of it. I also completely changed my name. I have often felt like I was an entirely different person.

I still have balance and coordination issues. Sometimes the leg that was also injured severly in that fall will not lift correctly and I trip over my own foot. Lately I've also found that sometimes I will drop something without feeling like I loosened my grip on it. I also really have trouble remembering words that has gotten worse since I turned 45).

ON the bright side, I went back to school 2x, graduated with a 3.1 and 3.7 respectively, with a BS in nursing.