So many of us don't get enough sleep, it's a serious problem in our society. But I'm not going to bombard you with links and statistics that prove this. My story alone should convince you that driving when your tired is extremely dangerous.
It was a rainy Friday the 13th (yup no joke) and I was driving home from work. I had been to 4 classes then worked 5 hours at FedEx ground loading boxes into trailers. I had stayed up relatively late the night before working on projects for school just like every other college student does.
Shortly after I got onto the highway is when I crashed. I still don't remember how it happened, but witnesses told us that the car flipped over an embankment (turn around) and landed upside down.
All I remember is waking up and being on a stretcher with the most intense pain I had ever felt in my neck and back.
It was the scariest moment of my life and I remember wondering if I was going to die. I don't know how to explain it, but in those moments #life takes on a different meaning. I was in the ICU for 4 nights and I had broken my C4 and C5 vertebrae in my neck and fractured 2 more vertebrae in my lower back. That first night in the ICU was the worst and most painful night of my life.
In the end I had to have 2 neck surgeries done. The first one they screwed bolts in the side of my head and attached a pulley system to weights in order to stretch my neck out for the next surgery which was to go in and fuse the two broken vertebrae together.
The thing I am most thankful for is that I didn't hurt anybody else. I am truly blessed to be alive and well today.