That time I drove a car in one side of a building and out the other.

           There are a million ways to make the front page of the paper in Central Florida.  Most of the time, it has something to do with shooting someone or being the person with no teeth who is interviewed after witnessing the shooting.  But if you are me, you make the front page of the paper because you are driving down the road, minding your own business, and have a seizure.  At least they think that’s what happened.  We never got a straight answer. 

            In January 2004, I was in grad school and leaving work.  I had just administered an hours-long gifted assessment to a tween-aged girl and I was on my way home to eat before running a therapy group that evening.  I clearly remember sitting at the stoplight, waiting to make a right hand turn.  At the time I had a silver Lexus RX300 and when the light turned green…well, I don’t remember anything after that.  Apparently, I successfully made the turn and drove a few hundred feet before banking toward the right, hitting a curb, and launching my SUV at least five feet high into the bay windows of a store.  The car went all the way through the building and exited through the opposite wall.

            Here’s how it looked.

            When I regained consciousness, I was on a backboard being lifted over my backseat and out the trunk of my car.  I had no idea what had happened.  I didn’t even know where I was.  All I knew was that I couldn’t move.  I was terrified.  And there seemed to be sirens and people talking from every direction. 

I couldn’t focus on the EMT’s face, but he just kept telling me that it was amazing: There wasn’t a scratch or bruise on me anywhere and my car was firmly lodged inside of a building.  I had no idea what he was talking about.  As they lifted me into the ambulance, I got a glimpse of the destruction.  And when they asked me who they should contact, I remembered that my parents were across the country and my husband was out of town.

The following hours are hazy.  They were filled with an extensive battery of tests, an endless amount of blood work, and relentless questioning.  And when I was released a day or so later with no visible injuries, I was told that I must have had a seizure.  I spent months on seizure medications which made me feel completely insane.  I didn’t drive for over 60 days.  And my memory was completely shot (A not-so-pleasant side effect of the unnecessary meds).  It was probably the most helpless I’ve ever felt in my life and thank goodness, I had such great friends (Even one who lived with Colin and I!), family, and faculty mentors for support.

It was a very long road toward recovery for something that couldn’t even be identified as a specific event.  I even spent time at the Cleveland Clinic in South Florida searching for a diagnosis.  I wanted an answer no one could give me.  Ultimately, my specialist told me to move on.  He said the likelihood of something like that happening again (based on all of the testing and my history) was exponentially low.  He said it would have to be the “perfect storm” of events.  He believed it was a combination of my extreme caffeine intake and ridiculous level of stress.

I still count my blessings that I somehow managed to unconsciously navigate my car into a window.  (A quote from a witness stated, “Hollywood would’ve had trouble setting up a stunt like that.  She was lucky she didn’t hit a wall.”)  I couldn’t agree more.  I’m sure that hitting a wall would have been much worse.  And apparently, my car was really my saving grace.  It held up beautifully. 

I haven’t had a single issue since that day and I don’t think I ever will.  There’s just a balance there that didn’t exist 7 years ago.  And I need to remember that every day when I worry about the little things.