In 2003 I was divorced due to a drug dependency. After being clean from drugs for a year and 1/2 also being employed at a stamping plant. My life changed in 2005 when I was involved in a single vehicle rollover accident caused by a mechanical failure. I broke my neck in two places and halfway severed my spine. Which caused me to be “an incomplete spinal cord quadriplegic”. I don’t remember anything about the car accident or what I did for the whole day! I woke up in the hospital and asked the attendant “where am I and what happened to me?”. He told me I was in a car accident and I am paralyzed. I couldn’t feel or move anything below my shoulders. Where I could feel the pain in my neck and head was so intense they gave me all the Percocet, Darvocet, OxyContin and any other kind of pain reliever that my body could handle. With my addictive personality I was blessed not to become opiate dependent.I was completely overwhelmed and devastated by this information. I thought “What was the rest of my life going to be like?. After a week of speaking with doctors about my prognosis, I spent the next three months in a physical and occupational rehabilitation Hospital. I was like a newborn baby, I couldn’t do anything for myself! At this time my humbleness and modesty went right out the window! For the first month of my recovery session I struggled with major depression. I also had intense migraine headaches twenty three hours a day, seven days a week. The doctors gave me a CAT scan for seven days in a row. Through that whole week of testing they found no change. They had absolutely no idea what was causing the migraines. The one thing they did know was that I did not suffer a traumatic brain injury. The only thing that relieved the migraines was an intense hour long head and neck massage! Then one day I woke up and I didn’t have a migraine. In the 18 years since (nock on wood) I barely even have a minor headache! The doctors never said “you’ll never walk again!” Through hard work and determination and having compassionate caring therapist, every day and every week for 12 weeks I slowly progressed. Being able to exercise my arms and legs. Learning how to feed myself. Learning how to maneuver myself on the bed and dress myself, sit up by myself and transfer myself from the bed to my manual wheelchair. The doctors and therapists were amazed at my rehabilitation. With the location of my injury I should have been paralyzed from my chest down to my feet. But for some unknown reason I had feeling and sensation throughout my whole body! The doctors also had no answer for my situation. In just 16 weeks of rehab I was well enough to go back to my hometown and live by myself. I was able to cook, clean, dress myself, take showers and slowly came to grips with my situation. For 2 1/2 years after my accident with continuous physical and occupational therapy I lived what I considered a pretty normal single life with limited ability. I enrolled and completed one year of college education. I was able to maneuver into cars, I was able to take the city bus. I was getting used to my life. Then one Thursday night my life changed again! I went to sleep as usual Friday morning when I woke up I was completely paralyzed from the waist down. For the next 10 years my paralysis had risen from my waist to my chest. That is where I should of been paralyzed from day one! I am blessed to have had what I had when I had it. I have had to need healthcare aids for everything I do now. 24 hours a day, seven days a week! Now I have very limited ability and freedom to go anywhere at any time. I would love to be spontaneous again! Owning a wheelchair accessible van would enable me to do that!