Update February 03, 2005

So much has happened since I last updated my profile! Michelle and I are now married almost 5 years. We moved out to Indiana and I went to an out-patient rehabilitation center. I got a job (which was great) but I wanted to move back to the northeast. My wife and I are originally from New York so southern Indiana just wasn't for me.

My wife went to graduate school while I was in the rehabilitation program. She is now an MSW and I went to school with her more than once!

We moved to Rhode Island in 2002 and we are still here. I am back in a brain injury rehabilitation program, trying to get a job.

My wife and I had a little baby girl last year, March 2, 2004. We named her Elizabeth Michelle, after my mother and my wife. She is so amazing and she is now almost a year old! We bought a house in Rhode Island and I guess we are finally settling down.

I still have my problems and I guess that I always will but at least I am still here. I had a breakdown a couple of months ago and had to leave my family for a while. During that time I realized how important my family was.

I was pretty ungrateful for what I had and I almost lost it. Life is never going to be easy for me and I have to learn to accept it. But I have a wife and daughter who love me very much and I know that I am lucky to have them.

Email me or my wife to chat!

Original Posting

I was walking across the street, attempting to go to the cash machine for dinner and I was hit by a taxi. In that instant my life changed forever.

I had always taken risks. I was a heavy drug user and drinker. My parents both died and I felt sorry for myself. I had had a bad marriage and my son is developmentally disabled. I just didn't care about anything.

The day that I was hit, I hit the pavement and never regained consciousness. I was medivac'd to a hospital 60 miles away. I was in surgical intensive care for almost two months. I was on a respirator and then had a traich tube and stomach tube to sustain my life. I broke my cheekbone and had to have surgery to repair it. People thought that I was lucky because I had only hurt my head. While in the coma, I had so many infections that I can't even count. At one point I had a 107 fever. My family and my fiance didn't know if I was going to live or die.

I began to "come out of it" and I entered an in-patient rehabiliation program directly from icu. I had to learn how to walk, talk, eat and speak again. It was so hard and yet I don't remember any of it. My fiance (now my wife) was there every single day of the hospitalization. There were days when I just didn't care.

After 2 months in rehab I left to return home with my fiance. I had a home health aide while she went to work to support us. At first, I didn't know what was going on. As I became aware, it was harder to deal with someone else in my house with me all day. I became more and more agitated with the situation.

Since then I have returned to "work" with my old boss. He has taken it upon himself to teach me again. I am lucky that I receive disablity because the taxi cab company declared bankruptcy in order not to get sued.

I get so angry sometimes because I feel helpless. I want to get better but sometimes it just seems like it will never happen. I need help to do a lot of things but people keep telling me how far I have come. It isn't easy when I'm the one going through it. I don't know what the future will bring but I hope that I will continuw to get better so that I can make my parents proud. I know that they are watching me from Heaven.

Email Jim