Last night, the sun set, closing out the 9th year that I had been alive since briefly departing.

9 years ago today, a fall from a rooftop water tower scaffolding left me in a coma for 12 days before serious complications arose with the need to induce a second coma.

If I were to do it over again, would I have stayed home on that fateful day?

Absolutely not.

It’s all good.

Many doors have slammed shut…
and other doors have swung wide open.

It was painful and powerful. And through it, my mission has become clear.

I look at all of the meaningful things that have happened.
I am so appreciative of it all.

All of it is good… ALL of it.

It’s ALL good!

It is an honor to be a neurotrauma medical advocate.

It is an honor to provide partnership for folks who have a loved one in a medical crisis.

It is an honor to circumvent the standard of care when it makes sense to do so and to consistently get my clients the treatments they choose.

“If life deals you a bag of hammers, build something.”

– Michael J. Fox

I am so lucky.

I am so lucky to have made it out from underneath that scaffolding alive.

I am so lucky to have woke from my 12 day coma,

I am so lucky to have so many good friends and family by my side through it all… through the thick of it.

I am so lucky to have pulled through when I almost suffocated due to a closing airway that the hospital staff was foolishly throwing anti anxiety drugs at.

I am so lucky to have regained my ability to walk.

I am so lucky to have regained my ability to talk.

I am so lucky to have regained my ability to swallow.

I am so lucky for being able to communicate after my brain injury.

I am so lucky even to have regained my ability to breathe on my own.

I am especially lucky for the comrades I have found… who have helped me to turn it all around.

I am so lucky to have found my angel.

And.. I believe that luck is a skill.

I am so lucky to be lucky!

I love you!

I love all of you!

And I love all of all of you!

“I was so lucky to have made it out from underneath that scaffolding alive.

You are so nice to me. Everything was perfect that night.

Drinking like pirates, without fear that dawn would arrive.

My right hand in your left hand and your left in my right.

May everything stay like this for a long time. Here’s to the friends that we’ve made. To the ones who have stayed by our sides through it all, through the thick of it. 

Here’s to the comrades we have found, who can turn a day around, and drive the gloom into the ground.“

“Scaffolding” by Ian Cooke, from Fortitude, released November 11, 2011 (only months after my fall)