Life Goes On

By Teresa Smith

This is to give hope to people who are in a coma. Close-head injury and a spinal cord injury. Where they think there is none. You can come out of it. Maybe not the same way as you were before, but there’s hope where your brain is active. You can make it no matter what the doctors tell you. Just because you have a handicap doesn’t mean you can’t do things. Maybe not the way other people do them, but in your own way. It takes patience and people around you to help you get through it all. You can live a long life if you don’t give up in life. Things happen for that reason. God has a plan for all of us in this world. You may not agree with it, but it happens. Even if you’re handicap, whatever it may be, life goes on. Be happy you’re alive. Just live your life and don’t care what people think about you. Be yourself and be happy. Don’t be sad of what you lost or can’t remember. Just live for today. Start new memories and don’t get mad about the past. Life goes on. Live life to the fullest. I was only supposed to live for five to ten years but I’m still here.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 25, 2017
• ISBN: 9781684098620

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Life Goes On

Teresa Smith

Copyright © 2017 Teresa Smith

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

New York, NY

First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc. 2017

ISBN 978-1-68409-861-3 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-68409-862-0 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

I’d like to dedicate this to my family who had the patience to help me through everything all my life—the good and the bad times. To my mom who never gave up on me when everybody else did, who was always there when I was in the hospital day and night, she showed me how to cope with what happened to me and taught me I could still do things that other kids could do.

Larry and Joe, I know I’m not the easiest person to get along with, this is for you. To my grandma, who in her eyes I could never do wrong, to my aunts and uncles and cousins, to my doggies Spike, Tiffany, Justice, Wolf, Missy, Tigger, Max, Blacky, Kira and to all the handicapped people, life goes on. To my friends who died from their surgery, to the people who gave at the blood drive when I was hurt in Texas along with the doctors at the hospital in Texas, Children’s Hospital, doctors who helped me, to my family doctor along with the nurses who always found a vein when they needed to draw blood, and to all the therapists and teachers, this book is for you. A portion of all proceeds from this book will be donated to Children’s Hospital of Detroit, Michigan Spinal Cord Foundation.

Chapter 1

Before My Accident

I believe God has a plan for all of us. His plan was for me to be paralyzed, and this is what went with it. I was born on November 28, 1974, on a cold Thanksgiving Day in Detroit, Michigan. There was a blizzard that day. They wouldn’t let my mom bring me home because of that. My grandma said, Go get my baby! My mom, Linda, decided to name me Teresa Lynn Smith. I’m part Native American Indian/Cherokee along with being part Irish. I have two older brothers named Larry and Joe. My mom was married before to a man named Billy Smith. He was Larry and Joe’s dad. When I was born, my dad didn’t want me to have his last name in case he and my mom were to get a divorce so that he wouldn’t have to pay child support. It didn’t matter to Billy; he loved me from the moment he saw me. I remember my mom and I always had tea parties, and we used to drink coffee in the mornings.

We had an apple tree in front of the yard. I’d climb up it and sit just eat apples. Right across it, we’d have a swing set. I’d sit and swing on it sometimes all day. I have a bracelet with my baby picture in it from when I was born. Larry, Joe, and I went up to the pet store, and we got a German shepherd collie dog. We named him Spike from the cartoon Tom and Jerry. My dad got rid of him. My mom made him go and get him back. I’d play ball with him and chase him around the yard. One day Spike ran out the front door and got hit by a car. Spike would need surgery on his legs. He’d have two pins put in his legs to help him walk again. His tail was almost cut off; they had to sew it back on. While he was in the hospital, we made up a song for him: Spikey is my baby, won’t you please come home. He’d go nuts every time we’d sing that song. When he was well enough to come home, we put him in a playpen, so he wouldn’t move around. He’d stayed in it for a little while until his legs healed. Spike would have nightmares from where he got hit by the car.

At night, I slept with Rags, my security blanket. My brothers and I always watched The Great Space Coaster every morning before going to Hasteine. I would get a bloody nose at school; it seemed like all the time. When I would get tired of walking home from school, Joe would carry me home. Larry and Joe were safety boys. There was a corner store where we’d stop and get some candy and fruit punch to drink. I was in the Brownies. We’d go ice skating and roller skating. We would go to watch Larry and Joe’s baseball games. I would always follow Larry and Joe around.

They would try to lock me in the yard. I’d climb over the fence and would get stuck. They’d have to help me down. There was a girl that lived down the street from me. I would sometimes play with her. There was one time she made me cry. She thought she was better than me because she was bigger. Larry and Joe went down the street to talk to her. She didn’t want to talk to me; she’d walk away from me then I would chase her around the yard. And then when I got to her, I would beat her up. Larry and Joe tried to hold me back, but they couldn’t because I was so little and tiny along with being flexible. My mom had me to try out to be a gymnast at gymnastics. My mom and I along with my grandma went down to visit my aunt Ramona (my grandma’s sister) in Ohio. She threw me a late birthday party. That would be the last time that I would ever walk again.

Chapter 2

Accident Happens, but Life Goes On

Things got really bad between my mom and dad. That was why we went to San Antonio, Texas. My mom, Larry, Joe, and I all went down to visit my uncle Joe (my mom’s brother) in San Antonio, Texas, to get away from my dad in the summer of 1981. I was six years old when my life changed as I would know it. My mom was in the kitchen making chocolate chip cookies and M*A*S*H was on TV. I was outside on a big wheel when I started to roll in the street and couldn’t stop or slow down. The car hit me and dragged me under the car, along with the big wheel to the end of the block. The person didn’t know I was under the car. As soon as my mom heard the car screech, she knew that I was hit by the car. It took forever for the ambulance to come, my mom said. The person that hit me was a boy who was drunk and on drugs. He was sixteen or seventeen years old. Nothing happened to him. There’s a saying, The more money you have, the more justice you get. He is an example of someone who’s spoiled badly in life. That’s when people with money seemed to get away with everything. I was taken to a hospital. My doctor said all my injuries were internal. My mom still has flashbacks when she hears a car screech. I would have a scar on my left elbow where the car dragged me with the big wheel down the street. The big wheel saved me said my doctor. I didn’t have any broken bones when I was hurt.

My spleen was broken. I had a spinal cord injury and a close-head injury. I became paralyzed, known as a T7. With my paralysis, I would become a paraplegic for the rest of my life. I would be paralyzed from under the breast down. My spinal cord was severed, so I developed scoliosis. Later on, I would need to repair it. My closed-head injury, they had to put a bolt in my head to stop my brain from swelling up. My mom kept the hair they’d cut to put the bolt in my head in case I would die. I would be in a coma for six months. My bladder and bowels were damaged. My right lung collapsed, so they put a chest tube in to drain the fluids that were on my lungs, where I could breathe, and then the other one collapsed. I would be on life support from now