Something I don't share a whole lot about myself is that in May 2011 I was in a bad motorcycle accident. I have been riding longer than I have been driving & for most of my life called it my biggest most loved "hobby". The one thing (besides the gym) that made me always smile & get excited about. I'd gone 1 summer without a bike & told myself I'd worked hard enough the past year to buy myself an awesome 2003 ,984 Buell Lightning (like the black bike in Mission Impossible). So I did... & I was in love. It was rainy for a few days when I first got it & then finally on the Friday of the May long weekend I had the time & the weather to ride it. After having lunch with a few friends I left downtown to meet up with another friend to go for an afternoon ride..... I never made it to her house.  

A truck pulled out of the Beer Store parking lot (to turn North) on George St. without looking left. Crossing my lane, he never made it to the center line & I drove straight into his driver side. I was told later I spent over 1 hour stuck under his truck with my bike before being rushed to Peterborough Hospital & then Airlifted to Sunnybrooke where I spent the next week in the ICU; followed by another 3 weeks in Peterborough Hospital . The guy who hit me faught his "failure to yield out of a private driveway" driving charge, dragging it out in court for over a year & a half. Insisting to the judge he was the victim... that he didn't hit anyone, he was the one who was hit. In the end he was finally charged. 

I suffered a bone bruise on the inside of my left knee, road rash on my right ankle & arm, a puncture wound & damage to my left hip, broken rib, punctured lung & contusions, 2 broken bones in my left wrist, whiplash, concussion, brain injury, & a torn liver. No to mention my entire body feeling like a gigantic swollen bruise inside & out. I couldn't walk for 3 weeks due to the injury my hip sustained, couldn't shower by myself or brush my teeth, & lost over 15lbs in the 30 days I was in hospital. I walked slower than a turtle when I got out of hospital, with a cane & cast. & let's not even talk about the effects of the "pain" medication they were pumping into me.... My whole body felt battered & weak & I really didn't quite know what my future was going to look like after 'recovering'. The thing they don't tell you when you're medicated & in the hospital is that you might never fully recover. They give you timelines for injuries like 12 weeks & 6 months..... It's not until you get out & are trying to pick up the pieces & keep that positive attitude that you start realizing 12 weeks & 6 months have already gone long by. 

One thing I have learned in this industry is that we all have injuries. We all have a story & some pain. But I am a firm believer that this life truly is about how you manuver around your own personal challenges. You can't just get up & walk away from an injury but you can get up & figure out how to keep going & be the best that you are able to be, physically & mentally, without letting lifes little hiccups stop you from living. I currently suffer from, in "dummy terms", a terrible left hand & wrist, migraines, chronic neck & low right back pain, left hip & knee issues that make my  ankle & calf hate me if i try & run. & I won't get into how crazy I am now from getting my head knocked ;) lol my poor boyfirend. But at the end of the day if you surround yourself with positive people & are motivated by your injuries, instead of looking at them as obstacles, you can rebuild yourself....

again & again....

Cheers,

AlliRoss