The First LinkBy: Kristen Sell

This Presentation contains graphic images

June 7th, 2007

I graduated from high school with a great plan for

my future.

Mom, Dad, & Me

My siblings and me

Seven days later, I went on a camping trip

with my family. I was kicked by a horse and

shattered my tibia.

I was five miles up a rocky trail, so I

had to ride down on the back of an all

terrain vehicle.

In the ambulance on the way to the

University Hospital in Kentucky (stick

splint on my leg)

Dad holding my hand at the

hospital

Close-up of the stick splint

The nurses removing the splint after a long

first day in the hospital

I was scared I wouldn’t make it.

Surgeons inserted a rod and four screws into my right leg. They also

found out that my swollen right wrist was full of badly pulled ligaments.

I spent the rest of that summer with a cast on my arm sitting in a

wheelchair.

My wrist swollen to almost the size of my knee

I was scared I would never walk again.

The stitches in my leg

My high school sweetheart and I after my first

miserable follow-up appointment

I was scared that nothing would ever be the same.

Despite my fears, I did make it through and I

am more than able to walk now. Nothing is

really the same as it was before, but I am

more than okay with the changes.

ssd

My leg, today.

My scars are barely visible.

Life threw me down

an entirely different

path than I had

planned. I have

learned to adapt to

the unexpected and I

believe I am on the

right path.

June 14th, 2007

Seven days after my high school graduation and

the first link in an unending chain of events that

would lend a hand in molding me into the adult I

continue to become.