I’m so proud of my son – it’s been a long, hard and painful road.

Christine’s son was hit by a four wheel drive whilst he was riding a bike more than a year ago, and it changed her life and his completely.  The recovery has been challenging but Christine today writes about his progress of which she is enormously proud.  To read her prior article on his accident click here.

It feels like my son is nearly at the halfway point in his recovery.  The second lot of surgery on his legs was as successful as it could be but he still has a snapped ligament and a torn meniscus muscle in his right leg. Crutches are still very much a part of him, he moves in baby steps – hopefully he will keep moving forward and one day the crutches will no longer be necessary.

There has been many a dark moment, especially during his initial 5 month hospital stay; days when he thought he would never get out of the bed, then the 4 months when he believed he would never get out of the wheelchair. He had too many injuries. Most people cannot handle one broken leg, my son had multiple breaks in both legs and one hip, and his right arm, also fractured vertebrae and grazing as severe as third degree burns.

My son is inspirational – his strength and determination to get his life back is enviable, so many would have thrown in the towel long before now. He has not sat in his wheelchair since his post op appointment which was 3 weeks after his last surgery – it was for changing all the rods in both legs and hip, and a double knee arthroscopy and bone grafts. His steps are still very slow and careful, they are baby steps but very forward-moving baby steps. Although he has chronic pain, he doesn’t complain, even when he came home from the last surgery with acute pain on top of the chronic pain, he never complained. When I had to inject him every day with blood thinners for 10 days, he never complained.

He got a massive boost when his surgeon recently gave him the O.K. to drive, but only automatic (luckily his car is exactly that!). It enables us to go to hydrotherapy and physiotherapy three times a week instead of one. He tries to get a positive out of each and every day, little things help a lot like sitting by the water, a nice sunset, a nice dinner. We are hopeful the next surgery on his arm will also be successful. His elbow was smashed to kingdom come and it is like cement, he looks forward to signing his name.

He has depression and he is getting help for it, he has post traumatic stress disorder and he is getting help for it, he never had a mark on his body and now he is covered with deep scars. I tell him wear them with pride, you are a survivor.

Do you have a similar story of a friend or relative? How did they remain positive through adversity? Share your most heartwarming stories below.