Source: Jerritt Clark / Getty
After suffering a skull fracture in a near-fatal car crash in June, Melyssa Ford is celebrating the progress she’s made on the road to recovery. Her car was clipped by an 18-wheeler and ended up flipping over multiple times, and the 42-year-old was left in terrible shape. But she recently shared a photo of herself using a walker, showcasing her ability to walk again, and talked about what she has physically worked through.
“This was a month after the crash that almost took my life. I needed to [sic] support of a walker from the symptoms of post concussive syndrome,” she said. “My speech And cognition was affected, I was constantly disoriented and I was scared.”
Ford also shared that she went through growing pains, too. She found that people she thought would be there for her bailed, and also realized that she had to separate herself from things that she felt were no longer appropriate for her.
As she put it, “what ended up happening over the next few months of recovery was intense self discovery: things that no longer fit within the realm of who I was or what I could accept or be a part of. Certain relationships fell apart due to the glaring fact that, at my worst moment, ppl I loved and would have done anything for couldn’t seem to muster the same energy for me and made excuses for their lacking. You live and you learn I guess,” she said. “Now that I’m better, my energy will be focused on projects and endeavors that are more reflective of the real me… at the helm of my own ship, charting my own course. Thank you to everyone who has cheered me on and rooted for and prayed for me.”
Ford has come a long way since the accident, and the fact that she is finding things to extol, and finding healthy ways to cope with her disappointment in people, is a major thing. If you’ll recall, a few months after the accident, she opened up about going through intense depression.
“I’m battling Depression. Crushing, malignant Depression,” she wrote. “It was always there; it’s just been made a little worse because of the head trauma from the crash. There are days where simple tasks takes the effort of 40 men; mornings where I’m unhappy to wake and see the sun because it’s another day spent listlessly looking for solid meaning in life. The guilt I feel at having survived and not feeling constant gratitude is a heavy weight to bear. I’m trying to jump back into my life but it feels like there are two Me’s: Before and After the crash. And I barely know who Before Me is anymore. Trying to seek help feels like drowning in a strong current with a lifeline swinging right above your head. I say all this to say check in with your ‘strongest friend’… no one ever does.”
But the love she has received, both from the public and from true friends and supportive family who have indeed checked in with her, has helped Ford make headway with her health, physically and mentally. We’re glad to see it.
