I broke my back in 2 places after a crash at 22 – I’m paralyzed but grateful it made me less selfish, now I’m a trainer
WHEN Jesi Strachman was in a horror motorcycle crash, the last thing she remembers is hearing the "crunch of metal."
A week later, she awoke in hospital and was told she was paralyzed from the waist down. She was just 22 years old.
Miraculously the now 31-year-old managed to take positives from the life-altering collision - and even works as a fitness coach today.
Jesi, from Charlotte, North Carolina, was riding as a passenger on a motorcycle when the fateful crash occurred at a traffic light.
"A woman in an SUV made a U-turn in front of us and the driver of the bike didn't stop in time," she told The U.S. Sun.
"So he went through her back window and broke his leg. I went over (the top of) the SUV.
"I broke my back in two places, my chest collapsed, my ribs punctured my lungs, nicked my spinal cord, I have a traumatic brain injury, and I coded twice and had to be resuscitated."
Being "coded" means needing a defibrillator to bring the heart rate back to normal.
Jesi broke her back at T-four and T-seven, causing paralysis around T-four and T-five.
"That's right around the bra line," she said.
"The last thing I remember from the crash is metal crunching and then I woke up a week later in the hospital," she said.
"The first thing I remember was seeing my grandmother, my mom, my dad, and my best friend Jessica, (who) were there every single day.
"My family is originally from Ohio, so they were filtering in and out... visiting from there."
Ohio is a seven-hour drive away.
"I remember seeing their faces, but that whole time it felt like a dream," Jesi added.
"Like when you're watching a movie. That smoky haze and dreamland."
She also vividly remembers being intubated, to help her breathe.
I could start learning to be an independent wheelchair user and that's when I really started realizing, OK, I can do this. I am not helpless. Life isn't over
Jesi Strachman
"It was similar to a Saw movie. That device where it holds your mouth wide open. That's literally how I felt," she said.
"Of my entire hospital stay, that was the one thing that still to this day sticks out in my mind.
"I'll never forget just being tied down and forced to have this tube shoved down my throat while I was completely awake."
After intubation pushed her to the limits, she opted for a tracheostomy, which is a medical device to allow air into the lungs through a hole in the neck.
The procedure made Jesi temporarily lose her voice.
"To lose not only the use of your legs, your bowel, and your bladder, but also your voice at the same time, it was very interesting mentally for me," she said.
"Eventually I got moved to rehab, where finally I could start learning to be an independent wheelchair user.
"That's when I really started realizing, OK, I can do this. I am not helpless. Life isn't over," she added.
There was a trial about the crash, but Jesi explained it "never went anywhere, and nothing ever came of it."
A NEW BEGINNING
With a new sense of empowerment from physical rehab, Jesi realized she wanted to educate and inspire others.
"I think the biggest thing is that people focus on is the fact that we can't walk," Jesi said of herself and other wheelchair users.
"They don't realize the amount of neuropathic pain that we have.
"My pain's between a seven and an eight on a day to day. That's just my baseline, and that's a lot of people's reality.
"I lost my bowel and bladder control. I use a catheter to pee. I have to stick my finger up my butt to poop. It's a weird way to live life. It's not ideal.
"That's the biggest thing I just want people to realize, there's so much more than walking to this. I don't care about walking. I want to pee and poop on my own."
I don't care about walking. I want to pee and poop on my own
Jesi Strachman
Jesi was in surgical trauma ICU for three weeks and inpatient rebab for three weeks.
"I went home for a week, and got an infection in my intestines called C-diff," she said. "I'll never forget the smell."
The infection put Jesi back in hospital, but eventually she was able to leave for good.
Coincidentally, Jesi's parents had bought a wheelchair-friendly home two years before her accident - which made her transition leaving hospital much easier.
"The hardest thing was that first two weeks I couldn't shower," she said.
"I was sleeping on an air mattress in the living room. I didn't have my own space.
"That was really the hardest part of the transition, figuring out what my new normal looks like, what how I'm going to be able to do these things."
That was the first six months of my injury, it was an absolute s**t show for lack of better words, of me just trying to figure out how to be a human being again
Jesi Strachman
Jesi had to learn to transfer, which means to move in and out of your wheelchair, to a chair, bed, bathtub, toilet or tub.
"That was the biggest obstacle to overcome, because I would miss a transfer, fall on the floor, and I'd be stuck there for four to five hours until someone got home from work, on a cold basement cement floor," she said.
"I was very prone to UTIs in the beginning and my legs would spasm and send me over backwards. I'd be stuck on the floor again.
"There was one time I was completely butt naked in the kitchen, I was cooking eggs or something and I flipped over backwards.
"I had a shirt on but no pants. I reached up, turned the stove off, went to grab my phone off the counter, and as soon as I grabbed it it died.
"I dragged myself to the front door and I was leaning out the front door and just screaming for help, hoping that the neighbors (would hear).
"A neighbor happened to be walking right in front of our driveway, she grabbed her husband and came running up to grab my wheelchair at the front door.
"Her husband picked me up, and I peed all over the floor because I had no pants on.
"That was the first six months of my injury, it was an absolute s**t show for lack of better words, of me just trying to figure out how to be a human being again."
RENEWED PURPOSE
Now Jesi is dedicated to helping others struggling with serious injuries.
"It gave me a purpose in life. I didn't realize how aimlessly I was moving through the motions before I was injured," she said.
"It's interesting because I was just such a different person. I drank every single day. I was very selfish.
"I had zero responsibility, would not take responsibility for my actions.
"And my injury just completely changed my perspective of who I am, how I move in the world, and what that looks like."
A game-changer for Jesi was learning how to drive without her legs, which she describes as her "biggest freedom."
BUILT TO LAST
Jesi found a love of fitness in 2017, when she was introduced to adaptive CrossFit.
"I was losing independence," she said.
"Even though I was working out, I was getting weaker. I wasn't able to transfer. I wasn't able to get dressed.
"I was really struggling to just do my regular day to day activities."
After meeting a nutritionist, he explained she perhaps wasn't eating enough protein, and within six months her shoulder issues "pretty much disappeared."
Today, Jesi trains others to get their dream physique, but her clients aren't all disabled.
"I focus on non-disabled people. I do work with a lot of wheelchair users just because it's natural," she said.
"I love working with non-disabled people because we are allies.
"The more that I'm able to get to know you and you get to know me, and you see that I'm a normal person, the more that that normalizes disability."
Jesi said that she hopes her able-bodied clients will take what they learn out into the world, to help others living with disabilities.
"Now, when you pass a house with a ramp, you might notice when you see something inaccessible, you're like: 'Oh man,'" Jesi said.
"It's going to trigger that for you, so now you can help to raise awareness."
As for her relationship with her body, Jesi said: "One of the biggest struggles (was) to learn how to live.
"So I focus on what I love about myself - more than what I don't love about my physical being.
"I have a great smile, I love my eyes, I love my hair, I love my muscles.
"I truly am my favorite person in this world; God's number one in my life and I'm number two. I put me before anyone else.
"I love to spend time with me and I focus on that.
"For so long I didn't like who I was, I didn't like the way I was moving in the world, and I would never spend time alone with myself in silence, listening to my own thoughts, because it's loud in there.
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"Not a lot of people are comfortable with that. And I was one of those people.
"I think finding the ability to love my soul has allowed me to love that physical being a little more."
