Hiking Disaster

It was the second week of summer break and it was the fourth day of me staying over at my cousin's house in Napa. Summer break was starting off really well and adventurous. It was Monday June 15, 2015, the last day that I was staying at my cousin's house. It was around 11 in the morning and my mom calls me to let me know that she is picking up my cousin and I so, she can takes us out to eat and shop for a while in Napa.

After we get done with shopping and eating, we go back to my cousins house to drop her off, my backpack that had all my clothes was already in the trunk of the car since we were just dropping my cousin off at her house and I was suppose to be going back home that afternoon but, that all changed when my aunt opened the front door and tells me to stay one more night, so we can go hiking in a few hours. We were suppose to go hiking in the morning but my aunt was busy. My mom lets me stay one more night, so I brought my backpack down from the car and waved goodbye to my mom as I make my way back inside my cousins house. We go upstairs to get ready for our hike.

It was around 3pm when we arrived to WestWood Hills in Napa. I was excited for the hike since it was my first time hiking. My cousin and aunt have gone there before so they were familiar with the area but I wasn't, since it was my first time going hiking. My aunt decides she wanted to take a different trail than the one they normally take. As were going up it was getting tiring because the trail we took had high hills. Once we get to the very top of the mountain, it has a beautiful view of Napa and we take a picture before making our way back down. As we're going back down the hill it's super steep and going straight down. I was getting scared since my legs were becoming shaky. Those were the last moments I remembered from that hike.

I wake up in a hospital to doctors asking me questions. Doctors are telling me, I fell 100ft while I was hiking that caused a concussion and resulted in a traumatic brain injury that fractured my skull. My cousin that was hiking with me told me, I lost my balance and started rolling down the hill all the way down to the bottom and that my aunt went running after me, and some other man that was hiking called 911. An ambulance arrived within minutes and they couldn't drive all the way down to where I fell so they had to get a helicopter. I don't remember a lot from when I was in the hospital for a week but, I remember having horrible head pain and headaches. Doctors would give me 8 pills of medication everyday. I would sleep a lot and have no appetite.

Friday June 19th they finally let me go home, I remember stepping out from the hospital building and being so sensitive to light. When I got home, I was very happy to be home but, I didn’t feel the same since my health wasn't good. For two months straight, I had doctors appointment 4 days out of the week and I had to take eight pills of medication everyday for two months. I stayed home in bed all summer since I had blurry vision and I felt embarrassed to go out since my blurry vision would make me feel confused.

Towards the beginning of August I started to notice an improvement in my health physically and mentally. I was slowly starting to feel like myself. I no longer had doctors appointments or took medications and, my vision was a lot better. This was a life changing experience that changed me in both good and bad. It changed me negatively because it was the most traumatic incident that I have ever gone through and caused a lot of anxiety that I still have to live with to this day. Overall, it taught me to be a good person and to be grateful for everyday that I am living. I have learned to never take your life for granted because you never know what could happen to you when you least expect it.