Skip to main content

Trending Now: What everyone's reading.

Rebuilding Strength When Nothing Moves Fast Enough

By The Artful Woman
I made it to the gym Saturday. And Monday. And today. If all goes well, I’ll go again Friday. It doesn’t sound like much. For some people it’s just routine. For me, it’s everything. Life is still chaotic. Today my workout got cut short because my caretaker had to rush to urgent care — teenage drama, a fight at school, one of those moments that reminds you the world doesn’t pause just because you’re trying to heal. Nothing in my life is moving quickly right now. Insurance is slow. Legal processes are slow. Disability is slow. Every step requires another referral, another form, another phone call. It feels like living inside a system that runs on “eventually.” Meanwhile, my body is still catching up to trauma. Nerves that were cut. Areas that are numb. Pain that lingers. A limb that’s gone. Metal holding things together. Some days I feel like a collection of repairs. And yet — the gym is the one place I don’t feel broken. It hurts to train. I’m tired. My body protests...
Post a Comment

Rebuilding Strength When Nothing Moves Fast Enough

Image
By The Artful Woman

I made it to the gym Saturday.

And Monday.
And today.

If all goes well, I’ll go again Friday.

It doesn’t sound like much. For some people it’s just routine. For me, it’s everything.

Life is still chaotic. Today my workout got cut short because my caretaker had to rush to urgent care — teenage drama, a fight at school, one of those moments that reminds you the world doesn’t pause just because you’re trying to heal.

Nothing in my life is moving quickly right now.

Insurance is slow.
Legal processes are slow.
Disability is slow.
Every step requires another referral, another form, another phone call.

It feels like living inside a system that runs on “eventually.”

Meanwhile, my body is still catching up to trauma.

Nerves that were cut.
Areas that are numb.
Pain that lingers.
A limb that’s gone.
Metal holding things together.

Some days I feel like a collection of repairs.

And yet — the gym is the one place I don’t feel broken.

It hurts to train. I’m tired. My body protests.

But when I move, I remember something important:

Strength is safety.

Every pound I lift is a small rebellion against dependence.
Every workout is proof that I am not done.
Every drop of sweat says, “I am still here.”

Nothing in this process is overnight. Not the lawsuits. Not the benefits. Not the nerve regeneration. Not the healing.

So I build what I can control.

Muscle.
Endurance.
Stability.
Hope.

I don’t train because it’s easy.
I train because giving up would cost me more.

This is slow rebuilding.
This is deliberate.
This is me refusing to disappear inside what happened.

And I’m not finished.

Not even close.

If my story resonates with you and you’d like to support my recovery journey, medical expenses, and fight to rebuild my independence after trauma, my GoFundMe link is in my bio. Every donation, share, and kind word genuinely helps me keep going — physically, emotionally, and financially. Thank you for being part of my healing journey.

https://gofund.me/c51bde360



#GoFundMe #GoFundMeJourney #GoFundMeSupport #MedicalFundraiser #SupportRecovery #RecoveryJourney #TraumaRecovery #HealingAfterTrauma #DisabilitySupport #HopeAndHealing #RebuildingMyLife #FightForRecovery #StrengthThroughStruggle #AdaptiveFitness #ChronicPainWarrior #SurvivorStrong #CommunitySupport #HealingJourney #OneStepAtATime #NeverGiveUp

Labels:
Location: Lake Elsinore, CA, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

It’s time for me to start telling my story.

By The Artful Woman
 It’s time for me to start telling my story. For a long time, I stayed quiet outside of a very small circle of close friends. I shared only enough to stay connected, but not enough to be fully seen. That wasn’t avoidance—it was protection. After my accident, my nervous system and my energy field simply could not take in more input from the outside world. As an empath, I had to retreat in order to survive and heal. But as my strength slowly returns, I feel that silence shifting. I was in a tragic accident on Ortega Highway that changed the entire course of my life. In an instant, everything I knew about my body, my independence, and my future was disrupted. Since then, I’ve been forced into a long and ongoing process of rebuilding—not just physically, but emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. And I’m still in it. Even the simplest things that most people take for granted have become daily challenges. Basic mobility. Using the restroom safely and in time. Navigating transfers ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why I’m Still Here

By The Artful Woman
  Why I’m Still Here By Jean Marshall I’ve asked myself the question more times than I can count: Why am I still here? After a stroke that changed my life five years ago, I thought I had already learned resilience. I thought I had already been tested. But then came the accident — a beautiful September morning that shattered my body, altered my future, and once again forced me to start over from the ground up. There are days I still can’t fully understand it. One man’s poor decision, one wrong moment, and everything changed. My bones broke. My leg was lost. My body shut down. My life — the one I’d built with so much effort — came to a stop. But somehow, my heart didn’t. They tell me it took over twenty doctors and nurses to keep me alive that day. I was in an induced coma, held together by machines, prayers, and the hands of strangers. There were moments I thought I was dying — I even said my last prayers. But each time I surrendered, something unseen pulled me back. Something...
Post a Comment
Read more

Help Me Stay Housed While Recovering From a Life-Changing Accident

By The Artful Woman
  Help Me Stay Housed While Recovering From a Life-Changing Accident On September 6th, my life changed in an instant when a driver crossed into my lane on Ortega Highway and hit me head-on. My car was thrown into the air and I nearly lost my life. My vehicle was completely totaled. I spent four months in the hospital. The first part was in a trauma unit where I was placed in an induced coma and underwent multiple life-saving surgeries. I was then transferred to an acute care facility where I required critical support, including IVs, a tracheostomy, a feeding tube, and dialysis. My injuries included: Loss of my right leg Six broken ribs and two vertebrae Broken pelvis, right arm, and wrist Multiple fractures in my left leg Kidney and heart failure from trauma Many of my injuries required surgical repair with metal hardware that I am still healing from After returning home, my focus has been recovery. I’ve faced infections, complications, and delayed healing that hav...
Post a Comment
Read more

What Surviving Twice Taught Me About Purpose—And What It Didn’t

By The Artful Woman
  Questioning the idea that survival comes with a purpose to fulfill I’ve survived two life-altering events, and what I’ve learned about purpose isn’t what people expect. They say, “God kept your alive for a reason,” or “God still has a purpose for you.” And I need to be honest about how that lands for me. It doesn’t feel comforting. It feels like pressure. Like surviving something traumatic automatically comes with an assignment—something I’m supposed to figure out later, some hidden meaning I’m expected to uncover. And in my case, this hasn’t been said just once. It’s been said twice. Once after my stroke in 2020. And now again after a near-death accident on September 6th 2025 that changed my life forever. So it starts to create a pattern I can’t ignore—that my survival is always being tied to some purpose I haven’t “fulfilled” yet. And that raises a real question for me: Why does it sound like I have to go through something catastrophic in order for my life to be cons...
Post a Comment
Read more