Kristen Sell graduated from high school with plans for her future, but those plans changed one week later during a family camping trip. While on the trip, Kristen was kicked by a horse and shattered her tibia. She had to be transported to the hospital by ATV due to her remote location. At the hospital, surgeons inserted a rod and screws in her leg and discovered badly pulled ligaments in her wrist requiring a cast. Though fearful she may never walk again, Kristen recovered and is now able to walk, but with scars and a changed life path from what she originally planned.

1. The First LinkBy: Kristen Sell This Presentation contains graphic images

2. June 7th, 2007 I graduated from high school with a great plan for my future.

3. Mom, Dad, & Me

4. My siblings and me

5. Seven days later, I went on a camping trip with my family. I was kicked by a horse and shattered my tibia.

6. I was five miles up a rocky trail, so I had to ride down on the back of an all terrain vehicle.In the ambulance on the way to the University Hospital in Kentucky (stick splint on my leg)

7. Dad holding my hand at the hospitalClose-up of the stick splint

8. The nurses removing the splint after a long first day in the hospital

9. I was scared I wouldn’t make it.

10. Surgeons inserted a rod and four screws into my right leg. They also found out that my swollen right wrist was full of badly pulled ligaments. I spent the rest of that summer with a cast on my arm sitting in a wheelchair.

11. My wrist swollen to almost the size of my knee

12. I was scared I would never walk again.

13. The stitches in my leg

14. My high school sweetheart and I after my first miserable follow-up appointment

15. I was scared that nothing would ever be the same.

16. Despite my fears, I did make it through and I am more than able to walk now. Nothing is really the same as it was before, but I am more than okay with the changes.

17. ssdMy leg, today. My scars are barely visible.

18. Life threw me down an entirely different path than I had planned. I have learned to adapt to the unexpected and I believe I am on the right path.

19. June 14th, 2007Seven days after my high school graduation and the first link in an unending chain of events that would lend a hand in molding me into the adult I continue to become.