Trucking Incident Caused Ostomy

I have been a truck driver for over 20 years. Ever since I was little, I’ve always had a great fascination with big machines and heavy equipment. I enjoyed watching trucks and semi-trailers blundering along the highways whenever I went on big trips with my family and was always curious about truck driver’s seemingly nomadic and straightforward lifestyle. I began my career working for a construction company, where I drove different types of trucks carrying different types of cargo to construction sites all over the midwest. I have hauled just about every type of material needed for building and developing construction, sand, concrete, steel, lumber, gravel, etc. This was an excellent job for me for a while, but I began to take more interest in different types of trucking.

A few years later, I found myself working for a Walmart as one of their merchandise delivery truckers. This involved transporting various non-perishable goods from Walmart warehouses to the actual supercenters in towns and cities all over the country. The hours of driving got longer, and I felt much more fatigued by the end of my long trips and, at times, would simply be sick of driving. However, the pay was good, and I enjoyed the benefits that came with the position.  I found myself driving all over the country and seeing parts of the United States that I had never been to before. The only downside was that I couldn’t usually afford to stop anywhere and sight-see for too long; this was especially unfortunate when I came across national parks or interesting cities that I very much wanted to explore. 

One night I was driving through the northern side of Colorado up into Montana when I got into my first serious trucking accident. It was a rainy night, and the visibility was poor. I found myself driving well under the speed limit in order to feel comfortable with the weather conditions and with the load I was carrying at the time. Out of nowhere, I began to hydroplane across the road and well into the left lane of the interstate. To avoid hitting the car driving just to the left of my driver ’s-side door, I swerved back to the right, which can only be described as a classic overcorrection. I went completely off the road and started to tumble down a small hill and into a small clump of trees. I remember feeling like I was floating in my seat as the cab kept spinning and turning down the hill, until eventually coming to an ugly halt as I came into contact with the trees.

From the accident, I found myself with a torn lower intestine that the doctors described as irreparable. I had an ostomy performed a couple of weeks after the incident, and now I will live the rest of my life with a physical reminder of that night on the road. Living with an ostomy required an adjutant to many different parts of my life, especially with the foods that I can eat. I had to change a lot about my daily habits and try to structure things around having an ostomy. I still drive trucks to this day and have not allowed myself to be impaired from things I enjoy in life because of my ostomy.