Episode 55: The One Where Ashley Lost Her Eye

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Welcome to the Celebrated Life Podcast Episode 55. In this episode we are doing things a little bit differently. Over the last few months we have been releasing pre-recorded podcast episodes, meanwhile there has been a life changing event to one of the host lives. Today we are going to get very real as we talk with Ashley about her accident which caused her to lose her eye. 

On March 3rd, 2020 Ashley was driving home from a Your Jubilee tasting with a client.  On her way down a busy street, a driver failed to stop at their stop sign and turned into the lanes Ashley was driving causing her to t-bone the other car. When the airbag deployed her initial thought was that it had broken her nose, but she quickly realized the blood wasn’t coming from her nose, it was coming from her eye.  While an ambulance was called she quickly called her boyfriend through the car’s bluetooth because her phone was lost in the accident to make sure someone knew where she was. Planner at heart, even during the most serious situation, she was thinking through each step.

This was Ashley’s first time in an ambulance, and she couldn’t see.  She put a lot of trust into the individuals who helped her through it, however, she didn’t know the extent of her injury.  It wasn’t until her boyfriend arrived that she was finally able to read the room and realized after talking to the ocular surgeon that she would most likely never be able to see again in her eye.

Ashley knew that she was ready to face the situation with a positive mindset the moment she got into the hospital.  If anyone has been in a similar situation, you’d know that the hospital cuts their patients clothes right off of their body.  Ashley has been working hard to maintain a body positive mindset especially over the last year.  While they were cutting through her clothes, she was not worried about the way she looked, but instead about how they were destroying her nice shirt and favorite bra.  We call that a win!

That night she went right into surgery to attempt to reconstruct her eye and hope that it would maintain pressure.  However, a week after the surgery, Ashley went to see her ocular surgeon to have them tell her another let down.  The pressure in the eye was not holding and they were going to have to remove it.  This was one of the hardest parts for her, while she knew she would never be able to see out of that side again, removing it was not only taking the slim opportunity from her, but it was also literally taking a piece of her away.

She didn’t know the best way to deal with this, but she knew she needed to talk to others in similar situations. The new friends she sought out have helped give advice on driving again, on dealing with changes, and how to use her energy each day.  Ashley has realized that there are not many people out there who are telling their true, authentic story about eye loss.  She hopes that by being open, honest, and authentic to her story she can help others feel like they are not alone and help them get through their hardships too.

“I don’t just write a social media post, I write a journal entry and then I think about, “what if this journal entry is important to share?””

Ashley’s story has so much we can all learn and grow from and the root of it is her attitude.  She has continued to show tremendous strength through each step and still manages to actively search for ways to help others.  If you haven’t seen that yet, we will leave you with the quote directly from Ashley;

“How can I be a force that helps people be kinder to one another?”

SOCIAL MEDIA

@happilyeverashley