Alexis Lee was living her best life. She worked full-time in the criminal justice system and part-time on the weekend at a shelter for survivors of domestic abuse. She had also started her own business as a personal stylist.
"I had my life on track," said Alexis.
In the summer of 2018, she was involved in a car crash that changed her life moving forward.
"My car was totalled," Lee explained. "They took me to the emergency. I had second-degree burns on my hands. They patched me up and sent me home. No head scans, nothing."
A week and a half later, Alexis noticed that she couldn't wiggle her toes on one of her feet.
"I knew something was off," said Alexis. "You're telling your body to do something, and it's not doing it. They took me to the hospital and couldn't find out what was wrong."
Soon after, she began to experience slurred speech and couldn't speak without feeling fatigued. She also started to struggle with reading and writing. She was hospitalized later that year and told that she needed psychiatric help.
"I went into a deep depression because I lost my friends," said Alexis. "I used to love reading, but now I couldn't recognize letters anymore. I depended on people to do everything for me. I believed God wanted nothing to do with me anymore."
Eventually, a sports neurosurgeon took hold of her case, and in 2019 she was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury.
"I cried," said Alexis. "When he said that to me, it was a weight off my shoulders," said Alexis.
Since then, she has been able to rebuild her relationship with God. She says it has allowed her to reprioritize where God stands in her life.
She is now writing about her story in a book, Beauty for Ashes. She hopes that she will be able to help other trauma survivors find peace.
Today on Connections, Alexis shares her story in hopes of helping other trauma survivors.