Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/980339
t m c » p u l s e | m a y 2 0 1 8 5 Ellis has undergone 56 surgeries since the accident. Metal rods, screws and plates are fixed throughout her body to help keep her skeletal system intact, and she is still grappling with the effects of her traumatic brain injury and spinal cord damage, as well as a partial paralysis along the right side of her body. Two years later, and it still feels numb. "I had hoped to be running by now," Ellis said, speaking slowly and deliberately. "But I'm still hobbling. If it was just the leg, I'd be going. But it's the brain injury, it's the right side of my body. That's what's causing all my problems." Before the accident, Ellis, who is 5 feet 5 inches tall, weighed a fit 165 pounds. By the time she was finally dis- charged from the hospital, her once-muscular body had atro- phied to just 85 pounds. She was not projected to live, much less walk, but she has pushed herself past all expectations. "They told me I couldn't do certain things and I would go and do them," Ellis recalled. "I said I wanted walking crutches and they told me I wasn't ready for them. So I got online and ordered some and walked into my next therapy session. They were shocked." That tolerance for suffering, that grit, is something Ellis has always had— and it likely saved her life. "What has really impressed me with Adessa is this nonstop perseverance in knowing what she wants and figuring out how to get it," said Danielle H. Melton, M.D., director of the Amputee and Orthotics and Prosthetics Program at TIRR Memorial Hermann Hospital. "She has really surprised everybody in her recovery." At age five Ellis enrolled in taekwondo despite her moth- er's insistence on gymnastics—she'd always been a fighter, and although she was teased mercilessly for it, karate school was her escape. She eventually achieved second-degree black belt before she quit at 15 to move to New York to live with her dad. After finishing school, she got a job as a UPS driver and worked there for 22 years, hopping in and out of the truck and jogging back and forth between businesses and homes. She loved it. Her friends in the dark brown uniforms still honk when they drive by her house. "I had a long ponytail and people would stare at me all the time. They acted like they'd never seen a girl driving for UPS," she said proudly. "I was just used to it, so I'm used to it when people stare at me now." Ellis has always pushed her body to its limits. She has competed in six Ironman triathlons—a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike-ride, and 26.2-mile run— and never shied away from a physical challenge. If it's true that God doesn't give you something you can't handle, then Ellis is living, breathing proof. (continued) RECOVERY