I survived a catastrophic explosion, and it changed my life forever! On September 21, 2021, I was working on the roof of the famous Super Dome in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Super Dome is an iconic structure that has seen Superbowls and super disasters. It became a place of refuge for many New Orleans citizens after Hurricane Katrina decimated the city in August of 2005. Ironically, the company that I was working for at the time of the explosion, reconstructed the roof of the Super Dome after it sustained extensive damage during Hurricane Katrina.
However, in September of 2021, I was not there for a sporting event nor as a refugee. My crew was tasked with painting the new Sponsor’s logo on the roof. About every ten years or so companies can bid to win the venue’s naming rights. I believe we were changing it from the Mercedes Benz Superdome to Ceasars Superdome. Well, repainting 400,000 square feet of roofing is no easy task. We were working extremely hard, long hours in the brutal Louisiana summer heat. We were overworking our equipment and our bodies. My sleep was next to nothing and it became harder to concentrate with each passing day.
After 5 days of constant work, in the 8th hour of a 12 hour shift on Tuesday, September 21, the pressure washer that I was refueling, exploded. Under some slight mental duress I’d accidentally poured gasoline onto the hot muffler of the pressure washer and the combustion was instantaneous. My life was in peril as I wrestled with the raging inferno that followed. I dispersed two fire extinguishers to no avail. The fire was devouring the highly flammable material that insulated the roof and flames shot up 20 feet in the air. I could feel my skin stinging and burning as the fire encroached upon my last means of escape. I gave up the fight to contain the blaze and made my escape to safety. By this time firefighters were on the scene and promptly extinguished the fire. I escaped with 3rd degree burns on my face and arms, and most importantly, my life!
The incident made national headlines and I was at the center of it all! I’ve always had dreams of grandeur, but this was definitely not how I wanted to achieve it. My scars healed after some months, but it would take some years to heal the trauma.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a very real disorder that develops when a person has experienced or witnessed a scary, shocking, terrifying, or dangerous event. And this was by far the most terrifying, scary and shocking event that I’d ever experienced in my life. I went from sporadic sleep to near full-blown insomnia. I started seeing a therapist, and that helped tremendously. But adversely, I’d also started self-medicating with alcohol and pills just to get a solid night’s sleep. I didn’t feel safe and the images of the raging fireball barreling towards me haunted by dreams every night. It wasn’t until a serendipitous meeting with “the pillow lady”, that I would find one of the key ingredients that would help me recover my sleep and my sanity for good.
The Sleep Crown Over-the-Head Pillows came into my life via a life-changing meeting with the Sleep Crown Pillow Founder, Julie Westervelt, in November of 2023. She explained to me how her pillow blocked out light and muffled sound, while giving you a cozy tucked-in sensation that made you feel safe to fall asleep and stay asleep. She had me interested at “safe to sleep”.
See, some of the conditions that can manifest as a result of PTSD are insomnia, anxiety and unexplained fear and agitation. I was inconveniently experiencing all of these. And it really sucked! I started drinking heavily and even pursued getting prescription drugs to help me sleep. None of this worked and truthfully the alcohol only made things worse.
I eventually was able to secure my own Sleep Crown Classic, and I put it to the test. Now the claim was never that the pillow would heal my PTSD or stop any of the symptoms; it would just make me ‘feel safe and tucked in”. Once I was tucked in and felt the gentle coddling embrace of my Sleep Crown, I knew it was real.
Understand this; experiencing fear can be be debilitating and down right paralyzing. There’s this brain-numbing state that comes over you when fear and anxiety show up to your door unprovoked. And often you suffer in silence, because the root of the fear is unexplainable. My fears arose at night, and bedtime became a dread. However, for some reason, the texture and feel of my Sleep Crown resting gently on my skin reminded me of something familiar. It reminded me of my favorite teddy that shielded me from nightmares and the boogyman. It also reminded me of my mother’s touch, and her sweet voice reassuring me that everything would be okay.
I don’t know where I would be today without my Sleep Crown. But what I do know now is that it’s safe to sleep again. And for that, I am so grateful.
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