So I will heed the advice of my colleagues, because I respect their advice and, more importantly, I don't want anyone to think the brace is some sort of bizarre fashion choice.

The circumstances of my accident are pretty mundane for such a dire consequence. On a Friday in late July I was moving into a new apartment and, at one fateful point, tried to carry too much up the stairs. I lost my balance and fell off the staircase. Not down it--off it. Anyone can fall down the stairs; it takes a special kind of clumsiness to fall over the railing.

It was an eight foot drop. Luckily my cell phone was within crawling distance and I was soon on my way to the hospital via ambulance. There were X-Rays, a Cat Scan, and an MRI over the course of about five hours. Finally after this surreal odyssey a neurosurgeon walked in and told me I had a burst fracture in my L-2 vertebrate. And that I had to have surgery. Now. I asked if he was really okay doing that at one in the morning. "Oh yeah," he replied pleasantly and confidently. "We do it all the time."

As it turns out, another patient arrived with a more serious injury so I had to wait for my turn in the OR. And, trust me, THAT was a fun few hours. Nothing like a little extra time to contemplate your mortality. When they did start to prep me for surgery I was again struck by how reassuring, together and even funny the doctors and nurses were. Finally, though, they did ask my boyfriend to go to the waiting room. When he walked in at 6 a.m. the TV was on and the open of 13 News Weekend was rolling--the newscast I should have been working. He said it was so creepy he had to turn the set off.

The surgery lasted 5 1/2 hours, followed by five looonng and uncomfortable days in the hospital. Then there were a couple of very tough, painful months of recovery at home. I've been easing back into work--first weekends, then adding a day or two during the week.

Through it all I've been fortunate to be in the care of capable and compassionate medical professionals. And I can never say "thank you" enough to all the viewers who emailed and called the station--first to ask where I was, then to offer support and prayers when I came back and explained on-air what had happened. Those messages sustained me through some very difficult times.

So that's why you'll still sometimes see me in a brace. I'm wearing it less on the air, but it will be another six months before I'm (close) to good as new.