The northern nurse lauded across the world after surviving being trapped in the wreckage of her car for 14 hours and saving her broken legs by straightening them herself was transferred to her hometown hospital in Kitimat on Tuesday.
Stacie Reis, 27, said she's got a kick out of the coverage she's getting for her actions after a July crash that left her stranded down a 40-foot embankment off Highway 16 east of Terrace.
"It's like everybody's rooting for me all around the world now, everybody's rooting for my recovery, and everybody is proud of me for what I did," said Reis, who had multiple surgeries to treat her injuries and had been recovering in Vancouver General Hospital for weeks.
"Everytime I get a call I think 'Why do you care? It's so... maybe not flattering is the word, I just find it really neat that they think it's interesting, that my story touches people. In some way it strikes a chord in people," said Reis, who works in the neo-natal intensive care unit at the University Hospital of Northern B.C. in Prince George.
Since the story first appeared in The Citizen on Aug. 15, media calls came rushing in and different stories were posted to numerous news sites, from the likes of Global, CTV, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed Canada and BBC Radio News.
"Me and my parents, we have such a giggle," she said.
There was the one website that compared her injuries to getting in a fight with Chuck Norris and the site that wrote about her injuries and used an image of someone else's legs.
Then there was being dubbed a "badass" in a Buzzfeed Canada post. "I don't know if that's the describing word I would use for myself. I think it's fun they think that," she said, adding now her family will use the joke moniker as a form of encouragement, chiding: "C'mon, you're a badass nurse. You can do it."
Soon after, she was flooded with Facebook friend requests and comments about her new-found celebrity.
"It's just insane to have it go viral and then of course it gets distorted. Some of it's a little embellished so it makes me laugh a little," she said, in reference to some descriptions that she set her broken bones.
But as she described the distinction, it didn't really diminish the difficulty.
She straightened her legs, pinned awkwardly to the left, she explained, which isn't quite the same as setting the bones.
Her ankles and feet bones suffered the most damage, but the right leg with its broken tibia was especially painful.
Yes, bones moved in the process of straightening, she conceded.
"I just think my surgeon's going to be reading (and say) 'Well you fixed your own broken bones, fine I'll leave them next time," she said.
"It's a minor distinction. I think it's just the nurse in me, well I don't want them to think the wrong thing."
Reis is still fielding calls for interviews, but for the most part she's in full recovery mode.
She had a scare a few weeks ago in reaction to a blood transfusion from a skin graft surgery on her right foot. She had a violent reaction to it but that all seems to be behind her now.
"My muscle and skin graft is taking beautifully," she said.
She's hoping she can put some weight on her left leg in a couple months, but it'll be three to six months before doctors operate on her right leg - where doctors will fuse her right ankle bone to her calf - and then a few more months after that before she can attempt walking on both feet.
"That means I won't be able to flex at the ankle any more after that but that'll be okay. I'll just learn kind of a new way of walking. I'll have a different gait," she said.
At that point, she'll likely be enrolled in an intensive rehab centre in Prince George.
It's a ways off so in the meantime, she's learning to live with her limited mobility.
"I'm getting pretty handy with my wheelchair," she joked.
But becoming comfortable also means learning how to shower, always being aware of items she needs close and even little things like getting into a comfortable position to sleep.
Reis said it's a relief to be back near her family, with the promise of being discharged to her mother's house in the next week.
"It's a nice feeling to kind of know what the plan is, especially for the first few weeks you have no idea, right? You don't know what's up and what's down."
A now closed online fundraiser raised $17,000, which will help her family with the next transition.
"That money will be so helpful for my family when we're getting my house ready to make it wheelchair accessible," she said.
"Just to help lift the burden so my parents don't have to stress, it should be the least of their worries and with that it can be.
"I'm so grateful that everybody helped and was thinking of me and praying for me - that they just cared."
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Click here to read the original story about Stacie Reis' crash and recovery.
