EVERETT, Wash. -- It's been more than a month since a speeding driver plowed into Officer Suzanne Eviston's patrol car, but she says she's just beginning her recovery process.

The crash on July 15 crushed the left side of Eviston's body and broke the leg of her 9-year-old police dog, Axel.

She was responding to a burglary call at a construction site in Everett when a stolen Jeep driven by the man suspected in the burglary broadsided her vehicle.

Firefighters had to cut off the patrol car's door and peel back the roof to free her and her police dog.

The impact crushed Eviston's ribs, shoulder and pelvis and she remains in a wheelchair.

She also suffered internal bleeding, and during a news conference Tuesday at Providence Everett Medical Center said she doesn't remember much.

"That was pretty surprising, waking up in the hospital and finding myself put together with different things," she said of her first thoughts. "I was in pretty rough shape."

Investigators say Alan Waterman was high on methamphetamine and speeding from the scene of the burglary when he slammed into Eviston's patrol car.

Eviston didn't even see the pictures of the crash until two days ago, and said it was one of the worst she'd ever seen.

"The car door was pressed into my side and I was pushed right over to the middle of the car," Eviston said.

She said one of the toughest things was being separated from her K-9 partner while she was hospitalized, and Axel's first visit to the hospital was overwhelming.

"Initially we didn't do it too often because he would get too excited and I was worried about him hurting himself."

Eviston and Axel are both wearing "external fixators," which are metal rods and pins designed to support broken bones.

Doctors will remove the supports later this week and the two will begin therapy to learn to walk again.

"We're determined people," Eviston said. "We're survivors and I don't know too many people that would hang it up actually."

Waterman is being held in the Snohomish County Jail and is facing a long list of charges stemming from the crash. Two other men were also arrested in the burglary.

Eviston says she'll have to stay in the hospital for another two months, but she hopes to return to work by December.