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Well, this is me on Febuary 7th. The last night I'll ever have on this earth titanium-free. And btw, they are Australian Shepards, and their names are Aussie (blue one), and Sydnie (brown one).



And here is what my dads truck looked like at 1:30 pm the next day (its not a LUV! very good thing!). I was going around a 90* corner, and the speed limit for the corner was 30, I was doing 35. But that extra 5 mph, the gravel in the road from construction across the street, and the lack of tread on the tires is a deadly combination. My rear tires hung off the road into a ditch and dug in, flipping it 2 and a half times. The people who saw it refered to it as "At first, I thought it was a piece of sheetmetal blowing in the wind. I'm amazed you're still alive!"

Oh, and I had 2 bowling balls flying around in the car during the accident too...





Broke my neck (C5 and C6 vertebrae), so they did this to me. Four titanium bolts, few brackets, a piece of my pelvis. Great. My hip will never be the same!





Here's me home from the hospital Monday night (my accident was Friday day, surgery was Saturday morning). They really have a good turn-around time at the hospital! Apparently when I was there hopped up on morphine 24/7, I hit on all my sisters friends, my girl-friends, and all the nurses. Hah.




Here's were my teeth went through my lip.




Here are my wounds two weeks later.





So, I wore my neckbrace for the following 3 months (sleep was HELL), and now I finally have the damn thing off. Here are my scars.






And don't worry, my face is still as pretty as it was before . Now, heres the kicker, mid-firstflip I blacked out (hit my head on the ceiling. WEAR YOUR SEATBELT) so, when I wake up half in and half out of my window I just feel real dizzy, like I just got hit in the nose (the ground has hard fists). I feel dazed but feel okay, so I sit up, spitting blood, pieces of my lips and tongue and chipped teeth out, and I see this girl (hottie, about 20) standing across the street with her hand over her mouth and staring at me in horror, so I try to convince her I'm fine and don't need an ambulance. As I'm doing this I reach out to grab the underbelly (physics made it temporarily my roof) of my car to help me up, and am about to stand when this older lady runs up to me and tells me to lay down and not to move a muscle til the ambulance has a chance to get there. Thats she's a nurse and will take care of me. First thing I asked her was "Am I still pretty?" , so she tells me "Of course! You're beautiful!"


That woman saved my life. If I would have stood up I would have put pressure on my vertebrae and it would have snapped my spinal cord. As it was, I was 1mm away from snapping it.


I remember she was about low to mid 40's, attractive, and had long blonde curly hair, but can't remember a thing about her face! But I can describe the girl accross the street who I just glanced at in vivid detail (green shirt, black hair, driving a red durango) and remember her face.


I am convinced this nurse was my angel. She's shows up out of no-where (no one saw her drive up, or drive off), and when the ambulance got there she was just gone. Not on the police report or anything.



So now, luckily my baseball carreer isn't over! And I am nothing short but a slightly smaller turning radius, can't look up too too far, and a slight crick for now from what I was before that fateful day!

Wow.

I had disc surgery (L4/L5) when I was about 33. It was the most miserable experience of my life. I don't envy you one moment of your recovery.

Sounds like you had great care, and it looks like you've healed well.

When I flipped by '79 Malibu at 23, I had my seat belt on and only took 13 stitches in my head, and suffered some bruised internals. My car looked just about like your truck. Not to preach, but I'm glad you mentioned the seat belt thing. There is no doubt in my mind that it saved my life. I don't go down the driveway without putting it on...

If you are in PT, keep it up. Learning how to relax and strengthen your mucsles now will pay big rewards in 20 years. I'm back in PT now because I didn't pay attention ten years ago. It sucks.

Thanks for sharing this, it's sort of a personal thing.

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"If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves" - Thomas Edison

Wow Dustin man you almost checked out. Now here's a dude who knows the value of a photo. I hope you heal up well. Sorry it happened.

And don't blame the morphine. It was truth serum, and you were just showing your true self!!

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'78 1.8L 4-speed Fleetside

The only thing more beautiful than a sunset is a sunrise.

Dang man...you got messed up!
Hope you dont have neck problems... I know a guy at work who had an ATV accident and for the 3 years that I have known him he has constant neck problems. I couldnt even tell ya how many surgeries and all the drugs he has... not to mention this little shock therapy thing he carrys with him.

918? Tulsa area?

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real sorry to hear about the accident. thanks for sharing it though cause sometimes people like me don't realize what could happen even a little above speed limits. I am glad to hear your alive
take care for now

James

Yea, I'm in Tulsa. It happened where Riverside turns into 121st, or as the cop and ambulance guys call it "Death corner".


I was actually following my two friends to his house, and the one in the middle actually saw this happen in his rear-view mirror. He was traumatized. I could see it in his face when he walked up to me laying in the ditch. He couldn't come within 10 feet of me and ended up throwing up. I feel bad for that .


Oh, and another funny thing. So, I'm laying on the xray table in the ER, still convinced nothings wrong with me put two broken arms (bruised spinal cord actually), so I can't move my hands at all or there is extreme pain. Anyways, the cop has the audacity to come up beside me and tell me why I'm getting these two tickets and how much they are, then, HE ASKS ME TO SIGN THEM! I politely (riiiight), told him that I couldn't because my fucking arms were broken, but thanks. Got the bull "too fast for conditions" ticket dismissed anyways. But I'm stuck with the seatbelt one, which is fine with me. My own stupid fault. Thats pretty much the main reason why I posted this, to show what can happen.


And to tell you the truth, its not THAT bad. The pain that is. I weaned myself off the pain meds about a month before when I was supposed to. I'm the kinda guy that cuts off his cast cause I know I'm healed already. The neuro-surgeon told me he was astonished by how fast I have healed and has never seen anyone recover like this in 40 years! Then again, I did sprint a mile and jog another 2 every day.



I believe that in a year, I'll be stronger than I was before the accident (mentally and phsycially). My theory is: Which is stronger, titanium or bone? Well, I have both.


Gotta keep your head up when shit like this happens. I've realized how I need to live. If you don't enjoy doing something, don't do it. It really isn't worth it. Lifes too short. I'd rather be broke than have a job I hate. I'd rather take minimum wage to spend time with the ones I love than have millions of dollars and not even know my family.


Live happy, you never know when you could have it snatched from you.

Oh, and thanks for all the love guys.