I turn two years old today...
Two years ago today, I had a bad motorcycle accident. Long read, but I'm feeling a little somber today. I know it's not much compared to what some of our neighbors have gone through in the last week, but I figured I would tell my story.
I was riding back from a tux fitting (I was to be a groomsmen in a friends wedding) on a nice Monday afternoon at about 4. I'm waiting to turn left, barely rolling.. Foot not quite down. I'm in the intersection. Light turns to yellow, oncoming cars start slowing down.
Light turns to red as I'm preparing to clear the intersection. One lane of oncoming cars stopped, I start to go through the light, and sure enough, didn't see the car running the light in what would be her directions right lane.
I was probably doing 10 or 15 coming from basically a stop, and we estimate she was doing about 10 over. Which would put her at 55 mph. she hit me broadside. I didnt see her until she was probably within arms reach. I have an image stuck in my head from that day. Glancing over, seeing a car within about 3 feet of me, thinking "uh oh"... that image has stuck with me for two years now.
Witnesses say I flew between 15 to 20 high, and about 75 to 100 feet long after she got me. When I landed I didn't have my helmet on. It had been ripped off my head still strapped and everything. I woke up to somebody holding my head in place and a few strangers standing around me. One girl was asking me who to call. I remembered and told her my wifes phone number. Police were there quick, engines 44 and 45 were there. I remember them asking me what hurt. When I told them my leg, the officer said "well that's obvious".
I knew I was hurt bad at that point. I dont remember a drop of blood from that day but I remember my back hurting, my shoulder and my leg. I remember the concrete felt like it was burning me it was so hot and there being nothing I could do to help it. My wife was there fast, it was probably a mile from my house. She had no choice but to bring my 5 week old with her. She called her father who also lives very close and was there fast as well. My wife was on the seen a little after the police. It's still, to this day, hard for her to describe what she saw. I remember looking back up at her from the ground where I was laying and telling her that I was sorry... She was crying...
I dont remember much else from the scene, I do recall some stuff from the ambulance. I remember asking for the EMT to "do his thing, and to knock me out please". He couldnt because I was loosing way to much blood.
My wife told me later that she was standing at the table in the ER with me, covered in blood, holding my leg on the table and watching blood gush out rhythmically with my heart beat. At this point I didnt know the extent of the damage but basically, right side lower leg compound fracture, femur was basically shattered, left shoulder, 5 ribs, 3 vertebrae, collapsed left lung, and lost about 70% of my blood. I was rushed into surgery to work on my femur because they were worried about bone marrow entering the blood stream and getting to my heart. Over the next few days, more surgeries would come. I spent a couple weeks in the hospital, awhile at littleton, and some time at Porter, my wife basically by my side the entire time. We would have "baby therapy" time when my infant son would lay with me in the hospital bed. It was a crazy time.
Out of the hospital I spent months in therapy. I ended up having to go back into surgery to have excess bone growth removed from my femur. It had effectively locked up my leg, and only allowed about 35 degrees of bend. I finally ended up with a therapist named Crystal in at Parker Adventist. This is when my gains became tangelable. I knew every time that I met with her that I was going to hurt. She damn near put me to tears. But we moved my right leg more and more every session.
Eventually we got full movement back in my leg and knee. Today, I walk with a slight limp some times, morning especially. I have made it back onto the flag football (lol I know) field which had been something I had enjoyed for years before hand. My beautiful son turned two last month and is great. I have a hard time knowing that I was very close to not seeing what he has done in his life... From his first steps to randomly calling me "Chad!" and not daddy..lol.. I love every minute of it. It's been a ride.
It's like they say; "You start the game with a full pot o' luck and an empty pot o' experience... The object is to fill the pot of experience before you empty the pot of luck."
I'll save you the gruesome photos, but here are some good ones...
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