Here ya go. I finally found my X-Rays.
I'll explain if needed lol.
EDIT: Ah, guess it's worth explaining.
Ok, story time boys and girls:
Where to begin? Oh, alright. August 2nd, 2004.
Two friends of mine, Ryan and Tyler, were planning on going up to Connecticut to visit a friend and to this skate park up there. I was asked if I wanted to tag along and I said sure, why not?
We drove up there (from Jersey), early that morning. Took us about 2 hours before we got to this girls house. We were all hanging around, there was about 8 girls and just us three. It was pretty nice. Anyway, someone suggested that we skip the skate park and hit up this huge rope swing that's down in the trails. Supposedly it was about 15 feet in the air and led into the bay. We decided that that would be pretty sick, considering it was hot as balls out, and we took a nice 30 minute walk through the woods to the bay.
When we got there, that 15 foot rope swing turns out to be about 30, that was tied to a gigantic branch from a tree. It stood above this narrow rocky cliff, about 5 feet from the water. It swung out a good 50 feet, and at the middle of the swing, you would be about 5 feet above water.
I looked down the cliff and said **** that, while Ryan and Tyler both rushed to try it. They had their fun, both got some severe cuts on their hands from the rigid rope and some water burns from falling so fast and high.
We were at the bay for a good 3 hours, and it was getting towards the time where we wanted to be back, so we left.
The drive back was hell, we ended up getting lost and taking a detour through Brooklyn. Ryan had a brilliant idea of blasting some DMX while we're stopped at a red light, in an Evo, with three white boys in the car nodding their heads. Brilliant. Half of anyone who was on the street quickly glanced our way. Not that I cared or anything, but, wtf?
We ended up getting home around 8:00. None of us really felt like parting, so I decided to invite them over to my Mom's condo for the night. This is where everything starts to go wrong.
My mom's house is around a five minute drive from my fathers, which was really great back then. Mother was in California at the time, for about three weeks with her boyfriend. She lived here and there for about three years, off and on. See, normally I would throw a party, get smashed, and wreak havoc to my mother's carpet from the undigested liquid and food sitting in my stomach, but it was both my parent's birthdays on the 3rd, and I really didn't know if my Mom was going to be home or not that night. Instead, we figured we'd sit down, watch some movies, go to Wegmans (which kicks ass because it was right across the street), and eat and chill.
We ended up doing just as such. In fact, we were up all night doing that.
It was now around 7:00 AM and I had a great idea. Figuring that we couldn't really skate at all today (I forgot to mention that I was really really into skateboarding. I had skated for 6 years prior to that date, and was sponsored by a local skate shop.), I suggested we go to the gigantic parking lot next to a huge office building that was about 50 feet from the condo. It was a sweet spot to skate; it had ledges and gaps galore in the front lobby. They agreed, and we took off on our boards.
After about 30 minutes of messing around in the parking lot, I decided I wanted to actually do something big. For awhile, I had seen this huge gap in the front of the building. It was around an eight foot drop, about 10 feet long, that led to some smooth tile black tile down below. In the middle of the front side, had stairs that led to the front entrance. Normally I would have hit that, but the pavement leading up to it was bricks, which was horrible for skating on.
We were on the side of the building, and I was warming up by testing my speed and judgment on how I should approach it. Before anything, I knew that the landing had to be cleared due to the rocks that filled the gap. They were decent in size, around the size of a kiwi, with some smaller ones mixed in. I cleared the area out.
The first few attempts I clearly realized I wasn't going to have enough speed to totally clear the gap. I ended up shooting my board out around 2/3's of the way through while I ended up slamming my feet into the tile.
I then got another idea: Let's have Ryan bring his car over so I can grab onto his wing while he's going around 15mph. Brilliant.
First two tries I had more than enough speed, I just bailed out.
Third try: Landed! I started swerving from going so fast. Before I knew it, I was knocked out.
I woke up. Ryan and Tyler were both holding me over their shoulders, while I was mumbling to myself. A had about a two second rush in my ears, and then my hearing came back; along with the pain. I screamed so hard my throat felt like it was ripping. At that moment, all of my pain was concentrated on my left side; my collar bone and mid section. Then, the nose. My nose started leaking blood like you had just punctured the bottom of a soda can. We slowly walked back to my moms house where I stumbled for the bathroom.
A) I took a piss.
B) I looked at myself in the mirror. I knew I had hit my head but I didn't know where. I started feeling around. Yeah, left side of my skull felt extremely painful when I touched it, but when I didn't I was fine. I didn't think too much of it considering I started to become dizzy and was dripping blood everywhere. Ryan opened the bathroom door after I didn't talk to them for about 30 seconds, and Tyler came to my aid as well. Ryan said that I should call my dad, who happens to be a nurse, and tell him we're getting our asses over there right now.
I call my dad, and all he hears is "We'ree comung ovr becus I'm hurt blah blah blah mumble mumble mumble". He asks what the **** is wrong with me, and I hang up on him.
We get in the car. He slowly drives down the main road that leads to my dad's house, while Tyler holds my head steady because I'm wobbling all over the place. Meanwhile, I have a rag stuff in my nose to stop the blood from pouring all over the seat.
We arrive at my father's house about ten minutes later, where he is standing outside. I get out of the car, and start to really lose it. Here's where I've been told everything due to me losing sense of what was going on around me. I honestly remember bits and pieces of things from my fathers house to the hospital, and I don't have any recollection of the actual accident happening. That three-five second period I was knocked out I don't remember anything either.
My father checks me out, and automatically can tell that I have a concussion and an internal injury to my skull. There would be no reason that my nose would be bleeding that profusely when I have no open wounds.
Once again, my father also drove slowly. The hospital is around 15 minutes away, so the ride wasn't too terrible. All I was told was I was mumbling some more, and the only real audible words coming from my mouth were "I'm concust" "I'm consust." Yeah. Lol.
Anyway, my dad pulled up to the patient drop off section, which I was accommodated by two nurses who put me in a wheel chair and attended to my needs. I was rushed to the ER, where the first thing I was going to get was a cat scan. First the head, then the mid section.
I don't remember a thing while getting the CT, and my father wasn't there to tell me anything, so that I'll have to leave out.
I end up getting out of the CT room twenty minutes later, where I was put on a stretcher while the technicians and doctors looked over the results. What was known from the first scans was that I had broken my collar bone, and fractured three ribs on my left side.
The head scan was a different story. My father was told that there was hematoma, or a collection of blood, in between my skull and my brain. They were going to give it some time to see if it would drain itself, then do another scan. My father requested to see the scans himself, and I'm sure glad he did. The tech that looked at the scans had totally read them wrong. The hematoma wasn't small, nor was it going to drain. The thing was massive. He told the tech to get a ****ing neurosurgeon down here as soon as possible. Dr. Hooshangi, a well known neurosurgeon came down quickly, and brought me into the CT room once again for another scan.
Just as my father had said, the hematoma was huge, and growing. If they didn't act quickly, I would end up having brain damage from the blood pushing against my brain. Yeah, ouch.
First things first, the catheter. Oh boy, the catheter. What a ****ing bitch. A nurse came in saying that they were going to stick a tube up my penis.
Umm, what? Can you say that again? I don't think I heard that right..
"Don't resist when I insert it. The more you resist, the more it will hurt."
I think to myself.. "Alright, I heard that right.."
"What the **** you're not sticking anything up my ****ing dick I swear..."
Meanwhile, I flip out, and start throwing punches all over the place. I land one on a female nurse (which I apologize to later), and miss the rest. About 4 nurses stood around me while the catheter was inserted. Ouch. Haha, you definitely don't want to have this done, guys.
Anyway, after that small outburst, I was moved in the the OR, or operating room. Last thing I remember was that I had about 6 surgeons standing over me, with white masks on and one with a plastic cover in his hands saying
"Just breathe in the gas Scott, you'll end up going to sleep"
So I did. Went to sleep and that's it. End of my story for now.
While all of this is going on, my brother, who is 13 at the time, is home worried. My father said that he was bringing me to the hospital, and didn't mention why or for what. He had called my mom to tell her this, who was woken up by the phone call. Her boyfriend was pissed to hear that, considering it was her birthday (and my father's too if you've forgotten already) and they were getting a wake up call at 6:00 am their time.
My father received a call from my Mom, and not a happy one either. She was bitching about how he never told her, and wanted to know what had happened. He told her, and the moment she got off the phone, she had rushed out the door to leave for the airport.
She got to the airport, where she was in a rush to get a ticket for the first flight out here. Surprisingly, the first flight was totally booked. What a joke. Booked from SF to EWR, an early flight too nonetheless. She ended up desperately searching around for something, and just when she is thinking about waiting for the next flight, an old couple walks up to her, who has apparently overhead the story she told the man at the desk. The wife offered to give up her ticket to my mother, and my mom cried and thanked her a hundred times. She took off for a 5 hour flight around 8:15 am.
At the hospital, Ryan and Tyler sat in the waiting room worried to tears for around 7 hours. After the second, my father had joined them. I actually found out that both of them were crying after a nurse had told them that I had a severe head injury that was life threatening. I would have too if it was one of them.
Back to me now. I have no idea what the hell I dreamed about while in surgery. Knowing me, probably skateboarding. Ha. Anyway, after 5 hours of surgery, I was moved to ICU, or Intensive Care Unit, where they monitor your vital signs and such, and people are actually allowed to wait with the patient. Ryan, Tyler and my father were all relieved after speaking with Dr. Hooshangi, who had told them the surgery was a success.
The doctor had to "Re-construct" my skull, using 7 titanium metal plates, and 26 screws. Count them in the X-Ray if you'd like. I had broken half of my skull essentially. Everything from my Orbit (eye socket), my sinuses, temporal, frontal and parietal. Let the scan speak for itself. Everything within that black line that follows the shape of a crooked "n" was cracked.
Anyway, he had told them this, and they were ecstatic. Not long after I had came out of surgery, my mom showed up in tears.
After a total of 14 hours at the hospital (In ICU I slept for another 7 hours), I finally awoke around 10:00 PM. I slowly opened my eyes to see that Ryan, Tyler, my father and mother were in the room, all sitting in chairs across the room hunched over and talking. They weren't really able to see me; I had a blue curtain around my bed for privacy due to the fact that I was in a three patient room. I knew I was fine, and I actually smiled. I sat around for awhile; I tried to recollect what had happened but it was useless. With a tube stuck in my penis and multiple IVs sitting in my arms, I sat there waiting for someone to come back and check up on me so I could give them a surprise.
About 10 minutes later, my mom came stumbling over the the curtain. She opened it, and I shut my eyes. I very so slightly lifted my right eye lid up a bit to see her, which she had her back turned to my talking to everyone sitting in front of her. I opened my eyes completely, and said
"Hi, Mom. Do you have any food?"
My mom quickly turned around and everyone stood up. Their eyes glared with happiness while hers filled with tears. She let out a huge chuckle, and the room became less tense. Everyone came over and crowded me; My brother, sister, father, mother, Ryan and Tyler. Boy was I happy to see everyone.
The first thing I heard was "Thanks for the birthday gift, Scott.", coming both from my Mom and Dad.
After that, they all were talking at once and I couldn't keep up with any of it. Anyway, we ended up talking about what had happened to me and what they did. Nothing really shocked me at all, considering I don't have a simple mind nor a simple outlook on life. I figured I had survived, and I knew I would, so everything was fine. Well, almost. The big subject I was hearing was:
"Why weren't you wearing a helmet?!" "Why, why why?"
I have no response to that. I should have been, but being a bit over confident in myself I thought I would be fine without it. I'm sorry guys and girls, but please, wear your helmets.
.
Everything seemed swell. My mother brought over a mirror so I could have a look at myself. I was expecting a wreck, but was wrong. I had not one bruise on my face! Nothing. Just a giant white bandage that wrapped around my entire left part of my skull and face, and wrapped underneath my chin. I definitely didn't mind that at all, actually, it looked hot.
What I didn't know was that underneath all the bandages, I had half of my hair. The doctor only shaved half of my hair. Haha.
The first night of recovery was hell. After all of the commotion had settled down, a nurse came in for my check-up. She told me about my sling around my arm, and how I needed to keep my arm rested on my chest at all times. She also told me a bunch of other things, but two things really struck me.
1) I couldn't eat for 12 hours. Something about me not being able to get up to use the toilet if I needed to crap.
2) I couldn't drink fluids for 12 hours. The only thing I was allowed to do is chew on ice to keep my mouth hydrated, but I wasn't allowed to swallow the ice. I had no clue what this was about considering I was sitting there with the catheter still in. What a joke.
Other than that, I was fine. I couldn't sleep at all that night, and I told everyone to go home if they'd like. Of course no one listened, and half of them spent the night sitting in the room with me. It felt great, though.
After that first night, it was cruise control from there. I would fall asleep easy, and wake up after nice sleeps and naps. I usually awoke to my mom who had IHOP or Dunkin Donuts with her for me to eat. I was glad that I didn't have to eat hospital food.
Nothing really too important happened in between that first day; I had about twenty friends visit me and bring gifts. That also made me feel very much alive. I wasn't expecting much but apparently I was wrong. It felt great seeing everyone's faces and hearing from everyone.
On the fourth day of recovery, I had a doctor walk in on my mother and I, asking me what I wanted to do. I looked at him in confusion. He told me I was healing so fast that I was well enough to leave that day if I wanted to. Of course, I said I wanted to leave. Nothing was going to top laying in my OWN bed in MY house. My mother wanted me to spend the month at her house considering she had no stairs. I agreed 100% and we left.
A day or two after returning home I had to meet with Dr. Hooshangi once again. That was something big for me.
When we talked in to his office, I gave the man a big hug and thanked him. It felt great, haha. Anyway, I was told exactly what I was able to do, and what I wasn't. This was a pain. I couldn't jump, run or walk fast, for starters. I wasn't able to stay outside for longer than a minute or two for the first week. Any slight blow to my head would send me to the hospital again with even worse injuries than before, and no way that was going to happen. There was a bunch of things I was limited to, and whatever he had said, I followed.
I don't want to write much more, even though there's a lot to be said. It's going on 6:30 AM and I'm extremely tired. I will say that to this date, I have no permanent defects or problems. Nothing at all. Everything healed perfectly and I survived a gigantic mess with the best outcome possible. Dr. Hooshangi later told me about other patients with my injury. About 80% of the people who come in with similar injuries to mine die. Die. About 15% live, but with serious defects or brain injuries. The other 5% survive and live to talk about it, in a comprehended fashion.
As for my plates, I know most of you are going to ask: "So what happens if you walk through a metal detector?"
Answer: "Nothing!" Ha. Yeah, small amounts of titanium isn't strong enough to pick up if I were to walk through one. I've tried it many times.
The only big thing is that I can't get MRI s. If I even step foot in the MRI room while the machine is on, I'm in big big trouble. That's definitely a no-no for me.
Other than that, this injury is one of the main reasons why I became so involved here at FFR. Having your hobby taken away from you and being restricted on your actions really puts a limit on what one is able to do. I probably would have forgotten about this site if I hadn't became such a computer junky with all the free time I had. Haha. I guess I'm glad about that.
If anyone has any questions or anything, please, feel free to ask. I'm all ears.
I'll explain if needed lol.
EDIT: Ah, guess it's worth explaining.
Ok, story time boys and girls:
Where to begin? Oh, alright. August 2nd, 2004.
Two friends of mine, Ryan and Tyler, were planning on going up to Connecticut to visit a friend and to this skate park up there. I was asked if I wanted to tag along and I said sure, why not?
We drove up there (from Jersey), early that morning. Took us about 2 hours before we got to this girls house. We were all hanging around, there was about 8 girls and just us three. It was pretty nice. Anyway, someone suggested that we skip the skate park and hit up this huge rope swing that's down in the trails. Supposedly it was about 15 feet in the air and led into the bay. We decided that that would be pretty sick, considering it was hot as balls out, and we took a nice 30 minute walk through the woods to the bay.
When we got there, that 15 foot rope swing turns out to be about 30, that was tied to a gigantic branch from a tree. It stood above this narrow rocky cliff, about 5 feet from the water. It swung out a good 50 feet, and at the middle of the swing, you would be about 5 feet above water.
I looked down the cliff and said **** that, while Ryan and Tyler both rushed to try it. They had their fun, both got some severe cuts on their hands from the rigid rope and some water burns from falling so fast and high.
We were at the bay for a good 3 hours, and it was getting towards the time where we wanted to be back, so we left.
The drive back was hell, we ended up getting lost and taking a detour through Brooklyn. Ryan had a brilliant idea of blasting some DMX while we're stopped at a red light, in an Evo, with three white boys in the car nodding their heads. Brilliant. Half of anyone who was on the street quickly glanced our way. Not that I cared or anything, but, wtf?
We ended up getting home around 8:00. None of us really felt like parting, so I decided to invite them over to my Mom's condo for the night. This is where everything starts to go wrong.
My mom's house is around a five minute drive from my fathers, which was really great back then. Mother was in California at the time, for about three weeks with her boyfriend. She lived here and there for about three years, off and on. See, normally I would throw a party, get smashed, and wreak havoc to my mother's carpet from the undigested liquid and food sitting in my stomach, but it was both my parent's birthdays on the 3rd, and I really didn't know if my Mom was going to be home or not that night. Instead, we figured we'd sit down, watch some movies, go to Wegmans (which kicks ass because it was right across the street), and eat and chill.
We ended up doing just as such. In fact, we were up all night doing that.
It was now around 7:00 AM and I had a great idea. Figuring that we couldn't really skate at all today (I forgot to mention that I was really really into skateboarding. I had skated for 6 years prior to that date, and was sponsored by a local skate shop.), I suggested we go to the gigantic parking lot next to a huge office building that was about 50 feet from the condo. It was a sweet spot to skate; it had ledges and gaps galore in the front lobby. They agreed, and we took off on our boards.
After about 30 minutes of messing around in the parking lot, I decided I wanted to actually do something big. For awhile, I had seen this huge gap in the front of the building. It was around an eight foot drop, about 10 feet long, that led to some smooth tile black tile down below. In the middle of the front side, had stairs that led to the front entrance. Normally I would have hit that, but the pavement leading up to it was bricks, which was horrible for skating on.
We were on the side of the building, and I was warming up by testing my speed and judgment on how I should approach it. Before anything, I knew that the landing had to be cleared due to the rocks that filled the gap. They were decent in size, around the size of a kiwi, with some smaller ones mixed in. I cleared the area out.
The first few attempts I clearly realized I wasn't going to have enough speed to totally clear the gap. I ended up shooting my board out around 2/3's of the way through while I ended up slamming my feet into the tile.
I then got another idea: Let's have Ryan bring his car over so I can grab onto his wing while he's going around 15mph. Brilliant.
First two tries I had more than enough speed, I just bailed out.
Third try: Landed! I started swerving from going so fast. Before I knew it, I was knocked out.
I woke up. Ryan and Tyler were both holding me over their shoulders, while I was mumbling to myself. A had about a two second rush in my ears, and then my hearing came back; along with the pain. I screamed so hard my throat felt like it was ripping. At that moment, all of my pain was concentrated on my left side; my collar bone and mid section. Then, the nose. My nose started leaking blood like you had just punctured the bottom of a soda can. We slowly walked back to my moms house where I stumbled for the bathroom.
A) I took a piss.
B) I looked at myself in the mirror. I knew I had hit my head but I didn't know where. I started feeling around. Yeah, left side of my skull felt extremely painful when I touched it, but when I didn't I was fine. I didn't think too much of it considering I started to become dizzy and was dripping blood everywhere. Ryan opened the bathroom door after I didn't talk to them for about 30 seconds, and Tyler came to my aid as well. Ryan said that I should call my dad, who happens to be a nurse, and tell him we're getting our asses over there right now.
I call my dad, and all he hears is "We'ree comung ovr becus I'm hurt blah blah blah mumble mumble mumble". He asks what the **** is wrong with me, and I hang up on him.
We get in the car. He slowly drives down the main road that leads to my dad's house, while Tyler holds my head steady because I'm wobbling all over the place. Meanwhile, I have a rag stuff in my nose to stop the blood from pouring all over the seat.
We arrive at my father's house about ten minutes later, where he is standing outside. I get out of the car, and start to really lose it. Here's where I've been told everything due to me losing sense of what was going on around me. I honestly remember bits and pieces of things from my fathers house to the hospital, and I don't have any recollection of the actual accident happening. That three-five second period I was knocked out I don't remember anything either.
My father checks me out, and automatically can tell that I have a concussion and an internal injury to my skull. There would be no reason that my nose would be bleeding that profusely when I have no open wounds.
Once again, my father also drove slowly. The hospital is around 15 minutes away, so the ride wasn't too terrible. All I was told was I was mumbling some more, and the only real audible words coming from my mouth were "I'm concust" "I'm consust." Yeah. Lol.
Anyway, my dad pulled up to the patient drop off section, which I was accommodated by two nurses who put me in a wheel chair and attended to my needs. I was rushed to the ER, where the first thing I was going to get was a cat scan. First the head, then the mid section.
I don't remember a thing while getting the CT, and my father wasn't there to tell me anything, so that I'll have to leave out.
I end up getting out of the CT room twenty minutes later, where I was put on a stretcher while the technicians and doctors looked over the results. What was known from the first scans was that I had broken my collar bone, and fractured three ribs on my left side.
The head scan was a different story. My father was told that there was hematoma, or a collection of blood, in between my skull and my brain. They were going to give it some time to see if it would drain itself, then do another scan. My father requested to see the scans himself, and I'm sure glad he did. The tech that looked at the scans had totally read them wrong. The hematoma wasn't small, nor was it going to drain. The thing was massive. He told the tech to get a ****ing neurosurgeon down here as soon as possible. Dr. Hooshangi, a well known neurosurgeon came down quickly, and brought me into the CT room once again for another scan.
Just as my father had said, the hematoma was huge, and growing. If they didn't act quickly, I would end up having brain damage from the blood pushing against my brain. Yeah, ouch.
First things first, the catheter. Oh boy, the catheter. What a ****ing bitch. A nurse came in saying that they were going to stick a tube up my penis.
Umm, what? Can you say that again? I don't think I heard that right..
"Don't resist when I insert it. The more you resist, the more it will hurt."
I think to myself.. "Alright, I heard that right.."
"What the **** you're not sticking anything up my ****ing dick I swear..."
Meanwhile, I flip out, and start throwing punches all over the place. I land one on a female nurse (which I apologize to later), and miss the rest. About 4 nurses stood around me while the catheter was inserted. Ouch. Haha, you definitely don't want to have this done, guys.
Anyway, after that small outburst, I was moved in the the OR, or operating room. Last thing I remember was that I had about 6 surgeons standing over me, with white masks on and one with a plastic cover in his hands saying
"Just breathe in the gas Scott, you'll end up going to sleep"
So I did. Went to sleep and that's it. End of my story for now.
While all of this is going on, my brother, who is 13 at the time, is home worried. My father said that he was bringing me to the hospital, and didn't mention why or for what. He had called my mom to tell her this, who was woken up by the phone call. Her boyfriend was pissed to hear that, considering it was her birthday (and my father's too if you've forgotten already) and they were getting a wake up call at 6:00 am their time.
My father received a call from my Mom, and not a happy one either. She was bitching about how he never told her, and wanted to know what had happened. He told her, and the moment she got off the phone, she had rushed out the door to leave for the airport.
She got to the airport, where she was in a rush to get a ticket for the first flight out here. Surprisingly, the first flight was totally booked. What a joke. Booked from SF to EWR, an early flight too nonetheless. She ended up desperately searching around for something, and just when she is thinking about waiting for the next flight, an old couple walks up to her, who has apparently overhead the story she told the man at the desk. The wife offered to give up her ticket to my mother, and my mom cried and thanked her a hundred times. She took off for a 5 hour flight around 8:15 am.
At the hospital, Ryan and Tyler sat in the waiting room worried to tears for around 7 hours. After the second, my father had joined them. I actually found out that both of them were crying after a nurse had told them that I had a severe head injury that was life threatening. I would have too if it was one of them.
Back to me now. I have no idea what the hell I dreamed about while in surgery. Knowing me, probably skateboarding. Ha. Anyway, after 5 hours of surgery, I was moved to ICU, or Intensive Care Unit, where they monitor your vital signs and such, and people are actually allowed to wait with the patient. Ryan, Tyler and my father were all relieved after speaking with Dr. Hooshangi, who had told them the surgery was a success.
The doctor had to "Re-construct" my skull, using 7 titanium metal plates, and 26 screws. Count them in the X-Ray if you'd like. I had broken half of my skull essentially. Everything from my Orbit (eye socket), my sinuses, temporal, frontal and parietal. Let the scan speak for itself. Everything within that black line that follows the shape of a crooked "n" was cracked.
Anyway, he had told them this, and they were ecstatic. Not long after I had came out of surgery, my mom showed up in tears.
After a total of 14 hours at the hospital (In ICU I slept for another 7 hours), I finally awoke around 10:00 PM. I slowly opened my eyes to see that Ryan, Tyler, my father and mother were in the room, all sitting in chairs across the room hunched over and talking. They weren't really able to see me; I had a blue curtain around my bed for privacy due to the fact that I was in a three patient room. I knew I was fine, and I actually smiled. I sat around for awhile; I tried to recollect what had happened but it was useless. With a tube stuck in my penis and multiple IVs sitting in my arms, I sat there waiting for someone to come back and check up on me so I could give them a surprise.
About 10 minutes later, my mom came stumbling over the the curtain. She opened it, and I shut my eyes. I very so slightly lifted my right eye lid up a bit to see her, which she had her back turned to my talking to everyone sitting in front of her. I opened my eyes completely, and said
"Hi, Mom. Do you have any food?"
My mom quickly turned around and everyone stood up. Their eyes glared with happiness while hers filled with tears. She let out a huge chuckle, and the room became less tense. Everyone came over and crowded me; My brother, sister, father, mother, Ryan and Tyler. Boy was I happy to see everyone.
The first thing I heard was "Thanks for the birthday gift, Scott.", coming both from my Mom and Dad.
After that, they all were talking at once and I couldn't keep up with any of it. Anyway, we ended up talking about what had happened to me and what they did. Nothing really shocked me at all, considering I don't have a simple mind nor a simple outlook on life. I figured I had survived, and I knew I would, so everything was fine. Well, almost. The big subject I was hearing was:
"Why weren't you wearing a helmet?!" "Why, why why?"
I have no response to that. I should have been, but being a bit over confident in myself I thought I would be fine without it. I'm sorry guys and girls, but please, wear your helmets.
.Everything seemed swell. My mother brought over a mirror so I could have a look at myself. I was expecting a wreck, but was wrong. I had not one bruise on my face! Nothing. Just a giant white bandage that wrapped around my entire left part of my skull and face, and wrapped underneath my chin. I definitely didn't mind that at all, actually, it looked hot.
What I didn't know was that underneath all the bandages, I had half of my hair. The doctor only shaved half of my hair. Haha.
The first night of recovery was hell. After all of the commotion had settled down, a nurse came in for my check-up. She told me about my sling around my arm, and how I needed to keep my arm rested on my chest at all times. She also told me a bunch of other things, but two things really struck me.
1) I couldn't eat for 12 hours. Something about me not being able to get up to use the toilet if I needed to crap.
2) I couldn't drink fluids for 12 hours. The only thing I was allowed to do is chew on ice to keep my mouth hydrated, but I wasn't allowed to swallow the ice. I had no clue what this was about considering I was sitting there with the catheter still in. What a joke.
Other than that, I was fine. I couldn't sleep at all that night, and I told everyone to go home if they'd like. Of course no one listened, and half of them spent the night sitting in the room with me. It felt great, though.
After that first night, it was cruise control from there. I would fall asleep easy, and wake up after nice sleeps and naps. I usually awoke to my mom who had IHOP or Dunkin Donuts with her for me to eat. I was glad that I didn't have to eat hospital food.
Nothing really too important happened in between that first day; I had about twenty friends visit me and bring gifts. That also made me feel very much alive. I wasn't expecting much but apparently I was wrong. It felt great seeing everyone's faces and hearing from everyone.
On the fourth day of recovery, I had a doctor walk in on my mother and I, asking me what I wanted to do. I looked at him in confusion. He told me I was healing so fast that I was well enough to leave that day if I wanted to. Of course, I said I wanted to leave. Nothing was going to top laying in my OWN bed in MY house. My mother wanted me to spend the month at her house considering she had no stairs. I agreed 100% and we left.
A day or two after returning home I had to meet with Dr. Hooshangi once again. That was something big for me.
When we talked in to his office, I gave the man a big hug and thanked him. It felt great, haha. Anyway, I was told exactly what I was able to do, and what I wasn't. This was a pain. I couldn't jump, run or walk fast, for starters. I wasn't able to stay outside for longer than a minute or two for the first week. Any slight blow to my head would send me to the hospital again with even worse injuries than before, and no way that was going to happen. There was a bunch of things I was limited to, and whatever he had said, I followed.
I don't want to write much more, even though there's a lot to be said. It's going on 6:30 AM and I'm extremely tired. I will say that to this date, I have no permanent defects or problems. Nothing at all. Everything healed perfectly and I survived a gigantic mess with the best outcome possible. Dr. Hooshangi later told me about other patients with my injury. About 80% of the people who come in with similar injuries to mine die. Die. About 15% live, but with serious defects or brain injuries. The other 5% survive and live to talk about it, in a comprehended fashion.
As for my plates, I know most of you are going to ask: "So what happens if you walk through a metal detector?"
Answer: "Nothing!" Ha. Yeah, small amounts of titanium isn't strong enough to pick up if I were to walk through one. I've tried it many times.
The only big thing is that I can't get MRI s. If I even step foot in the MRI room while the machine is on, I'm in big big trouble. That's definitely a no-no for me.
Other than that, this injury is one of the main reasons why I became so involved here at FFR. Having your hobby taken away from you and being restricted on your actions really puts a limit on what one is able to do. I probably would have forgotten about this site if I hadn't became such a computer junky with all the free time I had. Haha. I guess I'm glad about that.
If anyone has any questions or anything, please, feel free to ask. I'm all ears
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