Came home for Thanksgiving today, first time i've been home since late September, almost 2 months to the day.  First thing I see when I open my bedroom door....my bean-bag sitting on my bed in the corner.   That probably sounds a little odd.  After I had my accident, i wasn't able to lay down on my back cause of all the broken ribs.  Well, I could lay down but I couldn't get back up.  I stuck the bean bag in the corner and leaned against it.  On the table by my bed is my big St. John's hospital mug and next to that is my air volume gauge.  I had to breathe into it every few hours with a certain amount of pressure to keep from getting pneumonia in my collapsed lung.

The other day on TV there was a commercial for a show on the discovery channel.. "I shouldn't be alive."

It's crazy how fragile life is, and it's crazy how lucky I was and am.  It's been almost 3 months since my accident and my broken ribs still hurt (quite a bit) and i have about 70% motion of my left arm.  After all this time, i'm still healing and will be for some time.  Looking at the pictures and remembering those first few days in the ICU,,,..I really am lucky to be alive.

So i hauled my ass up to lincoln, got there at about 6:45, scheduled to go into surgery at 8:30.

I hadn't met or seen the surgeon, he had only seen my MRI and xray's, so he poked around on my shoulder and sent me off to get another round of xray's.  Yeah, that hurt like hell.  I had to bend and hold my arm in a handful of strange ways while laying on the x-ray table and let me tell you, having broken ribs and trying to move around like that hurts like hell.....especially since I hadn't taken any pain pills since midnight cause i had to have an empty stomach for surgery.

When that was done, surgeon decided to go ahead.  I went off to anesthesia and they put me under.  I woke up less than an hour later feeling fine.  Doc told me that he put the scope in and started looking around at the break and at the joint and said that surgery would probably cause more harm than good.  He said things were almost in perfect alignment and the break was healing well.  He did a little bit of grinding on one sharp edge, but other than that he didn't touch anything. 

I ended up with two tiny puncture holes in my back/shoulder that have steri-strips on them (ghetto style stitches) and everything is cool.

:)  He said in 4 weeks or so I'll start feeling much better once that soft bone tissue hardens up and gives my shoulder some stability.  He said the same thing about my ribs, as long as they don't re-break, they'll start feeling better about the same time as my shoulder. 

Just have to hold on for another month or so, then things will be looking up for sure :)

Doc said it would probably be a good idea to stay off the bikes until spring.  *sigh*  Oh well, i was pretty much going to do that anyway.

Well, I have an appointment with another bone specialist on Friday.  The appointment is at 8:30 am.

The kicker?

He's reserving time in the O.R and I'll be heading from exam room straight into surgery.  He said from looking at the x-rays and MRI images that the break is "very interesting, very rare, and most likely will not heal itself"

Oh well, i suppose if it needs to be fixed it's just as well. 

Went to meet with Dr. Heiser today, he's a bone specialist primarily dealing with collar bone injuries.  He had a resident medical student with him today.  When Heiser put the x-rays up on the board, the resident med student said "oh my gosh"  and then gave Dr. Heiser and me a quick look and said "sorry." 

haha, i guess things are pretty ugly in there.

Doc said my collar bone seems fine, it's placed correctly and looks good.  He said my ribs are very broken, but they'll heal as well.  When i was still in the coma the trauma surgeons poked and pushed them back into place.

There is a rather serious problem though.   The glenoid bone, the "socket" part of the shoulder and several other bones along that same axis are broken.  The glenoid itself is broken and has a crack going all the way through it.  Heiser said that this kind of skeletal damage is over his head, and I've been referred to yet another specialist in Lincoln or Omaha, i forget.  He said he wasn't qualified to make any statements about the need for surgery to repair the damage.  

Translation:   "Boy, you're broken to shit and i'd much rather someone else put the pieces together."

Great.  So I guess I get to wait until next week or whenever to find out what's going on.    Oh well.

Headed out on September 7th with my friend Milos....destination:  Theodosia, Missouri.  Just across the Arkansas border, on lovely Bull Shoals lake.

We planned to camp at the lake with a few hundred other sportbike riders as part of a Honda sponsored event.  Riding on the 7th and 8th was fantastic, camped out the night of the 8th, and suited up for a fun ride on the morning of the 9th.

I was leading a group of 12 or 15 people down a particular hiway, hiway 341.  Referred to as "The Arkansas Dragon" or "dead man's curve" , it's quite a twisty and fun stretch of road.

I came around a somewhat sharp corner to see a bunch of squirrels eating the corn out of some somewhat-fresh cow poop.    Immediately I said "oh shit" and tried to slow down.

That is the last memory I have.

I woke up about 30 hours later in the ICU with a respirator and breathing tube down my throat.

I have 8 broken ribs, a severely broken collar bone, a broken scapula (shoulder blade) and my left lung had collapsed.

I was in ICU for 3 days, and i spent 8 days in the hospital.  Daily X-Rays and (3) MRI's later I've been released and I'm at home, at my parents house.

I was life-flighted from the crash scene to the hospital, i remember nothing, my friends say i was trying to get back on the bike and i said i was fine, i remember nothing, and i was told that i screamed and struggled in pain when i was strapped onto the back-board....very glad i don't remember that.

I'll have some pictures of the helicopter/medics, the aftermath of my bike (which i haven't seen yet), and some pictures of my bruises and broken collar bone...but tonight i'm too tired and can't be bothered.

GOod news though -- the ortho surgeon said my right shoulder is a knotted ugly mess, but it will be fine and good as it was before in a couple weeks, just some strained ligaments and no perm. damage from the haybale hauling.  Happy days on that one i guess ?.

-m  

Here's a couple pictures of my broken collarbone....

Met my dad in Fort Calhoon to get a second load of hay bales -- a farmer up there sold to us for a really good price.  We picked up our first load 2 weeks ago,  204 bales on the trailer.  Those bales were pretty light, not too bad to toss up onto the trailer.

The bales for the 2nd load were from another baler, and they were much heavier.  Close to 140 pounds i'd say.  They were much tighter, so they stacked better, so more could fit on the trailer.

It was raining and cold in Fort Calhoon, about 55 degrees on saturday morning.  I was throwing bales up onto the trailer and my dad was stacking them.  I was trying to hurry because it was so cold and i was miserable.  I was carrying bales 2 at a time and throwing them up onto the trailer as fast as I could. 

That was pretty stupid.  After 60 bales or so, i was throwing one with my right arm......and I felt and heard three very distinct ripping noises in my shoulder.  Incredible pain. 

Some background information......my sophomore year of highschool I messed up my shoulder pretty bad during wrestling season.  My arm got hyperextended about 35 degrees,...with my elbow straight.  My rotator cuff was torn, my deltoid was frayed, a large chunk of bone was broken off of my shoulder socket (Glenoid bone)...and some pretty ugly ligament damage too.  I've had 5 reconstructive surgeries with major rehab, incredible pain, and not very good results.

Back to current time.........so, i dropped the bale.....winced in pain, and kept loading, using only my left arm. 

Now, a few days later......things feel very wrong.  I can feel the joint drooping and i can feel things sliding to the virge of being dislocated.

I'm going to wait a few more days before I go see the doctor.  This sucks so bad.  I don't want another surgery, i want to ride my bikes and do the stuff I love, and i DO NOT want to go through physical therapy again.

F-this.

Decided it was time for a new phone.... why?.... because my phone would ring or rather it would start to ring....and then it would turn off.  I'd turn it back on, and there would be no missed call.  Great. 

No idea how many calls I missed.  The phone was probably under warranty but I wanted something different.  SOOoooo...



Say hello to my new phone.  I have mobile instant messaging now, i'd post up my screen names...but not everybody needs to know them ;)  Send me a note if you think you should be one of the privelaged few :P

Went up to Minnesota the other day and picked up my $450 Honda CR85 chasis.  Previous owner blew up the motor and sold the bike and grenaded motor to me for $450 -- somewhere under half of what it's really worth. 



I have no interest in repairing the CR85 stock motor.  It's a 2-stroke motor (for those of you that don't know, we'll just say that 2-stroke motors suck).... and I plan on fabbing a 200cc 4-stroke motor in its place :)

After some hunting around....i finally found the motor i want on ebay...
Lifan 200 Overhead Cam on ebay....



So, for well under $1000 -- I'll have a darn good "big mini" for racing the cheater class (16" and under rear wheel).  Yay team!

My KLX-125 is for sale, it's a 2004 and has been taken care of and only raced one time (and not hard, cause i was racing hurt).  $1300 takes it, or make me an offer.  Message me for pics and i'll send them out.

That's all for now....   ;)

What's been going on.....Hmmm..

Well, Monday I spent 6 hours or so finishing the top-end rebuild on my husky TE250...  It's aliiive!  Running like a champ again, taking it home with me this weekend to give it a good break-in ;)




Last night i went running pretty late, it was 1AM or so.  About a mile away from my apartment this car full of girls went by and they honked and waved lol....then they turned around and went by again.....honking and waving....then one more time back the way they were going the first time.    haha, crazy kids :P

I was home for the weekend to do some work and whatnot, and yesterday evening I was finishing up and getting ready to leave when Carson came downstairs.

C:  "Can you take me to the pool and drop me off, it's open now mom just called"
M:  "Yeah, just let me finish this"
C:  "Guess what i was doing upstairs........i was eating lots of cookies to get fat so I can do bigger cannonballs off the diving boards"

(hahahaha)

Then later....

C:  "Mom and dad got a new plum - ber and when i stick it on the kitchen floor it sticks good and i can't get it off"
M:  "You mean plunger?...."
C:  "Yeah, plum - ber"
C:  "See, watch this."

He then gets the new plunger (never been used, mind you) and sticks it on the hardwood kitchen floor.  He then demonstrates how good it sticks by grunting and tugging on it 5 or 6 times before it finally lets go of the floor and sends him flying through the air, landing on his butt 3 or 4 feet away....laughing, of course....and he says...

C:  "Seeeee???? "


Fun times, fun times :)

So i went out to West -O to have Hudson take a ride on his dirtbike to make sure he liked it and whatnot before his pops paid for it.....there's a big empty lot about a block away from his house and it has a marvelously perfect tabletop jump right in the middle.  It's about 5' tall at the highest point and 30 or 35 feet wide.....and it ranges down to level on the far end...perfect place to practice jumping.

Wellll, I biffed it pretty big and got thrown over the bars, the bike flipped and i caught the side of the rear tire in the back....and the end of the throttle tube stuck me in the back of the shoulder...and i got slammed down on the ground pretty hard.

I don't think i'm hurt, cause i can still move and have motion, it's just an incredible amount of pain.  The shoulder I landed on has had 5 reconstructive surgeries from an old injury....but hopefully in a few days things will be alright.  I tried to sleep but it's just not working so i got up to take another round of pain pills.  We'll see how it goes this time.

Stupid as it sounds, it was tons and tons of fun :)  I'm pretty sure that the tall grass and weeds were getting wet cause it was getting late and there was dew on everything.  The front tire washed out hard, and ass-over-teakettle i went.  

The rest of the night was....interesting...to say the least....and i'm glad the day has ended. 

Off to sleep now, we'll see how tomorrow goes...ugh.