Hi All: Many of you are aware that I crashed my bike in early June. I was descending the north side of Juanita Drive and somehow ended up crashing into the side of a southbound “sewer pumping truck”. I was knocked unconscious and do not remember anything about the day [or the next 3 weeks either]. I do not even remember starting the ride and my information on the crash comes solely from the police reports and the stories from my family. I ended up spending 7 weeks in the hospital and am still on home-health care.
I was not expected to live. The police treated the accident scene as a “fatal” and the doctor’s took my wife to the operating room to “say good-by”. The hospital even scheduled the staging of my surgeries with the belief that I would die-but I fooled them; I spent 3 weeks in a coma until I started to be conscious-even then it was more sleep than awake. I have seen some of the photos from my early days at Harborview right after the accident-and they scare the day-lights out of me!! In all I had 5 major surgeries while at Harborview that included:
-heart surgery-this left me with a perfect “rail-road track scar where they cut my sternum
-abdominal surgery-this was to repair the tear in my small intestine. As part of this, my belly button has disappeared and been replaced by a large scar; and
-hand and clavicle surgery-this was to repair the broken bones in my left hand and the fracture of my collar-bone. I now have a strange-looking ring-finger and I have metal plates holding the collar-bone together.
-knee surgery and repair of my broken fibula-this was to re-attach and repair my left knee and my broken fibula. It apparently took a huge blow in the accident and all of the ligaments and tendons had to be reattached.
-face surgery-apparently, I was “leading” with my face and it suffered. When I went into surgery, I asked for a “young” Robert Redford look-but I came out with the same old mug.
I have physical therapy twice a week. My physical therapist is a masochist!! All of my muscles atrophied while I was in the hospital and I lost over 30 pounds-so the physical therapy is a struggle. Each week we add several new exercises and I need to wake up muscles that have been sleeping for 3 months. There is certainly organize resistance by each of my muscles to doing anything, but I am positive that this is the way back, so I am diligent [and a totally beat-to-a-pulp after each physical therapy session….I need to take a nap.
I feel stronger, but I do not notice any improvement in appearance. I still look like a fugitive from the Bataan Death March. Where I used to have some muscles, is now only skin and bones-and not much else. I also have no body fat, so the Artic weather we have been having really gets to me. I had better put on a layer of fat before the real winter starts! I have not weighed 130 pounds since I was in high school!
BUT: HERE IS THE REAL MESSAGE FOR ALL OF YOU: I was not carrying any current ID with me; It was pure dumb-luck that they were able to identify me and notify Susan; I am now going to wear one of those ID bracelets that they advertised during the Tour. If I ever crash again-they will know who I am right away, my allergies and my contact persons. I recommend that each of you consider “what” ID’s you carry with you when you are out-and-about and that you undertake to update or improve the information that you carry with you. It will save the police and the hospital staff a great deal of time and could mean a difference in the quality and timeliness of your emergency care.
That is about it. Thanks for your kind thoughts throughout this ordeal. Jay
