Where is J.P.? Tue Nov 22 14:11:49 2005 | Prev | Next Well well well, where has J.P. gone? Well of course for much of the time since my last entry, the answer is the same as always. Work, work, work. However, on October 23rd I had an accident on the motorcycle. It was bad. To summarize in advance, 1. I am still alive, 2. I will recover, 3. The bike is totaled, 4. I am not going to ride anymore, 5. But I was hurt pretty bad, 6. And recovery will take a while. Unfortunately, I was riding in the rain. I don`t know exactly what happened, but I lost control of the bike and hit the concrete barrier (then some how ended up on my back on the concrete...and don`t know where the bike was). I could tell right away things were broken. I won`t go in to detail why, but, I just could. People came right over to help. I was grateful for that. It seemed like it took forever for the ambulance to arrive. Then it took forever in the ambulance before they could give me any morphine. But eventually they did and we were on our way to the hospital. I don`t remember the last half of the ride to the hospital. I remember waking up in the ER and they explained a little about what they needed to do. I also remember a bit about them taking x-rays as well as the CT scan. The next thing I remember is being in bed in my room at the hospital and asking them to call someone for me. So I called a friend and asked them to tell my parents where I was (and the news spread from there). So the tally was 5 bones. Two in my left arm, one in my right arm, and 2 in my right leg. But I was extremely lucky because that was it (though I am convinced I sprained my ankle as well). If you ride out there, make SURE you ALWAYS wear your gear. My motorcycle gear saved my life. Not only that, but make sure you have full gear (full snell2000 helmet, full protective jacket with projection for your spine, shoulders, and elbows, leather (and Kevlar) gloves, full protective pants with protection for your knees and shins, and boots with protection for your ankles). Of course that`s the MINIMUM. There are more protective options as well. So the only option for me after that much damage was metal. Unfortunately that type of surgery is considered elective...so I had to lay in bed for 3 days in the hospital waiting for there to be enough OR time (I was in surgery for about 12 hours). But in the end, I now have two plates in my left arm, one in my right, and a rod and nails in my leg. I was in the hospital for another week after surgery. Then I was released to a nursing facility (since I was still not very mobile). Then I had to wait for 8 days for my checkup at the hospital. I was in for a surprise though when I went in for the follow-up appointment. They took one look at my leg and said I needed another surgery. DOH! I thought I was all done. At least that time, they were quick about it. In fact the OR was ready before admitting had found me a bed (so the OR had to wait for me to get to my room (for all of a few seconds)). Though the surgery was minor (only 3 hours this time), it meant another 5 days in the hospital (that`s a total of 15 now if your counting). After another few days in the nursing facility after that, I finally got to go home. So here I am at home lying in bed. I don`t know how long it will take to recover, but the doctors estimated 3 months to walk in a normal shoe and 6 months to run, but who knows. As of right now, I am on crutches, but its difficult because I still am recovering from the broken arms, and also crutches just make things difficult. I don`t think it will take 3 months, but that is just me. I heal fast. I mean seriously, one week after the last Surgery (It has not even been 2 weeks yet) I was pretty healed already. The same was true for my arms and leg as well when I had the first surgery. My skin was already growing over the stitches and staples. (BTW, if you ever have staples, make sure to ask them to remove them well BEFORE your skin grows over them. Otherwise it both hurts like hell when they take them out (since they are essentially breaking that new skin that grew there) and also causes worse scarring.) My next appointment is in about 2 and a half weeks. That`s when they will probably take more x-rays and decide how well I am healing (It will have been 6 weeks after surgery at that point). I am hoping that at that time, they will clear me for 2 things: 1. increased weight bearing status on my right leg (right now I am only allowed 20% body weight on it maximum) and 2. Approval for resistive exercises (you would be surprised how weak you can get laying in bed for over a month). Until then, I am stuck on crutches (and not even normal crutches, since I can not bear weight through my left forearm, I have a platform on the left side and have to use my elbow. On the right side I can not put too much weight either, since well that side also has a plate. I am sure I will have more to say at some point, but I just wanted to get an initial post out there with information about what happened. BTW, I have not been checking my personal mail at all, I have only been checking work mail. So if you know my work address, email me there. Otherwise, I am sorry, but I don`t know when I will get to personal mail. I need a better way to read it than just on outlook on one machine that I can not get to right now with the crutches. Until next time, enjoy these images of my bones, both before and after surgery. If you want the full images in a zip file, here is the link for that. J.P. Posted by: j.p.