part III (November 14th, 1991)

     When I was 14, I got hit by a car while crossing the road.  This kind of collision, man vs car, can go one of two ways.  A person might suffer minor injuries if they are not struck very hard and if the auto is not going very fast.  The other outcome is death.  If not instant, sometimes the person is in pain for a while before dying.

      Well, I landed somewhere in between.  If the ambulance had not arrived so quickly, then I would have bled to death.  I was knocked into the air and out of one of my shoes landing broken and bleeding on the street.  Thankfully, I was out for a second from the impact.  Ony for a few seconds, then I came to alone in the street.  I was not sure what had happened.   I think that there were already a couple of people who had seen it happen there with me.  When I first realized that I was severely injured, the horrible image of never recovering and being in a wheelchair for the rest of my life came into my head.  

     Some very short time later, probably after the ambulance and the paramedics arrived, I felt the all of the pain.   I wanted them to put me out with drugs so that I would not feel it.

     I never thought that I was going to die.  I lost a lot of blood, but I never went into shock.  The doctors at the hospital tried to fix my broken bones and they gave me blood, and then, I was given a room in the intensive care unit also known as the I.C.U.  I was placed on a morphine drip for the pain, and they gave me an I.V. since I could not eat.  They also gave me more blood.  They checked my vitals and waited for my fever to cool and my blood cells to multiply slowly on their own.

     Eventually, I was allowed to go to a regular room.   There I slept and recovered, so that they could fix my leg better.  Sometime later, I am not sure how long because the pain had been very intense and constant.  I had dreams where I would be talking to people who were not there.  I would have muscle spasms.  The nurses were taking blood and giving me painful shots in the stomach every day.

     My doctors were very nice.  At first there was only one, Dr. Hodges, the bone doctor who mended the compound fracture in my left shoulder.  Later there would be another kind doctor, but I can not recall his name as easily.  There were a lot of nurses because I was in the hospital for five weeks the first time.  Some of them were nice and a few were stern.  I had a machine that graciously dispensed demoral through my I.V. and into my veins, where it warmed my body and burned my veins. 

     If I sounded like a junkie, you would not be far from the truth.  I experienced what a heroin addict longs for.  An instant comfort that took all of my pain away like no other.  I understand why people shoot up their drugs.

     I had another surgery, where they rebroke my leg to fix it better.  They were in a hurry the first time.  They also reinforced it with a metal plate.  After they were finished they stretched the skin and stapled it together again.

    The problem was that the skin on my leg died for some reason.  It turned black and flaky from the knee all the way down my calf.  This was very serious.  This is also when the other doctor was called.  He was a skin doctor and they needed his expertise.

     I was told they would remove the dead skin and if they could not find any good tissue, then they would cut one of the muscles and place it around my leg creating a foundation for new skin.  The skin would be coming from me.  They were going to do a skin graft.  A skin graft is where you have skin taken from one part of your body, the thigh in my case, and they place it where it is needed.  I went into surgery fearing the worst.  The muscle flap would leave an egg-sized knot on my leg.

     I got lucky.  They were able to do only the skin grafts.  This was good.  It meant that the scars and the deformities would be less, and it also meant that my leg muscles were left uncut.  I recovered some more and had more surgery on my leg, four in all.  Maybe by Spring, I was on my way to living a normal and relativity pain-free life.  I was on homeschool, and then I was on crutches at school, gliding around faster than some walking people.

     My injuries consisted of ; a broken arm with the bone going through the skin, broken leg, two broken ribs, broken collarbone, and some minor internal injuries.  I am not sure what I all I learned from this experience, besides looking both ways before crossing the street and observe all four lanes of traffic.

     I was told that I was lucky and God had kept me alive for a reason.  If what does not kill makes you stronger, then I must be He-Man!…….