You Would Never Think It Could Happen To You; Coping with a Disability

21 January 2005, it was late evening about 7 p.m. I was headed towards home coming off base but changed my mind at the last minute. I needed some music, so I kept going, heading to a friends. I kept straight down Russell to Moody Rd. As I was making that left hand turn, I saw a vehicle to up the hill to my right at an intersection. My last words were, "Jesus, he's going to pull out of that street on me". No sooner then I could get the sentence finished, the last thing I remember was blacking out. I had been struck by this car while riding my motorcycle. I remember waking about two times that night, then waking the next day at the trauma center in Macon, GA.

My tibia/fibula had been broken in 6 places, ankle was crushed, 2 toes broken, and nerve damage. And that was just my right leg. My left shoulder was dislocated, 2 toes and the heal in my left foot were fractured, and I suffered a slight concussion. SLIGHT? What the heck does slight mean? Now I forget thing. Anyway, if that weren't enough, I suffered compartment syndrome; were my left leg swell up the size of a cantaloupe. Well, maybe the size of a grapefruit. Either way, I had to have a fasciotomy lower leg on the left and right side of my right leg, they had to release the pressure. My whole body shut down. I had to learn to do a simple thing as use the bathroom before I could leave the hospital. Every time I got up out of bed, the blood rushed so fast to my head, I would fall and/or pass out. This went on even when I came home.

The surgery the doctor did was use a screw to attach my ankle and leg back. Needless to say that didn't work. I had to have another surgery, but this time, the doctors at Eisenhower Army Hospital at Fort Gordon did the job. A rod and about twenty screws was attached to the six broken bones. A piece of bone from my hip was used to fused the ankle. As for the nerves, well, they said there was nothing they could do. They should heal themselves. HA! NOT! Fat chance, that never happened. I suffered from some sort of nerve pain, but it wasn't called nerve pain, it was called Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy. I could barely put on a sock, and never worn a shoe on my right foot again. Just to be touch, made me want to slap someone, that's how much it bothered me.

Well for 4 long years, the doctors at Eisenhower tried to save my leg. But the pain got worse, the bones in my ankle deteriorated. Come to find out, my cartilage blew so I had bone on bone every time I walked on it. Listening to the doctor, "you need to walk on it". Yeah, okay, now I have one leg...LOL I tell you, the things some doctor have you do just so they wouldn't have to be the one to tell you it's getting worse. Anyway, to end this saga, on 07 October 2008, i had an amputation. I'm dong better, i can't complain. I still think about the procedure, and wonder if I made the right decision. To late now huh? I suffer from depression, and I still have phantom pains or phantom limb.