Recap of the Accident

After a little over three weeks I update my blog. However, there's a twist on this post's topic. It's not going to be about video games, but the accident I went through months ago. I've been throwing around tidbits of information on said accident ever since I came back to the Internet, but I haven't fully written down a full-on synopsis of what happened nor have I posted pictures.

So, the time for that has come. We go back to the beginning of it, May 14th. I warn that some of the linked pictures are graphic, and I'll warn the reader when it comes to their links.

On May 14th, I was looking on JobsinME for employment. I came across one that fit to my limited standards: a sit-down warehouse job where my task would have been processing and sorting DVDs returned from Netflix members. The pay was good ($9.50 an hour to start), I'd be sitting down for the shift, and it was sorta local.

This was a damn good job for me since, as my friends know, I have bilateral club foot. Standing up for longer than a half hour or so causes my feet to hurt pretty bad. I also quickly wear out the soles of any footwear I have on because I walk on the outer sides of my feet. So, a job where I sat down and did work with my hands - for good pay - was a heaven sent.

May 15th I went in for my interview and was hired then and there. From there I tackled the only remaining task for this job: finding a bicycle to use. The job location was about seven miles away from my home and I had no vehicle transportation there. Bus route didn't start for close to two hours after I'd start work (shift started at 5am), and I knew no one who could give me a ride each morning.

I ended up acquiring my friend Nick's old bike to use. Though, I can't remember ever picking it up since I got the bike on the day of the accident: May 17th. The woman who hired me had said that I ought to get my way out to the job site before I started work so I'd know where to go and the proper route, yada yada. That Saturday, May 17th, I started doing just that. I didn't even get a tenth of a mile from my house before my travel came to an end.

Not more than twenty seconds of walking from where I live is an intersection. One of the streets to this intersection is Walnut Street. The half of it going in the direction of downtown is very steep and hard to walk. For reasons I can't remember and fathom, I decided to go down Walnut and attempt to merge onto Sheridan - a rather level street - instead of going down the street I live on. And to top it off I decided to do this on Nick's bike. A bicycle I had never ridden before.

Spectators said that I went down the hill pretty fast and missed the turn almost entirely. I ended up cutting onto the sidewalk, hit this cement divider, and flew the twelve to fourteen feet directly into this brick house. The dried spot of blood has been paved over since then.

I hit the house tilted to the left, so my right side and arm took the intial brunt of the hit. I was told I went unconcious almost immediately. From the hit and the resulting force of impact, I fractured eight bones in my body. The last of the Thoracic and the first three Lumbar spinal vertebrae, both the radius and the ulna of my right forearm, my left clavicle and the top-right portion of my skull. I also suffered a subdural hematoma, but luckily there were no lasting effects from it.

I remember nothing from May 17th to May 25th, very little of Memorial Day, and nothing else until May 28th. On May 30th I was relocated from the hospital I had been in to another and June 5th I was finally able to go home.

These three pictures are all of me the day after the accident. [Warning, those were graphic.] This is me at the second hospital, with my mother, my stepdad, and a close-up of me. This is me after being at home for a few weeks. The scars are where they had to preform surgery and put two titanium plates into my right arm. The circular middle of this scar is where the bone broke through my skin. This is the other scar.

I had to wear that torso brace everyday at all times unless I was laying down or sitting at less than a 45 degree angle. At night I could take it off, but I was forced to sleep on my back or sides. When August came around I went through the process of weaning myself off of wearing it everyday until September came. A few days ago I met with my doctor again and I'm supposed to wean myself off of using the brace period. Since that appointment I have not put the brace on and I don't ever intend to again.

As far as activities went, I wasn't able to sit at the computer for more than fifteen minutes every couple of hours because of the pressure put on your spine and back while sitting. Most of June had me laying in a reclined position on my bed watching tv or movies until I finally felt well-enough to start playing video games again.

I started out with Final Fantasy IX and got to the third disc before I put it back. Shortly after that my friend Will lent me his copy of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, a game I put over 140 hours into before I finished playing it. And after those I went back to my Backlog and started going at it all over again.

Overall, my healing has gone incredibly well. The doctor has informed me that I can start work again, provided that it's not something that would injure my body. So working hard hours in a retail store or doing physical labor in a warehouse are just some examples of what I can't do in addition to my restrictions because of clubfoot.

The job search has been hard and I'm hoping that I can carpool with someone to work the job I got hired for back on May 15th but I haven't heard anything from them in days. Not sure what I can and cannot handle but I'm going to continue looking since now my need for an income is greater than my pain.

Next time I update, it'll be about video games again. Don't you guys worry. Until the next save point, Sobou's out.