Thread: Brush with death

At 16, I flipped a truck 3 times and ended up upside down with my leg out the sunroof between the truck and road. Walked away with a few cuts and some muscle damage. Before that, had 75% of my face ripped apart by a dog. He left my throat black but couldn't do me in

Think I mighta flipped ma truck too if'n ah were dravin' after a dawg took unkindly to ma tress-passin' and nibbled some on ma face!


Mick

When I was 17 I was having an impromptu ski race with some friends after having worked all day. I was tired. It didn't end well. I hit a bump and couldn't recover well. I woke up hanging by a ski that didn't release 20ft down a steep embankment on the side of the slopes. My head and shoulders were resting on the ground. Thankfully I was wearing the helmet I had bought the week before.

Last month of Jr year of University I started having abdominal pains that made it hard to stand up straight and walk. My insurance made it pretty expensive to go to an out if network ER so I waited till Christmas break to go to a Dr.
On the way home I stopped in PA for dinner with grandma and cousins. Thankfully my parents were there so I asked my dad to drive me home.
By the time I got to a Dr I was eating a small bowl of cereal a day and that was it. Walking was tough. Couldn't stand up straight. Couldn't even climb into my lofted bed and just slept in my chair.
They couldn't figure out what was going on so they gave me an antibiotic. Two days later I couldn't eat anything without throwing up.
After 8 hours in the ER I couldn't get comfortable. I was hot and cold at the same time. I was in pain both sitting and standing and after all the tests things were inconclusive but it was certain that I was in septic shock.
So they put me in emergency surgery and opened my abdomen up. Drained off a lot of nasty stuff and cut out half a meter of my small intestine then stitched the pieces back together. Spent 3 weeks on the hospital with a tube shoved down my nose to feed me. Spent 3 more weeks bedridden at home. Spent 6 months with an.open incision that was slow to heal.
And that's how I found out I have crohn's disease. Good times...
To this day I don't recall anything about that dinner or my ride home other than asking my dad to drive.

Sorry for your plight(( Crohns is bad stuff, hope all works out down the road

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

Sorry for your plight(( Crohns is bad stuff, hope all works out down the road

Thanks. It'll have been ten years this Christmas. No more surgeries but I may be the only person under 50 who gets a colonoscopy every two to three years. With medications it's tolerable. Even though I grew up around it (my dad has crohn's and his little brother has UC) I'm starting to figure more out. Last month I went on my first overnight camping trip that wasn't in a campground in ten years. And I'm going to finish off firearms deer season with the same. I went on an 8 mile back country hike last weekend (some would call it a deer hunt. I'll call it walking aimlessly through the woods with a rifle). I went gluten free a couple months back and it has made a huge difference for me. I was tested for celiac and while I don't have it I have noticed some impressive results by forgoing wheat gluten.

Well, about two years ago I was starting to have lower back problems. It got to the point I was sleeping, well trying to sleep, in a upright position. After a day of that I said enough and went to the ER.

They checked me out with a bunch of different expensive contraptions and discovered that I had fluid around my lungs, this was related to the pulmonary embolism. If I waited another day or so I would have just dropped dead. I am glad I have a low tolerance for pain. I would have waited to go to later.

I was in the hospital for a week and another month in bed for recovery. I was on a regimen of Coumadin for another year. So I did not shave for a year, which got me in the habit of keeping a rug on my face. Until my stake president complained about it. Pissed off I decided to take up a straight razor. I have named all of my shaving scars after my stake president-fat bastard.

Originally Posted by Bruno

I think the divine plan is not so much God doing big things that make us go wow, as moving little pawns slightly to the side so that the right people are at the right place at the right time.

It is sort of like, god could could give us the power to move mountains, just do not be disappointed or surprised when he hands you a bucket and a shovel.

Originally Posted by bharner

Thanks. It'll have been ten years this Christmas. No more surgeries but I may be the only person under 50 who gets a colonoscopy every two to three years. With medications it's tolerable. Even though I grew up around it (my dad has crohn's and his little brother has UC) I'm starting to figure more out. Last month I went on my first overnight camping trip that wasn't in a campground in ten years. And I'm going to finish off firearms deer season with the same. I went on an 8 mile back country hike last weekend (some would call it a deer hunt. I'll call it walking aimlessly through the woods with a rifle). I went gluten free a couple months back and it has made a huge difference for me. I was tested for celiac and while I don't have it I have noticed some impressive results by forgoing wheat gluten.

You have a tough row to hoe,I wish you the best.

Originally Posted by MickR

Think I mighta flipped ma truck too if'n ah were dravin' after a dawg took unkindly to ma tress-passin' and nibbled some on ma face!
Mick

yeah, not well worded but I was on my phone doing it at the time. The dog thing happened right before my 4th birthday. Thanks to God and our English Shepherd who got the other dog off of me and held him down, I'm still here.

I have had a few brushes with death in my twenties including almost drowning twice by not respecting nature, almost being crushed under a car, arriving at a shooting scene seconds later, car accidents...etc.

The one that gives me the creeps is this one: I parked my car in a mall parking lot in the late afternoon and began walking towards the mall entrance. I could feel someone walking behind me. Something told me to turn around. As I turned around the person following me quickly pointed a gun at me. I froze for a long second, he did a double take, chuckled, turned around and ran away towards the parked cars. I was in shock! He had mistaken me for someone else and if I hadn't turned around I wouldn't be here now. What bothers me is that I can't remember the guy's face; if I run into him I wouldn't be able to recognize him. I only remember the gun, a black revolver.