Some of you might remember that a week ago Hurricane Dorian was coming to my town for a little visit, and I promised an update after the party. Apologies if you're already seen this on FB. You can be amoung the first to know that Dorian came, Dorian blew, Dorian kicked my butt big time. I had spent Friday putting the property in order, including tucking the bus in her winter home inside one of my sheds. I have amnesia for most of the period of the storm, but it came in Saturday afternoon, we were fine running the generator all day, went to bed around 10 pm so shut down for the night. The eye of the storm and highest winds were scheduled for around midnight Saturday, I apparently felt the need to get out of bed and check on things. We think that when I was coming back upstairs I fell back down the stairs. I fell, got hurt, went back upstairs, went back to bed, and woke up Catherine, who got the flashlight, and promptly called 911, who arrived in less than 15 minutes (lady luck was dancing for me, big time). All said and done, I broke my neck at C7 and C6, fractured 6 ribs (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8 on my right side), dislocated middle two fingers on right hand, left hand feels and looks like I punched a wall for a while, massive contusions and technicolour bruising mostly right arm, shoulder, chest. Big head impact (but oddly no concussion), brain bleed. Hospital in Truro did triage, CT scans, stabilized, I kind of remember that a bit. Transported to Halifax (4:00 in the morning, in the middle of the worst of the hurricane, there I am in the back of an ambulance while essentially 100% of the power grid of the province is off-line, cell service is failing, trees down everywhere. On Wednesday the chief of Neurosurgery went in (through the front of my throat, just under my chin), stabilized, removed the discs in C6 and C7, did bone grafts to fuse the vertebrae bones and tied it all together with a screwed in plate. That went really well, and essentially the broken neck is fully resolved (pending the actual healing and fusing) and I am fully mobile, no brace, followup in six weeks kind of deal. The issue now is 6 fractured ribs, headaches, dealing with contusions and bruises. Figuring out how to sleep in a chair when you can't use your core to move is surprisingly hard. So far I have nerve damage making my left hand feel frozen and tingly, should resolve once swelling goes down. Surgery was noon Wednesday, I was released noon Friday and on the way home. In true Canadian fashion the bill was "don't let the door hit you on the way out, we have another customer for the bed, we had fun, see you later" but the hospitals, nurses, doctors were spectacular. It works out some times, but I am really starting to internalize how close I came to not coming out of this whole, walking, or at all. Apologise for the really long message, but I am using this as an aide-memoire to help me settle the events in my mind. I have some short term memory issues from this as well.
Wow. Glad you got that sorted, now if you could just remember what he looked like.
Jim
First of all my condolences on your "accident". As a fellow Canadian on the opposite coast I can relate to your hospital experience having spent some time in the hospital earlier this year. Discharge consisted of "do you need a wheelchair to get down to your car". All the medication, ambulance ride etc was convered. Hope your property and bus are unscathed by the storm.
Regards
Fred
Sorry to hear of your misfortune. Right after I read your post while walking around through the Watson Lake sign post forest here in Yukon - I stumbled on a sign & wanted to ask per chance Did you post it? Get well soon. :)
Sorry to hear this Brian, get well soon!
Quote from: dtcerrato on September 14, 2019, 10:15:59 AM
Sorry to hear of your misfortune. Right after I read your post while walking around through the Watson Lake sign post forest here in Yukon - I stumbled on a sign & wanted to ask per chance Did you post it? Get well soon. :)
Dan, I didn't post that, but it's definitely my town! Very cool, thank you for posting that!
WoW!!!
Just when you think there's enough excitement...
Glad you're still on the grassy side and functional!
Happy coaching!
Buswarrior
Brian, We thought about you when we watched the weather channel and they said it turned and was now heading for NS. Maybe the low pressure radiant threw you off while climbing the stairs. Hope you heal soon.
Brian, best wishes for a quick and complete recovery, Tom, lvmci...
Sorry to hear about your struggles. Glad you landed right side up, so to speak, and are back on your feet. I know what you mean about getting out of a chair. That was really difficult for me after my lumbar surgery a few years ago.
Hoping for a complete recovery. Sorry for your mishap.
Brian, that certainly was a close call, you would have been missed if the worst had happened. You are a very valuable person on this forum, please take care of yourself. Pretty impressive though, you get banged up, but go back to bed anyway. You must be a tough nut to crack. ;)
Again WOW !
get well soon and take it easy . It will take a lot of time to recover from that .
so how did the house and coach fair ?
dave
Sending thoughts and prayers from us as we travel to Phoenix. That's an insane and crazy story to tell...by let's not do it again ok? Get better quick...
Maybe you already have it, but
I added a second handrail on other side of stairs for more stability going up and down. I'm left handed, wife is not. Fell back from some other medical condition not looked into yet???
Completely clear on "other medical conditions", since we have absolutely no recollection of the fall we'll just never know what actually happened. I've already talked with my friend the master builder, and he is going to replace our stairs for us. I sprung the handrail when I fell, it just wobbles back and forth now. Stairs are only 32" wide (1840's house) so there isn't all that much to do, but we are going to be inventive.
Brian We also live in a 150 year old house.
Came home one day and my bedroom was down stairs. My 2 girles said no more running up and down those stairs.
Get better soon and take it easy. Us old people do not heal good.
uncle ned
Well that sux. Glad to hear you're mending. The thing about our healthcare system is, if you show up on their doorstep in extremis they'll move heaven and earth to fix you and get you back out the door. The problem is if you show up today and want a stress test they'll put you on a list but if you have the heart attack tonight they'll bust a gut to fix you up again. I've had a couple of concussions - pretty weird to have a hole in time inside your head but there's nothing you can do about it. Maybe your memory will come back but mine hasn't.
Gosh, Brian, I was going to make some joke about not using up Dorian too much here in NC before we sent it to you, but this is no laughing matter. As a former motorcycle racer, I can sympathize with the vertebrae (mine were thoracic - not sure that's better but a lot less scary) and the ribs. Best wishes to be fully better soon -- and I can give you a little advice with the ribs, I found that I was just fine for the first 5 weeks so long as I didn't cough, laugh, or breathe. Good luck, broken ribs just keep coming at yah!
Hope you're feeling well soon. BH