Lucky Me


Rhino

Rhino

New member
Thursday, June 5, 2014
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FARMERSVILLE, Ohio (WDTN) – A 15-year-old boy died from injuries in an ATV crash in the Farmersville area.
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Emergency crews were called to the 15,000 block of Chicken Bristle Road after 7 p.m. Thursday. That’s where they found Levi Montoya.
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Jackson Twp. Police Chief Jon Schade said the teen lost control of the vehicle and hit a tree. He was flown by CareFlight to the hospital, where he died.
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Schade told 2 NEWS Montoya suffered severe head injuries. An investigation into the accident is underway that Schade said could take several weeks.
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In my area.
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Saturday, June 7, 2014
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BETHEL TOWNSHIP -- A man is dead and another man is under arrest following an ATV crash in Bethel Township.
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It happened in a wooded area near the 43 mile marker on Interstate 70 Saturday morning.
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Police say Jay Fording was drunk when he and his friend, Terry Wilbanks went for a ride.
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The ATV went over an embankment and rolled over, ejecting the Wilbanks. The vehicle then landed on top of him, killing him.
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Also in my area.
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Swimmer and six-time Olympic gold medalist Amy Van Dyken suffered a devastating spinal cord injury Friday, reportedly severing her spine during an ATV accident in Arizona.
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After undergoing surgery, Van Dyken’s doctors have said she is in good condition – and on Tuesday the 46-year-old posted a picture on Instagram, showing herself sitting up for the first time since her accident. With her injury occurring at the T11 vertebrae, Van Dyken will likely suffer lower extremity paralysis, which may also affect her bladder and bowel function, according to Dr. Zach Gordon, an orthopedic/spine surgeon at UH Case Medical Center in Cleveland, who did not treat Van Dyken.
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All of these accidents have happened since my back was broken when my ATV rolled over on me May 3rd. My wife keeps telling me how lucky I am. She also keeps telling me my ATV is evil, which makes me laugh because it sounds so much like the anti-gunners talking about guns. I'll accept the 'lucky' argument, but I'm not falling for the 'evil' ploy. Funny. I don't feel lucky.
 

I know. I don't mean that I'm not appreciative. I am very much so. I just wish it would stop hurting. And I wish I could drive. And I wish I didn't have to wear this brace. Just three little wishes! LOL!
 
Praying for you, Rhino.

So what's the prognosis, and/or timeline for recovery? Weeks, months or years? Whatever it is, do your best to stick to the program and get as close as you can to full recovery. Any dependencies that develop during that program can be addressed later. It ain't all that tough. I've had to live through severe pain management a couple of times and live through the aftermath too. I hope they're doing what's necessary to relieve as much pain as possible. Good luck, get well soon.

Blues
 
Rhino, sorry to hear about the accident. But you're alive and everything from that point on is cake. Despite tragedy and some prior poor health I consider myself the luckiest man in the world. I'm alive and I'm married to the best girl in the world for 34 years. I couldn't ask God for more. He was watching over you for sure. Get well there bud.
 
Oh wow, I wish you a speedy recovery.

I used to be very big into ATV's but haven't had the chance to go out recently.
 
You can't be married to the best girl in the world BC1, because I am. :biggrin:
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Thanks for the well wishes, guys. I wasn't really trying to evoke sympathy. The wife just made me laugh when she sounded like the anti-gunners by referring to ATVs as evil, so I thought I'd share the humor.
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They injected cement into the broken vertebrae, which had several fractures in it. It was more crushed than fractured, sorta like tree roots spreading out. They say I'm almost certainly shorter now but I haven't measured. I see the surgeon again on the 19th (also our 33rd anniversary). If that goes well I should be allowed to drive again. I have to wear the brace for three months from the surgery, which means the beginning of August. Not sure when all the pain will be gone or what long term effects I might have. I spend almost all my time in bed. I have to wear the brace when I'm up, and the damn thing hurts after a little while, so I don't get up much. Thank God for my fully adjustable Sleep Number bed.
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However, if the visit on the 19th doesn't go well, meaning he decides the vertebrae isn't stable enough, I have to have surgery again. They'll fuse some of my vertebrae together with a titanium rod and I get to be familiar with TSA in airports for the rest of my life. Not sure what the pain/brace/driving situation would be after a surgery like that. I don't think it's going to come to that.
 
stewie-Y said:
Oh wow, I wish you a speedy recovery.

I used to be very big into ATV's but haven't had the chance to go out recently.
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Not really "into" it. I'm a certified Emergency Medical Responder and I was doing medical support for a trail run in a state park. I don't really ride for fun. My 4 wheeler is a utility model. I only use it for work on our land and for support at public service events. It even has LED strobe lights and a siren on it.
 
Sorry to hear about your accident. ATV's can be dangerous and things can go bad so fast without warning. I'm in the Dayton area a lot and heard about the accidents.
My ex's cousin drove off a cliff a few years ago, and in SE ky, it's even more common to hear of ATV deaths & injuries. I almost flipped one head first going careful & slow in a pasture once.
Hope you also have a speedy recovery with no more surgeries
 
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telpinaro said:
How'd your visit go? Hope it's good news!
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A little of both actually, thanks for asking. I'm allowed to drive again, but since I'm still having pain that I shouldn't be, I have to go back again in another six weeks for another CT scan. He's going to evaluate me again and decide if he needs to put the titanium rod in my back. And I still have to wear the stupid brace, which just makes it hurt worse, so I don't get up and around very much because I pay the price for it later. But being allowed to drive is really great, so I'm still happy even if everything isn't as positive as it could be. And as a very special reward I get to take the cat to the vet tomorrow. The cat despises travelling. You'd think her limbs were being torn from their sockets from the way she sounds in the truck. Most definitely NOT a fun experience!
 
Rhino said:
A little of both actually, thanks for asking. I'm allowed to drive again, but since I'm still having pain that I shouldn't be, I have to go back again in another six weeks for another CT scan. He's going to evaluate me again and decide if he needs to put the titanium rod in my back. And I still have to wear the stupid brace, which just makes it hurt worse, so I don't get up and around very much because I pay the price for it later. But being allowed to drive is really great, so I'm still happy even if everything isn't as positive as it could be. And as a very special reward I get to take the cat to the vet tomorrow. The cat despises travelling. You'd think her limbs were being torn from their sockets from the way she sounds in the truck. Most definitely NOT a fun experience!
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Any improvement is good, and great you get to drive again! Hopefully the next appointment will go well... And hopefully the pain starts to go away.

And my cat is the same way... Just imagine driving him and a 2-year-old from CA to CO!
 
Our previous cat made a few long distance trips. She didn't like travelling either, but she didn't make anywhere near the sounds this one does. She did however start to drool and foam uncontrollably after a while though, so we had to sedate her for long trips. Trips to the vet weren't so bad, not nearly as bad as this cat.
 
Thanks.
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Cat survived another checkup. Totally healthy as always. Just very loud. She actually recovered very quickly this time. She was an adopted barn kitten, so she's very skittish and afraid of her own shadow, a defense mechanism generally inbred in barn cats as a survival instinct. She goes into hiding if anyone other than our family members shows up. Usually after the traumatic trip to the vet we don't see her for hours, but she was back in the kitchen begging for food within an hour of returning home. Maybe she's mellowing in her old age. I wish she'd mellow in the car.
 
Looks like I'll be going back. Getting shooting pains down my legs, some of which are keeping me from sleeping. There may be titanium in my near future. Hey, our 33rd anniversary was Thursday. Isn't that the titanium anniversary?
 
Ended up in the emergency room last night. Major pain is returning. Had the good fortune of getting a very good nurse and doctor combination. They took me in and had me on IV pain meds within about 20 minutes. That sure was an extremely welcome relief after being in non-stop pain for so long. He also gave me some details from my MRI that I wasn't given before. I didn't have just the compression fracture of L4. I also have several messed up discs in that area of my back, which makes me suspect even more that a fusion is in my future. But if that fixes things, then I guess it's okay with me.
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Oh, and get this. My insurance company is refusing to pay for the first surgery because they're call in experimental surgery. This is what happens when you have non-medical personnel making decisions about your medical care. Kyphoplasty has been used since the 1970s, so it's hardly experimental. There has been some controversy surrounding it, but that has stemmed almost entirely from from two small randomized controlled trials published in the New England Journal Of Medicine in 2009, one conducted in Australia and the other at Johns Hopkins. However, the studies didn't use control groups, and the results garnered from the groups receiving placebo treatments seem to defy all logic, so the validity of those studies is highly questioned. Additionally, those studies were done on osteoporosis patients, not on otherwise healthy patients who had spinal injuries resulting from a traumatic physical event. Much of the possible negative indications associated with the use of kyphoplasty are tied directly to osteoporotic effects, or at least greatly influenced by them. In other words, the non-medical people at the insurance company aren't smart enough to understand and interpret what they're reading, and I'm not even in the group of people those studies were addressing in the first place. Won't it be great when we not only have people like this running our entire health care system, but they'll be doing it in a huge, inefficient government bureaucracy to boot.
 
I'm not really worried about the insurance. I have two insurance companies, plus this is covered by workers comp because I was providing medical support as part of my rescue squad when this incident happened. I just ended up being the one needing medical care instead of the other way around. Funny thing is I saved a guy's life at that very same event two years ago.
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Not all that worried about it getting fixed either. I've pretty much resigned myself that it's going to be a fusion. I'm just not sure how many vertebrae will be fused, what discs will be repaired or replaced, and what mobility limitations all this will impose. Oh, and how many airport scanners I'll set off. But I'm confident everything will get fixed. What bugs me the most is that I'm missing my summer, my favorite time of year. It's also the time I do most of my volunteer events, some of which I'm a prime coordinator for. I may have to figure a way to transition duties over to someone else if I can find that someone. It also keeps me from actively finding a new job. I've been out of work for a year now, and I'd really like to be employed again. Oh yeah, the good weather lets me do all my projects I want to do around here, and there's quite a few of those. But I can't do those either.
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So I'm not really worried about the insurance or worried that I won't get fixed. I just hate missing my summer and I can't stand not being able to do the things I want to do. So many people dream about how nice it would be if they could just sit around and do nothing all day. I used to dream the same thing. I first got that opportunity several years back when I had a cervical disc severely impinging on my spine and I was confined to my bed except for bathroom and kitchen trips. My laundry and such was taken care of. Most of my meals were made for me, other than snacks. I even got paid for it. Sounded like a dream come true. The dream went away after about three weeks, and turned into a nightmare a few weeks after that. Sitting around doing nothing all day totally and completely sucks. There are only so many TV shows or movies you can watch, and there are only so many games you can play. Even the new ones start to get boring when that's all you do. I'm not at that point again this time, at least not yet. This time could end up being somewhat worse though, because I can't sit at my desk for very long without pain, and the desktop PC is where the games are (this isn't a gaming laptop). But since my wife's a teacher I at least have her for company for the time being until school starts back up. She was working when I was down waiting for neck surgery.
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And I've always got these two:
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They both love to play, but the little one is still a complete puppy at heart so she's always coming over and doing funny stuff to cheer me up. She always comes over to snuggle when she hears me in pain too. But hardly an hour can go by without her showing up with a ball or a Wubba (ball/chew strap combination toy). She loves tug of war.
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Thanks for the well wishes though.
 
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