Who shall decide when doctors disagree, And soundest casuists doubt, like you and me?
Alexander Pope
Aug 1 1986. I borrowed my girlfriend’s AMC Eagle 4×4, so I could pick up some parts for my truck that afternoon. I had plans to pick a disabled friend and take him to a distant AA meeting.
Driving her car that day would save my life. A drunk and high driver would hit me, my dog, and my passenger head-on later that day. I have always said God has a sense of humour. A drunk driver hits me head-on while I am on my way to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.
I will tell more of the story as the day goes on. I have work I need to accomplish today. I just finished water transfer and laundry. I also started to sand the door panels for my project. I have to saw one door on the table saw. Yes that means I need to clean the top of the saw. Yet to do today litterboxes. Right now I am overheated. Need to be cool.
SMOKE IS BACK
That water is dirty
No door
Door
I started my trip out of town, my Doberman, my already disabled first nation friend. About a mile out of town, I spotted a red Honda CRX travelling at high speed towards me. The car was all over the road. After hitting a tent trailer being towed in front of me, I tried to get out of the way. I went down the shoulder on the right side of the road trying to avoid him.
It was no use he had radar lock-on. I estimate he was travelling at least a hundred miles an hour when he hit my driver’s corner to corner.
When the dust and glass settled. I did what I was trained to do in the Military. I assessed the situation. My passenger was alive and not bleeding. I wasn’t bleeding and my dog was okay.
My door was jammed, the steering wheel was close to my chest. I managed to crawl out of the vehicle. There was no evidence of smoke or gas leaking.
I looked over at the Honda, the engine was in the back seat, blood was dripping from the doors.
I tried to walk over there. My right leg was broken badly, it just crumbled under me. My knee joint had completely broken away top and bottom and the joint and knee cap smashed into fragments. There were a lot of other injuries, but my knee was the worst of it.
By then the first people started to come over. I got two to stop traffic. Another I sent to get my dog who had also climbed out.
I got someone to pick up all the twenty and fifty dollar bills that were all over the highway. About two grand worth. The two twenty-year-olds in the Honda were on their way to do a dope deal.
I got someone to look in the other car. He reported back and thought they were both dead.
The ambulance would soon arrive, they would try to attend to me first. I told the EMTs that I was stable and recommended they look at the others.
When they finished with them, they came back to me. One of them tried to cut through my brand spanking new 175 dollar sneakers. I yelled stop. He answered back about me being in shock.
I told him if he cut into that runner I would go into shock. I told him that leg wasn’t even injured. He cut just the laces and had a look. He agreed.
When I was hit, there was so much force that the engine and transmission broke free and pushed the steering column and brake pedal into my knee and ankle.
My leg injuries were extreme. I didn’t feel the pain till later.
The boy who was taking care of my dog came over. I gave him my girlfriend’s phone number and gave him a message to give to her. Tell her I am alright and to come get the dog. And sorry about her car.
I just finished the table saw a portion of my afternoon, that didn’t work out. But I found a new board that will do it. The generator quit, I assume it’s the heat. So I stopped working on that. Then came the litterboxes. After that, I had a quick Mila Kunis bath. Google it. That helped me cool down a bit.
This happened very close to the edge of town as the highway started. The ambulances took us all to the local hospital. The driver of the Honda survived. His injuries and mine were too severe to be handled there. They transported both the driver and me in the same ambulance to take us to a bigger hospital.
That’s when I learned that the driver was drunk. I could smell it. It permeated the ambulance for the one-hour drive.
When we started he was unconscious, during the trip he woke. He asked what happened. I told him he had hit me head-on. He laughed about it. It took everything I had not to punch him in the face.
I waited three days before they got me into surgery. The surgeon worked on my knee for 12 hours straight. Later, he told me that my knee was the worst he had ever worked on.
It was after that I would feel the worst pain in my life. I still cringe when I see a bad guy get knee-capped in a movie.
It was this time I had my first run-in with a bad nurse. I was on Demerol for the pain. I needed that every four hours. She was two hours late. The pain was screaming.
I kept hitting nurse call but was ignored. When she finally showed up. She yelled at me. She asked if I thought I was the only patient in the hospital and then left with no painkiller given.
I grabbed my IV pole used it as a crutch. I grabbed a music cassette out of my tape player.
I returned the yelling. “I wouldn’t take that shit in an 8 dollar a night motel room. I sure won’t take that in a hospital. By the way bitch I taped that conversation.”
It was then I realized some important things. I had just had major surgery three days ago, on the knee, I was walking on. I had not been given any painkillers for six hours.
I fell to the floor, the bad nurse ran over and tried to pry the cassette out of my hands. She wasn’t able to. Other nurses arrived, including the head nurse. I told her what happened. She told the bad one to leave.
I finally got a painkiller and I was carried back to my bed. The head nurse apologized for the behaviour of the bad nurse. She told me if I pressed the matter, the nurse would be fired.
I told her I just wanted a painkiller without the abuse. I had no intention to proceed any further than that. I told her I did not want to see her face again. I suggested strongly that she needed time off. The head nurse agreed.
A little later, I played the music cassette, which never had any voice recording on it. Skynrd would have been proud.
I didn’t have any bad incidences after that. It was all a bluff.
The next day the surgeon came to see me. I asked about my knee. I was asked if I wanted the truth or if I wanted it sugar-coated.
The truth of course.
You will never walk again.
Fuck you I will walk. No disrespect meant.
It took another four of surgery, four years of intense and painful physio before I could walk again or sit on a motorcycle. I was never able to run again.
Which is ok. The day before the accident, I had a chance to run full speed through heavy underbrush to keep my dog from attacking a deer that got too close. I will never forget that run.
Later I managed to climb a small mountain and even jumped out of a plane at four thousand feet.
I still feel knee pain and I can feel changes in the weather 3 days before. But I am alive.
My knee was supposed to be replaced in 1996. But I have had nothing but bad healthcare since I arrived in Alberta. I have written about all of those in other entries in my journal.
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