THAT LIFE CHANGING DAY FOR ME

That day was September 10, 1980. Some of us have a day in our life that changes the way we will be for the rest of our life and this was mine. I have never written or talked of it much over the past 31 years but feel that now is a good time to do so. Maybe my kids can understand more of me. Even though I was in a failing marriage at that time I was a happy go lucky 28 year old with my own bonded franchise food trucking business and had two terrific, much loved children. That night I had been at a business meeting in London, Ontario and was being given a ride home to Elora, Ontario by Ian, a friend and business manager. Normally I would have driven but my 1973 Thunderbird was in for a paint job. Anyway, what happened was that two westbound transport trucks were racing down the 401 highway when one lost control and came across the median head on into us. My friend Ian was killed instantly and yet I survived, barely. We were doing about 60mph and the transport was doing the same if not more so you can imagine what the car we were in looked like. To this day I still don't know what kind it was. I don't remember that night and there are some parts of my life that were erased from my memory. Brain damage does strange things to your mind. An eastbound trucker, Jack, stopped and had to lean over the body of Ian to put a fire out under the seat I was on. Thank goodness for his bravery and good thinking. The first hospital I was taken to told the paramedics that I would need "life support" so they then took me to Victoria Hospital in London. Apparently I came out of my unconsciousness briefly and it took 6 orderlies to hold me down on the gurney. That shows just how strongly adrenaline can affect you. I now know it's true when someone tells me that they heard of a woman lifting a car of her child. That night I was on the operation table for 11 hours while 12 doctors took their turns to work on me in their field of practice. INJURIES: My right eye had popped out severing the optic nerve. It was now blind. My nose was broken into 14 pieces and looked horrid. My face and skull had about 500 stitches. I had 132 broken and fractured bones altogether. They found out that my back was broken six days after admittance when they took an x-ray of my kidneys and saw the third bone in my lower back was broken because I had wore a seat belt that night. If I hadn't I would be dead. That was when the doctors induced what I call a "chemical coma" with morphine so I could not move and worsen the break. I woke up one month later.Every tooth in my mouth was either chipped, cracked, broken or knocked out. Several feet of my intestine was removed due to severe damage from the seat belt. (I now get heartburn a bit faster than I used to). In six weeks time my weight went from 180 lbs. to 135 lbs. RESULTS: Many months later I was taken to an optometrist to see if there was any way my right eye would see again. ( I always had to be driven in a station wagon because I had to lay on a mattress as it was yet too hard to sit up for long as I had a body cast and leg cast on for 6 months) Here I was in a body and leg cast looking into the optical lens with my hopes up for eventual sight restoration in my right eye when the doctor turned to another doctor and said," Come look at this eye, you can see the optic nerve severed and this eye will never see again." The other optometrist came over to look as the tears rolled down my cheeks. I'm crying now just remembering how I found out my eye was blind forever. That and now are the only times I ever cried over my loss. He was scheduling an appointment to have the eye removed because it was blind and also because it stayed cross-eyed. I said, NO!! He said it would come out within two years anyway as it would start to deteriorate. Every night for months at bedtime I would pretend the SMURFS (a childrens cartoon show) were working on my eye with their picks and shovels. Over time the muscles grew back on the eye and it started moving. I no longer had to wear a patch and look like a pirate. I'm not saying that the Smurfs fixed the movement of my eye but I sure do believe in positive thinking. To see it now people don't even realize it is blind. As for my nose a plastic surgeon known as Plastic Bob, redid my nose and it looks great. He even asked me whose nose I would like. I told him to give me Clint Eastwood's nose. As for the stitches on my face , they have faded and I grew a beard. All my broken bones healed. The doctors said that as time goes by I may feel some aches and pains and to get used to it. I have. After 50 dentist visits bridgework has given me a better bite on life. My broken backbone healed and my spinal cord was not severed they say due to how strong my stomach muscles were at the time.( I only had 2 percent body fat at the time of the accident.) Being 6 foot 6 inches tall I now weigh a comfortable 250 lbs. My marriage did finally come to an end in 1983. Shortly after that I met the most amazing woman ever. We married in 1988. I am truly blessed. I am more patient now. I appreciate things in a deeper fashion. I am thankful to those that let me share their life. So take time out to smell the roses because autumn can sneak up real fast. I found that out! Hope I haven't bored you today but this was a long time in coming. Thanks

Trivia: Some Egyptian mummies wore dentures.

Did You Know?  Forty-five year old former soldier, Alan Perrin, who is almost blind and has only one arm, hit a hole-in-one at his local Exminster Golf Club, near Exeter, Devon, England, in April 2009. He and his golfing partner could hardly believe it when, after searching for several minutes, they finally found the yellow ball in the hole.