I got them ALL BEAT!!! I head-ond with a log truck june 20th right here in downtown Vernonia...luckily, the log truck was nearly undamaged and was back on the road that evening! I, however... suffered a broken sternum, EIGHT busted ribs, a collapsed lung, a dislocated shoulder, two sprained ankles, three sprained fingers, and last, but certainly the worst... a broken left hip! I was restrained on a back board by expensive medical duck tape and kept "unconscious" for three weeks, then spent another 6 days in ICU... the worst part of this time was the severe cotton mouth due to the traecheotomy and direct ventilation tubes making it impossible to drink ANY water...The various hallucinations I suffered were actually kinda too fun at times, so the loving doctors saw fit to feed me potassium chloride to keep me in control...
I was then moved to a recovery unit where they promptly LOST ME for several hours...seems I had been wheeled into the wrong room... While attempting to get to the toilet, I crashed into a heap on the floor of the room and RIPPED the feeding tube out of my belly!...I finally got an orderly's attention by slapping the wall with one of my still healing hands(remember the traech? NO VOICE!!!)....another five days passed before I could begin to hobble around with a 4 point walker... 5 more days, and I was well enough to return home to the filthiest floors in history... my dogs had run amuck while I was away...Luckily, the neighbors had been feeding them and let them out three times a day to "exercise", but still...
Anywhoooo... six more weeks have drifted off the calendar, and I am now recovering quite well, able to walk and talk just like a regular human, which is, of course, all new to me! I had been planning on locating and purchasing a decent little dual spurter and heading out to help again with events, but now I dare not ride since once busted, the hip just won't take kindly to even a light crash...
Tawm... I'll definitely want to work a checkpoint next year... I wanna get out into the hills whenever possible now, after spending a really great summer taped to a board and staring out at sunrises through a dirty window...Ken Maddog Murphy ... anyone remember how to play "dog balls" ????