My Motorcycle Injuries

 I spent the first few years after the motorcycle accident getting better. The changes in my body progressed slowly, but they were noticeable almost weekly. It was always encouraging to notice the subtle changes and to know that I was getting better as time progressed. I noticed changes in my leg and my hand, along with my energy and strength. As I think back on that time, it was really a great thing to gauge the healing progress and to enjoy the thought that I was on my way to recovery and a more "normal" life. At some point I hit a plateau. Things were not as they were before the accident, but I had gained a lot of ground physically and I was functioning pretty well. I still experienced a degree of pain on a daily basis, and I did have some limits in my ability to do certain things, but I enjoyed the level of recovery that I was experiencing and I resigned myself mentally to the fact that this was the body that I would live with as I moved forward in life. I'm now at a ...

I allowed the landscaped area in front of my house to become unkept during the winter months. I mean, why bother, right? Yesterday I began the process of getting things right and got to work on gardening in a serious way. I'm not certain how much time I put in, but I finished for the day by the middle of the afternoon. There is still plenty of work left for me and I plan to finish the work either tomorrow or Friday. This morning I awoke and felt some soreness and aches. Nothing intense at all, but I really don't feel that yesterday's labor warrants today's discomfort. As I type this blog entry I find myself wishing that I could blame my accident injuries for today's discomfort, but the truth is that none of my accident injury "locations" are very much sore. It's the rest of me that feels discomfort. So...this all has made me stop to think a little. What I think is that I'm becoming an old dude. It leaves me wondering how my body will handle all of ...

When I first started taking care of my niece (she was five weeks old then) my sister-in-law gave me a used car seat in order to help keep me mobile. I had to place it facing backward in the car, and getting the baby out of it was always a chore. There’s a button that you have to press in order to release the center clip that holds a couple of latches connected to the shoulder straps. It’s the first thing needed to be done in order to loosen a kid from the seat. The button never released the latches well and at times it seemed as though it wouldn’t release them at all. It was a problem that occurred every time that we went for a ride somewhere. I always assumed that it was just old and defective because of the age of the seat, but I tolerated it because I didn’t really leave the house with the baby often. I recently had to turn the seat around because my niece has gotten too tall to sit in the seat facing to the rear. When I first reached to loosen the center clip button with the seat f...

I told my wife once that a part of me died as a result of the accident and she freaked out a little. Here’s the thing; it seems at times as though a part of me never made it past lying on the side of the road at the accident sight…just a part of me. It’s kind of hard to verbalize, but I’m giving it a shot here. Something inside of me died that day that I can’t seem to get back fully. It was a part of me that subconsciously believed that I would always be OK. It was a part of me that always believed that I was greater than the potential for absolute catastrophe. It was a part of me that continued to see each day with an absolutely care-free attitude that never acknowledged my physical well-being or anything that my body could ever be subjected to. It was a part of me that could commit to any physical activity without hindrance or limit.  Days are different now in how I live them out and in how I look to the future. My life’s days used to involve waking, doing, and finishing. They st...

My life has been going really well. I admit that fact with a great degree of appreciation and joy. But…it’s my body that’s just kind of chugging along. Some days are fairly ordinary, according to the post-accident definition of ordinary, but other days bring about problems with body parts that require a more concentrated effort. It all comes and goes with time, and every day is seemingly quite different from the previous. I’ve grown very much accustomed to having a problem with a body part that exhibits itself one day and fades away the next. I remember a time in my life when having a certain pain or injury within any given day really meant something. It was almost like a grand event to be proclaimed in the ears of anyone who would listen. Now, not so much. Pain, discomfort, and physical hindrance have just become the norm. A slice of life served up daily without planning or provocation. Yeah, drudgery.