My Motorcycle Injuries

Tonight I had dinner with over a dozen family members at a burger restaurant nearby. We sat outside because of the size of our group and we had a nice time together. Our table was located about twenty feet from the entrance to the place where I got my haircut on the morning of the accident. The crash occurred as I rode home from getting a haircut at that place. I have absolutely no memory of the haircut or the ride to and from this place, but I’m a creature of habit so I know pretty much where I pulled in and where I parked. It is currently an empty storefront (thank you Covid-19) but the place looks the same as it did years ago. I sat in a chair at the dinner table tonight that had me facing directly toward the front entrance of the former storefront. It makes me feel stupid, but I kept thinking that this was the last place that I walked without having so many problems with my body. I knew where I would have gone between the front door and my bike in the parking lot, and I couldn’t ...

So yeah, the show must go on. I’ve mentioned before that my body is at a stage where things are getting worse little by little. It’s nothing dramatic or debilitating, but I notice the small increments of decline as time passes. My hip is hurting more whether I stand or sit, while the rest of my leg feels pain on and off. The pain in my hip sort of feels as though it’s being stabbed with something sharp inside, but at other times it feels as though it;s getting hot. Weird, yes? My thigh often feels pain along with my hip, but I was told that my femur grew into the muscle a little when it was healing, and the painful discomfort in my thigh continues to convince me that the orthopedic surgeon wasn’t lying. My knee is what it is, but I’ve honestly grown more accustomed to ignoring the way that it feels and the hindrances that it produces throughout any given day. I sometimes have a more difficult time standing up after sitting still for a longer period of time, and I really feel like limpi...

I handled the second of two recent funerals today. I often say that people rarely call the preacher when things are going well, and as a result death is sometimes a part of what I deal with in the ministry. I never really find it to be a difficult thing because I maintain the perspective that I am doing what I always do, which is to present a biblical perspective to the things that people are facing in life. Still, the two people for whom I have done these services were friends and it's not really easy to grieve when you’re the guy in charge of the service. I guess my thought today is that I’m grateful. I appreciate the fact that I still get to see so many wonderful things happen in the lives of the people that I love and I’m thankful that my body functions in such a way that I can be an active part of it all. Life is full of incredible joys.  My leg and my hand are getting progressively worse, albeit in very small increments, but I’m generally healthy and active. Pain and discom...

Yeah, that's actually my selfie on a couch, with my internet anonymity kept intact. The title of this blog entry involves a term that I've grown accustomed to using often. People ask me how I'm feeling and how my body is managing all the time. It's become a bit of a cliche' for me to answer when anyone asks me about my physical condition. I usually answer with a sense of flippancy because I just want to move past the moment. I only talk about my physical condition in any detail with my wife and with you, my little internet friends.  The truth is that I'm not always fine. My hip, thigh, and knee/shin areas hurt or feel discomfort according to my body's mood for the day. My hand is a mess and provides some sort of pain or hindrance every day. As for my mind, there are times when I grow really tired of having been in an accident years ago. There's nowhere to escape from it, you know? The thing is that "I'm fine" is a little bit of a lie. I try...

  Today was a big day for me. Seven years ago I was given a very large amount of blood during my time in the hospital after the motorcycle accident. It was given to me for several days. I’ve been trying to donate blood for years now because I feel a strong sense of appreciation for the donations made by others that benefited me seven years ago. Today was my fourth attempt to donate blood since then, and it would have been my last attempt if I had been unsuccessful. I spoke about this once before on this blog (here) . In past attempts I’ve been turned down for low blood flow, thin veins, and a low iron level. I last attempted to donate this past November 29 th on the anniversary of the accident. It was a little disheartening when I was told that my iron level was too low to donate blood. I’ve been taking iron pills for the past 2 ½ months in an attempt to raise my iron to an acceptable level. When my iron level was first tested today it registered at 11.9, which is short of the...

I’ve been pretty much tired since the accident seven years ago. Sleep deprivation and physical “whatever” has me tired all of the time. I haven’t slept in any way that can be considered as normal since my stay in the hospital so long ago. I slept like clockwork before the accident but now nothing about my sleep pattern is regular or even gratifying. I’m thinking of getting one of those tranquilizer rifles with the darts that can put down a lion. My wife will need to practice her aim. My body continues to function pretty well, all things considered, but my energy levels have never been the same since the injuries from the accident. I don’t really know what it is about my body that is doing this. Oddly, the fatigue occurs in different levels of intensity. I know a guy who placed things in a better perspective for me a few days ago. He said that a car is never the same after an accident. You can get it repaired, but there’s always a noise or a shake or a grind that remains and it serves...

I'm finishing off the last of my medical appointmets in a couple of weeks. I go through several of them at the start of every year, and I've had nothing but good news thus far. My A1C is at 5.6 (prediabetes begins at 5.7 😎). My CT scan showed that there is no movement involved with the stent in my aorta, and all of my bloodwork results came back squeaky clean. So yeah, my body's doing great. Except...I pinched something in my lower back that I think relates to the sciatic nerve. It's at the top of the leg that I injured in the accident, and I can't help but to feel that it's related to the way in which I must compromise the use of that side of my leg and hip in everyhthing that I do. Sciatica is totally painful, but it does go away in time. I've had it for a while, but I really aggravated it on Saturday afternoon while lifting a heavy box. Today is Wednesday, and the pain is significantly less than it was this weekend. I'm pretty certain that the pain w...