My Story

It was April 24, 2008, I decided earlier in the day that I would fix my wife and me steak and shrimp for supper. I swung by a country store that has a butcher department and had two nice ribeyes cut. I went by the grocery store and picked up everything I would need to fix a fresh salad, I stopped by the seafood department and picked up a couple pounds of shrimp. I was in a good mood because I love the look on my wife's face when I cooked her a spectacular meal. I went home and my wife was already there so I began preparing our meal.  I made shrimp cocktail, shrimp sautéed in butter and garlic, and shrimp kebabs on the grill to go along with the fresh salad and monster ribeyes.

My wife began to eat her meal and I decided I needed a cold beverage to go with my meal. So I went out got in our Mercury Mountaineer and went to the local store a mile and a half from my house. I got my cold beverage and started to drive back to the house. I got half a block before my house and the teenager on a four wheeler drove across the street in front of me, I swerved to miss him, went off the road and hit three trees.

They took me in a helicopter to the nearest trauma center. Next thing I know I am waking up a month and a half later. I spent a total of three months in the hospital with a severe traumatic brain injury which left me unable to walk and having bad tremors in my extremities. Later on the doctors installed an internal pump in my side with a catheter that runs up my spinal column and delivers a muscle relaxer into my nerves to control the tremors. It got an infection and they had to remove the pump,  I spent three more weeks in the hospital. All is well that ends well because they put another pump in and this one's been working fine for a couple of years.

I take a shower sitting down, I have a hard time getting in and out of the bed, brushing my teeth can be dangerous with the tremors  and I still use a wheelchair. Nothing I do is easy but I am not incapable of doing for myself.

What amazes me through this whole ordeal is my loving wife of nearly 18 years and all the help and encouragement she has given me. My loving family who have helped and supported me through all this are nothing short of being wonderful human beings. I have not been a sit in the corner be nice and pleasant disabled man all the time.