If We All Pretend Today Is Tomorrow Then Today Is a Year From My Accident

Well tomorrow is August 10th. Last year on that day was my accident. It started out like any normal Sunday. Well normal for that summer anyways. Since I was working shifts at the Taylor Pulp Mill my schedule was a little unusual. I would have gone to bed at 6am just having gotten home from work. Then after waking up in the mid afternoon I would have lazed around for a few hours then packed myself a lunch and hopped on my bike to get to work by 6 pm. The first few hours went by fairly quickly and everyone was looking forward to the upcoming days off as it was our last shift of the tour. After loading the 7 o'clock hours worth of pulp I noticed the rail cars were nearly full and decided I should go prepare the next batch to come into the warehouse. I went down the line of cars removing old seals, unlocking them, and sliding the doors open a crack to make them easier to open with the forklift once inside. When I got to the fourth and final car I did the same little routine I had done a hundred times that summer, removed the seal, unlocked and slid the door a crack. I then went to walk around to the other side of the cars to repeat the pattern on their opposing doors. My path took me right under the door which I had just slid open a few inches. Suddenly I heard the screeching of metal and out of the corner of my eye saw a wall of steel coming down. I tried to sprint out of the way but my efforts brought me two feet short of safety. I was pounded into the ground with the force of 1400 pounds of metal. My hard hat flew from my head and my body instantly went tingly. At first I couldn't breathe, the majority of the weight was on my left hip but my upper body was chest down with a portion of the mass pressing on my back, making it difficult to inhale. I fought for a minute to twist my torso on it's side taking the weight on my shoulder which allowed me to breath a little easier. I took a look at my watch, it was 8 o'clock. I still didn't think that I was in that much danger, my ankle was throbbing and my hip hurt but I thought I would be able to slide out from under the door and walk or at worst crawl my way back to the finishing line office. Maybe I would need to get driven up to the hospital if things was really bad. I began to attempt an awkward side ways push-up, my lower back burned and I couldn't even budge the door. I continued to struggle and fight until I was tired and soaked with sweat. Then I began to panic. I started screaming as loud as I could. However I was in an area not often populated, even less so as it was a night shift, so my cries for help where useless. I continued this routine of struggling to get out and and yelling when I was too tied or in too much pain pain to fight with the mass of steel. Suddenly I heard the sound of tires on gravel. "I'm safe," I thought. I started yelling as loud as I could then louder and louder as I could see the bottom halves of the tires rolling by on the other side of the rail cars. My head was free enough to look down past my feet and under the car to the area where empty rail cars are processed. The man driving the huge loader wouldn't have been able to hear a gun shot two feet from his head over the roar of his diesel motor with his ear plugs in. I looked at my watch, it was 8:15. My arms were shaking and weak from my efforts and I finally gave into to the fact the I couldn't get out on my own. I decided to save my energy for yelling and would let out a cry for help every few seconds. I came up with the brilliant idea of chewing on rocks to distract myself from the pain. The minutes rolled by slowly. countless thoughts went through my mind. "I guess this is going to put a damper on my training program for biking," "I wonder if I'm paralyzed," "I can't die hear." I then came up with one final plan to escape. If I could dig a hole under my body and then pile the rocks under the door to hold it up maybe I could crawl out. This plan lasted about 4 seconds as I made a feeble effort to dig with fingers into gravel packed by years of heavy machinery. My brain began to calculate how long it would be until someone noticed I'm gone. "Well the conveyor that holds the pulp should be full by 8:45, then Jim will wonder why I'm not helping him. He should see my forklift parked by the door that leads out here. I just have to make it till then." I looked at my watch, it was 8:30. Suddenly the adrenaline that had been pounding through my veins disappeared, and I felt extremely tired. "I can just fall asleep," I thought, "then I don't have to worry about the pain, and when I wake up they'll have found me and this will be over. No! Stay awake, you have to keep screaming!" I continued to yell for help but my strength was nearly gone. As more and more things went wrong inside my body I thought, "Nobody is going to find me in time, I am going to die right here." I began to do the only thing I new would bring me peace in a situation like this, I prayed. It's a very simple thing preparing for death, there's no distractions, or questioning. I knew that God was real and that I loved him and there was nothing to fear from death. That prayer probably lasted about 10 seconds, but that was all that was needed. I went back to my yelling. Looking at my watch I saw that it was 8:45. Finally, finally I heard the word that I've heard a million times but has never sounded sweeter, the voice of Jim Farquarhson yelling, "Robert!" My body gave me its last drop of adrenaline and I let out a cry for help. He sprinted over, saw my situation, said "I'll be right back," and ran about 10 steps back towards the mill before realizing he was carrying a radio. He called for help and moments later I was surrounded by a dozen well organized men who lifted the door off me and carefully slid me out from my prison. What happened after that is the same as what happens at most accident scenes. The fire department came and put me in a neck brace then strapped me to a spine board. The ambulance arrived and took to to the hospital.

2 surgeries, 5 units of blood, 2 months in the hospital, 2 more in GF Strong rehabilitation center, 22 ambulance rides, 9 air ambulance flights, and 8 months of physiotherapy later, we arrive at today. I have made it along way in that time, and I owe all of that to God and those who have prayed for me.

At the moment I am able to walk very short distance with crutches and braces or a walker. Thanks to a nerve block in June I am have been given a few months of relief that has extended my sitting time to around 50 minutes. The nerve block didn't do much to relieve my pain when standing so I am only able to do that for about 10 minutes. This is still an incredible miracle as at the beginning they thought I might die, or be paralyzed and need dialysis for life. So where I am at today is miles from where I could have been.

As for the future it's hard to say what will happen. My next appointment to Vancouver is for the 31st of August when I'll have an MRI and CT scan done. The following day I will meet with both the spinal and orthopedic surgeons. This trip will hopefully give them the information needed to come to a decision if or what kind of surgery will help me most.

If anyone is still checking this blog I would like to thank you so much for praying and thinking of me. How far I have come in this year is absolute proof that God is alive. To save you from having to check this unnecessarily I won't be posting anything until I get back from Vancouver in the first week of September. That is unless something significant happens.

Thanks again for continuing to follow my progress.

Two weeks Later

Hey there. Well It's been two weeks now since the injection. This Is how long the doctors said it should take for the steroid they put in to be fully active. It has made some difference and I am able to sit some what comfortably for around 50 minutes. There is still quite a bit of pain and discomfort but it is still nice to be able to sit a little longer. In some areas it now seems that there is new pain. I think what is really happening is that I just hadn't noticed the pain in these areas because of the worse pain in the spot they put the injection. I had talked with the orthopedic doctor last week and she was going to be consulting with the spinal guy and looking at the ct. scans and taking the info from the injections to come up with a plan for what's next. Hopefully she'll be getting back to me soon with an update. Anyways thats about all thats new with me lately. Thank-you for continuing to follow along with my progress and for the encouragement you all provide.

Robert

After Way to LongI'm Back

First off I ned to apologize to those of you who are checking still checking this. I have no real excuse for not posting anything for o long besides be lazy. I'd like to thank you for still following along with my progress and praying. Well This pose is going to contain somthing rare... Good News!!! thats right, get excited. Now for the story. Yesterday around noon I flew back down to vancouver. We did the usual ambulance, to air ambulance to hospital routine. We got to fly with the same flight crew that we have the last 5 times we flown so it's always fun to see them again and catch up. Anyways at the hospital they injected my right SI (where the pelvis and spine attach) ith a quick acting local anesthetic and long lasting anti-inflammatory To make sure the put it in the right spot they would take a quick ct scan then put in the needle, do another ct scan to make sure it was in the right spot then advance the needle till it was in the right area and then injected the medicine. If this was the area that was causing my pain I should have felt almost instant relief, and then the long acting stuff could have possibly provided several months of relief. Hwever after sitting up for a few minuted the pain appeared as normal. bumber. Thursday evening was fun though. a few aunts and uncles and my grandma came by and we all crammed into the hotel room and visited for awhile. Then Today it was back to the hospital for a similar injection. Todays however was a nerve block. to get the needle to the area they wanted the had to try and bend the needle around some bone however. So to do this they had to first stick in a straight needle part way, then take a curved needle and use the straight needle to deflect it into the right area. all the while doing ct scans to make sure there going to the right area. it took them several trys and about 2 hours to get the right spot but they finally did and inject the stuff. after wards while waiting for the ambulance to pick us up to take us to the airport I managed to sit for over an hour pretty much pain free!! wHoo Hoo. So no it's been about 6 hours and the quick acting stuff has pretty much worn off so the pain is back, but n the next day or so the long lasting stuff should be kicking in and hopefully relieving my pain for some time. I was supposed to see the orthopedic specialist as well afterwards but since the injection took so long, and our schedule for getting to the airport for our flight was very tight we had to skip that part. So I think we will be talking on the hone next week. Anyways, besides providing temporary relief of pain these injections also tell the doctors what areas are causing the problems so that they can come up with a more long term plan. So it's very exciting to be making some serious headway. So thats my big exciting good news.

Robert

The Report

Hello. hey is the report from the trip to vancouver. After some poking and prodding and a bunch of questions the specialist came to the conclusion that simply putting more screws into the areas that are still not healed wouldn't help my pain much. It seems that they areas tht are still brken aren't the reas that are causing me that much pain. She said that if it were those areas I would have extreme discomfort lieing on my side or when she pushed left hip, but it didn't. She thinks that it is more likely caused by excessive bone growth in one area that might be rubbing and catching on itself when I sit or stand. She Also figured that some of the hardware is the problem as alot of the pain is focused around one screw. It was told a lot more elegantly when she said it, but thats the gist. SO her plan of attack is that fisrt she wants to talk with the spinal guy to find out if my back is stable enough to take any hardware out. Then she want to have dye injected into the areas that have pain and take some real time x-rays of me sitting and standing to see if they can pin point the problem. An then if they think there's something they can do surgicaly to correct the problems they'll take that route. So I should be hearing back from her in the next week or so to find out what shes learned from the spinal doc and the radiologist.

In not my body news. The trip down was pretty smooth.We got to visit with some family on tuesday night. Always a good time. I also calculated that that was my 7th air ambulance ride and 17th time in an ambulance in under a year. Not really statistics you want on the back of your baseball card. Other then that things are pretty much sticking to routine. However spring is here. which makes it a lot nicer. I can now safely walk to and from the car without being afraid of slipping on the ice. I'm also thinking of taking the wheelchair out for a walk around the block. Its been awhile since I've been outside just to be outside. Not since GF strong. Oh glorious sun. Anyways I think thats it for now. Hope you all boing great.

Robert

On to April

Hey. Well here is the latest and greatest. About a week or two ago ago I got a letter from the spinal doctor with the results of my CT scan. Without getting into all the technical mumbo jumbo of it, it basicallny said that there are still areas that haven't healed. Which is what we already kind of knew, but it was nice to see it all officialy there rather then just being told by a secreary glancing at some notes. The letter also suggested that putting in somemore plates and screws could help get things to heal and help with the pain. Now I've been refered to a specialist in pelvic instability. Tomorrow I'll be flying down to Vancouver again, then will be seeing this doctor on Wednesday morning and then flying back home right after that. This trip is just a consult and I guess the real plans will be made after that. Hopefully they can start doing something soon so i can start sitting normally again. Another new bit of news is that I have started getting acupuncture done on my lower back and around my hips, as well as acupuncture with electricty hooked up to it in my quad. This to try and help stimulate it abit more. I haven't really noticed any difference from either of these things, but I'm willing to try most things at the moment. Thats pretty much all that's been going on with my body lately. In life I've still been learning lots of 3d animation stuff and some video and photo editing. I had to send my computer away to get a little problem fixed last week and it made me realize how much of my time I spend working on it. I really enjoy doing it so it's saved me from losing my mind over the last few months. Also a couple of friends have started having a bible study at my house on Thursdays lately. And yeah, that about all I can think of at the moment. I'll let you know what the plan will be as far as more surgery or whatever later in the week.

Robert

A Quick One

Hey, I finally kind of got ahold of the doctor. Well I talked to his secretary who looked through my file and found some notes. I'm not sure of any real details but this is how she explain it to me. She said that the mid line of my pelvis has fused together as well as s1/s2. There are a few partial fusions in the pelvis as well as one/some (She wasn't very clear on this) non fusions. So basically some of the bone have healed while other's haven't. This is what I'm assuming is the cause of all the pain. She also told me that since the problem area isn't in the spine but in the pelvis that I have been referred to a orthopedic specialist in Kelowna. Apparently all my info was faxed over on friday and I should hear from them soon. Who knows what that means. I'm glad that he isn't sending me to the orthopedic surgeon I had in vancover when I was at VGH because he was pretty much useless. Anyways everything is still kind of a mystery but at least we might be heading in the right direction.

Robert

Hello Hello

Hey. Well I finally have some good news to share. Last week I went in for another spinal tap and the pressure was at 20 mm of water right were its supposed to be. My vision isn't back to perfect yet but Its definitely improving. I can even read the screen today without closing my one eye. The neurologist wants me to continue take the medication for another month and then hopefully after that things should be all back to normal. I still haven't heard back from the spinal surgeon yet on the results of my ct scan. He was supposed to call me last Wednesday but didn't. I have left several messages and talked to his secretary twice, but still no word. Thats a bit frustrating but I suppose that know news is hopefully good news. Physio is going fine. My left quad s continuing to see improvements while my hip and foot are still not getting in on the action. Things are still pretty sore, and it would be really nice to know if the CT scan showed any evidence of the cause. but I guess I have to leave some angry messages this week. I have also been have some new pain near the middle of my back. I sat kinda funny for a few minutes and then when I stood up I was extremely painful to straighten my back out. It has eased up some but is still a bit of an issue. I'll have to have my physiotherapist take a look at it if it continues. And I guess that would be most of my news. Next weekend my parents are going down to watch my sisters senior recital. I had been hoping hoping to go but a ten hour car ride wouldn't agree with me quite yet. So Pat Mcdonald is going to be staying with me for the weekend. Should be fun. hmmm Thats all I can think of right now. Hope your all doing well.

Robert