I had mentioned a couple of times a friend of mine and his wife had an
animal impact accident in Vermont last summer. I know Bob (6ft6) has
been wrestling with the question of will he, or should he ever ride
again. Today Bob posted the following to a local forum. It is an
interesting read.
******************
6ft6
The last “real thing” I remember on August 21, 2010 was that it was a
nice morning, not too warm, not too cool, and we were filling up the gas
tank on our Harley Davidson motorcycle in a little town called Gorham,
Vermont. We had spent the previous night in Farmington, Maine we were
thoroughly enjoying the morning cruising through the countryside.
Apparently we stopped again in Wells River, Vermont (60 miles down the
road) and topped off the tank again, but I do not remember it.
I said “real thing” because I also recall many strange things in the
days that followed, like the ability to control others with my thoughts,
the ability to fly around in an air inflated device that was the size
and shape of a top-loading clothes dryer. Probably one of the scariest
things was being paralyzed and left completely helpless on the landing
of a staircase at night; although waking up chained to the bed in a
derelict building was not a pleasant event either. These are a few of
the “strange” things that I recall, and they are actually more vivid in
my memory than the “real” things. There is no feeling in the world like
being completely paralyzed and carted around in the back of an old car,
only to be dumped on a dirty mattress in an old farm building while your
wife visits with the farmer, and arranges with him to construct a bed
for you out of steel plate.
If the things that I just spoke of in the last paragraph sound a bit
weird, then you just may have a slight inkling of what it is like to
spend 3 weeks in a drug induced state of what I can only describe as
“surreal consciousness”. Welcome to the world of accident recovery,
brought on by being “blindsided” by a deer while you are travelling on
your motorcycle at 65 miles per hour down an Interstate highway.
It seems that is what happened to my wife and I shortly after leaving
Wells River. I have no recollection, none. I remember nothing about
what was actually happening to and around me from basically 1½ hours
prior to this until 19 days later when I was released from hospital in
my home town, on the opposite side of the continent from where I “left
off”. Oh sure, I have small bits of memory regarding a few events, but
none of them line up chronologically or even logically with the real
world. That accident happened approximately four months ago, and over
those four months I have had a lot of time to reflect on my life.
Perhaps the best way to explain this is to talk first about our injuries.
My wife sustained severe abrasions to both of her hands, multiple
bruises on her body and a sprained ankle. She was treated in hospital
and released. The damage to her hands was severe enough that four months
later, her hands are still extremely sensitive to hot & cold and to
touch. Every time I see the scars on her hands, I still feel like being
ill, and come very close to crying…
I received a hematoma on my right arm and a very large edema on my right
hip. I also received a 6 inch long vertical tear in my forehead above my
right eye, a 4 inch long horizontal tear branching off of the six inch
one over my right eye a large edema on my head, multiple complex
lacerations to about 16 square inches of my scalp, a cracked nose, and
a dislocated jaw. When my jaw dislocated, it produced a large blood
blister on my lip and severe bruising of my tongue, as well as
fracturing one of my molars. It seems the impact to my head was severe
enough that the viscous lining in my right eye separated from the
retina, causing an air bubble and I am still experiencing some
‘blurriness” in my vision. My “C3” vertebrae was fractured (this is
known as “the hangman’s break” because this is also the normal result of
being hanged – and is usually fatal) I received fractures to 3 of my “T”
vertebrae – T2, T5 & T6. I also received a fracture to rib 1 on my left
side and to ribs 2 through 8 on my right side. My right lung was
punctured. Again, the impact of the accident was so severe that it also
produced both a pulmonary contusion and cardiac contusion. I was on
life support, and apparently very nearly died.
I am writing this 139 days after the accident and just 31 days after
getting out of a Cervical Collar; I still have a large edema on my right
hip; My feet still swell if I sit without them elevated for any length
of time and I still cannot lie down to sleep at night (I sleep sitting
up in a chair). I still have some vertigo. Even though I take a
relatively large dose of Morphine when I retire, the pain in my hips and
legs wake me up 3 or 4 times a night.
Don’t misunderstand me, I am not looking for sympathy: I knew (or at
least thought I knew) the risk I was taking getting onto a motorcycle.
So why do I go into so much depth describing these injuries?
Because I have to ask myself a very simple, yet important question:
“Could I live with myself if my wife and I were in the opposite roles,
and it was her who received the injuries I did?” After months of what
can only be described as “an emotional roller coaster ride” and mulling
this over again and again in my mind the answer is: “No, I love her way
too much to ever be able to deal with the guilt I would feel if
something like this ever happened to her”.
So, if I want to continue to travel with my wife (which I do) , and I am
not willing to put my wife to this risk again ( which I am not) then I
have to be very realistic about this when asking myself, “Will we ride
again?”
At this point it appears to me that the only answer to this question is:
“No”.
I will miss riding, a lot. I will miss the outings with our “Biker”
friends, a lot. But in life we have to make choices, and we have to
consider many things. It is interesting (at least to me) that I called
our Harley “Choices”;
I never for one moment thought that this would be one of the “Choices”
it would force me to make…
****************
My sense is this is one of the more revealing personal accounts of a
serious accident, a near death experience I have ever read. Bob lived
for riding. He is one of the good guys. Last time I saw him he shook my
hand thanking me for helping to set up our High River camp out. He told
me he and his wife would be back next year. From High River they left
for their cross country ride. The ride which ended in the accident
described above.
Although I never got to know Bob Nixon very well, I recall the
discussions in Reeky when he had his deer accident. If memory serves he
was on the edge for quite a while and suffered through a very long
recovery period. Of course he never fully regained his former health or
vigour. His mildly acidic personality seems to have survived though. ;-)
As we all know Bob did get back on a bike and he continues to ride. If
you read this Bob, I would be interested to know if you had similar
thoughts as 6ft6 did before you got back on the horse?
And we have been following the challenges Thumper has faced since his
accident. Paul, I would also like to know your take on 6ft6's decision.
Now I don't like to dwell too much on accidents. As 6ft6 noted, "We all
know the risks." I even recall Bob saying the exact same thing shortly
after a friend of mine was carted off in an ambulance after driving his
bike into a rock wall. I now have a better understanding of the risks.
So trying hard not to dwell on the prospect of having a bike accident,
we should recognize these are life changing moments. I know I can't ride
thinking of the possibility of having an accident, but when the snow
melts I think I will focus a little more on riding aware and riding safe.
--
Reeky Ride To The Rockies
http://actualriders.ca/reekyrockies.htm
> I had mentioned a couple of times a friend of mine and his wife had an
> animal impact accident in Vermont last summer. I know Bob (6ft6) has
> been wrestling with the question of will he, or should he ever ride
> again. Today Bob posted the following to a local forum. It is an
> interesting read.
> ******************
> 6ft6
> The last real thing I remember on August 21, 2010 was that it was a
> nice morning, not too warm, not too cool, and we were filling up the gas
> tank on our Harley Davidson motorcycle in a little town called Gorham,
> Vermont. We had spent the previous night in Farmington, Maine we were
> thoroughly enjoying the morning cruising through the countryside.
> Apparently we stopped again in Wells River, Vermont (60 miles down the
> road) and topped off the tank again, but I do not remember it.
> I said real thing because I also recall many strange things in the
> days that followed, like the ability to control others with my thoughts,
> the ability to fly around in an air inflated device that was the size
> and shape of a top-loading clothes dryer. Probably one of the scariest
> things was being paralyzed and left completely helpless on the landing
> of a staircase at night; although waking up chained to the bed in a
> derelict building was not a pleasant event either. These are a few of
> the strange things that I recall, and they are actually more vivid in
> my memory than the real things. There is no feeling in the world like
> being completely paralyzed and carted around in the back of an old car,
> only to be dumped on a dirty mattress in an old farm building while your
> wife visits with the farmer, and arranges with him to construct a bed
> for you out of steel plate.
> If the things that I just spoke of in the last paragraph sound a bit
> weird, then you just may have a slight inkling of what it is like to
> spend 3 weeks in a drug induced state of what I can only describe as
> surreal consciousness . Welcome to the world of accident recovery,
> brought on by being blindsided by a deer while you are travelling on
> your motorcycle at 65 miles per hour down an Interstate highway.
> It seems that is what happened to my wife and I shortly after leaving
> Wells River. I have no recollection, none. I remember nothing about
> what was actually happening to and around me from basically 1 hours
> prior to this until 19 days later when I was released from hospital in
> my home town, on the opposite side of the continent from where I left
> off . Oh sure, I have small bits of memory regarding a few events, but
> none of them line up chronologically or even logically with the real
> world. That accident happened approximately four months ago, and over
> those four months I have had a lot of time to reflect on my life.
> Perhaps the best way to explain this is to talk first about our injuries.
> My wife sustained severe abrasions to both of her hands, multiple
> bruises on her body and a sprained ankle. She was treated in hospital
> and released. The damage to her hands was severe enough that four months
> later, her hands are still extremely sensitive to hot & cold and to
> touch. Every time I see the scars on her hands, I still feel like being
> ill, and come very close to crying
> I received a hematoma on my right arm and a very large edema on my right
> hip. I also received a 6 inch long vertical tear in my forehead above my
> right eye, a 4 inch long horizontal tear branching off of the six inch
> one over my right eye a large edema on my head, multiple complex
> lacerations to about 16 square inches of my scalp, a cracked nose, and
> a dislocated jaw. When my jaw dislocated, it produced a large blood
> blister on my lip and severe bruising of my tongue, as well as
> fracturing one of my molars. It seems the impact to my head was severe
> enough that the viscous lining in my right eye separated from the
> retina, causing an air bubble and I am still experiencing some
> blurriness in my vision. My C3 vertebrae was fractured (this is
> known as the hangman s break because this is also the normal result of
> being hanged and is usually fatal) I received fractures to 3 of my T
> vertebrae T2, T5 & T6. I also received a fracture to rib 1 on my left
> side and to ribs 2 through 8 on my right side. My right lung was
> punctured. Again, the impact of the accident was so severe that it also
> produced both a pulmonary contusion and cardiac contusion. I was on
> life support, and apparently very nearly died.
> I am writing this 139 days after the accident and just 31 days after
> getting out of a Cervical Collar; I still have a large edema on my right
> hip; My feet still swell if I sit without them elevated for any length
> of time and I still cannot lie down to sleep at night (I sleep sitting
> up in a chair). I still have some vertigo. Even though I take a
> relatively large dose of Morphine when I retire, the pain in my hips and
> legs wake me up 3 or 4 times a night.
> Don t misunderstand me, I am not looking for sympathy: I knew (or at
> least thought I knew) the risk I was taking getting onto a motorcycle.
> So why do I go into so much depth describing these injuries?
> Because I have to ask myself a very simple, yet important question:
> Could I live with myself if my wife and I were in the opposite roles,
> and it was her who received the injuries I did? After months of what
> can only be described as an emotional roller coaster ride and mulling
> this over again and again in my mind the answer is: No, I love her way
> too much to ever be able to deal with the guilt I would feel if
> something like this ever happened to her .
> So, if I want to continue to travel with my wife (which I do) , and I am
> not willing to put my wife to this risk again ( which I am not) then I
> have to be very realistic about this when asking myself, Will we ride
> again?
> At this point it appears to me that the only answer to this question is:
> No .
> I will miss riding, a lot. I will miss the outings with our Biker
> friends, a lot. But in life we have to make choices, and we have to
> consider many things. It is interesting (at least to me) that I called
> our Harley Choices ;
> I never for one moment thought that this would be one of the Choices
> it would force me to make
> ****************
> My sense is this is one of the more revealing personal accounts of a
> serious accident, a near death experience I have ever read. Bob lived
> for riding. He is one of the good guys. Last time I saw him he shook my
> hand thanking me for helping to set up our High River camp out. He told
> me he and his wife would be back next year. From High River they left
> for their cross country ride. The ride which ended in the accident
> described above.
> Although I never got to know Bob Nixon very well, I recall the
> discussions in Reeky when he had his deer accident. If memory serves he
> was on the edge for quite a while and suffered through a very long
> recovery period. Of course he never fully regained his former health or
> vigour. His mildly acidic personality seems to have survived though. ;-)
> As we all know Bob did get back on a bike and he continues to ride. If
> you read this Bob, I would be interested to know if you had similar
> thoughts as 6ft6 did before you got back on the horse?
> And we have been following the challenges Thumper has faced since his
> accident. Paul, I would also like to know your take on 6ft6's decision.
> Now I don't like to dwell too much on accidents. As 6ft6 noted, "We all
> know the risks." I even recall Bob saying the exact same thing shortly
> after a friend of mine was carted off in an ambulance after driving his
> bike into a rock wall. I now have a better understanding of the risks.
> So trying hard not to dwell on the prospect of having a bike accident,
> we should recognize these are life changing moments. I know I can't ride
> thinking of the possibility of having an accident, but when the snow
> melts I think I will focus a little more on riding aware and riding safe.
> --
> Reeky Ride To The Rockieshttp://actualriders.ca/reekyrockies.htm
Having had friends and family killed and other friends and family
permanently disabled, and other friends and family grieviously injured
and then recovered from motorcycle accidents during my 33 years of
riding, your friend's story is a familiar one.
Having had friends and family killed and other friends and family
permanently disabled, and other friends and family grieviously injured
and then recovered from automobile accidents during my nearly 38 years
of driving, I choose to continue riding and driving my car and truck,
and accept the risks that come with the level of exposure to accident,
injury, and death that comes from all of them.
For me, living without riding would be worthwhile, but would only be
so if I were unable to ride.
On Jan 7, 9:21 pm, "tomor...@erols.com"
> > I had mentioned a couple of times a friend of mine and his wife had an
> > animal impact accident in Vermont last summer. I know Bob (6ft6) has
> > been wrestling with the question of will he, or should he ever ride
> > again. Today Bob posted the following to a local forum. It is an
> > interesting read.
> > ******************
> > 6ft6
> > The last real thing I remember on August 21, 2010 was that it was a
> > nice morning, not too warm, not too cool, and we were filling up the gas
> > tank on our Harley Davidson motorcycle in a little town called Gorham,
> > Vermont. We had spent the previous night in Farmington, Maine we were
> > thoroughly enjoying the morning cruising through the countryside.
> > Apparently we stopped again in Wells River, Vermont (60 miles down the
> > road) and topped off the tank again, but I do not remember it.
> > I said real thing because I also recall many strange things in the
> > days that followed, like the ability to control others with my thoughts,
> > the ability to fly around in an air inflated device that was the size
> > and shape of a top-loading clothes dryer. Probably one of the scariest
> > things was being paralyzed and left completely helpless on the landing
> > of a staircase at night; although waking up chained to the bed in a
> > derelict building was not a pleasant event either. These are a few of
> > the strange things that I recall, and they are actually more vivid in
> > my memory than the real things. There is no feeling in the world like
> > being completely paralyzed and carted around in the back of an old car,
> > only to be dumped on a dirty mattress in an old farm building while your
> > wife visits with the farmer, and arranges with him to construct a bed
> > for you out of steel plate.
> > If the things that I just spoke of in the last paragraph sound a bit
> > weird, then you just may have a slight inkling of what it is like to
> > spend 3 weeks in a drug induced state of what I can only describe as
> > surreal consciousness . Welcome to the world of accident recovery,
> > brought on by being blindsided by a deer while you are travelling on
> > your motorcycle at 65 miles per hour down an Interstate highway.
> > It seems that is what happened to my wife and I shortly after leaving
> > Wells River. I have no recollection, none. I remember nothing about
> > what was actually happening to and around me from basically 1 hours
> > prior to this until 19 days later when I was released from hospital in
> > my home town, on the opposite side of the continent from where I left
> > off . Oh sure, I have small bits of memory regarding a few events, but
> > none of them line up chronologically or even logically with the real
> > world. That accident happened approximately four months ago, and over
> > those four months I have had a lot of time to reflect on my life.
> > Perhaps the best way to explain this is to talk first about our injuries.
> > My wife sustained severe abrasions to both of her hands, multiple
> > bruises on her body and a sprained ankle. She was treated in hospital
> > and released. The damage to her hands was severe enough that four months
> > later, her hands are still extremely sensitive to hot & cold and to
> > touch. Every time I see the scars on her hands, I still feel like being
> > ill, and come very close to crying
> > I received a hematoma on my right arm and a very large edema on my right
> > hip. I also received a 6 inch long vertical tear in my forehead above my
> > right eye, a 4 inch long horizontal tear branching off of the six inch
> > one over my right eye a large edema on my head, multiple complex
> > lacerations to about 16 square inches of my scalp, a cracked nose, and
> > a dislocated jaw. When my jaw dislocated, it produced a large blood
> > blister on my lip and severe bruising of my tongue, as well as
> > fracturing one of my molars. It seems the impact to my head was severe
> > enough that the viscous lining in my right eye separated from the
> > retina, causing an air bubble and I am still experiencing some
> > blurriness in my vision. My C3 vertebrae was fractured (this is
> > known as the hangman s break because this is also the normal result of
> > being hanged and is usually fatal) I received fractures to 3 of my T
> > vertebrae T2, T5 & T6. I also received a fracture to rib 1 on my left
> > side and to ribs 2 through 8 on my right side. My right lung was
> > punctured. Again, the impact of the accident was so severe that it also
> > produced both a pulmonary contusion and cardiac contusion. I was on
> > life support, and apparently very nearly died.
> > I am writing this 139 days after the accident and just 31 days after
> > getting out of a Cervical Collar; I still have a large edema on my right
> > hip; My feet still swell if I sit without them elevated for any length
> > of time and I still cannot lie down to sleep at night (I sleep sitting
> > up in a chair). I still have some vertigo. Even though I take a
> > relatively large dose of Morphine when I retire, the pain in my hips and
> > legs wake me up 3 or 4 times a night.
> > Don t misunderstand me, I am not looking for sympathy: I knew (or at
> > least thought I knew) the risk I was taking getting onto a motorcycle.
> > So why do I go into so much depth describing these injuries?
> > Because I have to ask myself a very simple, yet important question:
> > Could I live with myself if my wife and I were in the opposite roles,
> > and it was her who received the injuries I did? After months of what
> > can only be described as an emotional roller coaster ride and mulling
> > this over again and again in my mind the answer is: No, I love her way
> > too much to ever be able to deal with the guilt I would feel if
> > something like this ever happened to her .
> > So, if I want to continue to travel with my wife (which I do) , and I am
> > not willing to put my wife to this risk again ( which I am not) then I
> > have to be very realistic about this when asking myself, Will we ride
> > again?
> > At this point it appears to me that the only answer to this question is:
> > No .
> > I will miss riding, a lot. I will miss the outings with our Biker
> > friends, a lot. But in life we have to make choices, and we have to
> > consider many things. It is interesting (at least to me) that I called
> > our Harley Choices ;
> > I never for one moment thought that this would be one of the Choices
> > it would force me to make
> > ****************
> > My sense is this is one of the more revealing personal accounts of a
> > serious accident, a near death experience I have ever read. Bob lived
> > for riding. He is one of the good guys. Last time I saw him he shook my
> > hand thanking me for helping to set up our High River camp out. He told
> > me he and his wife would be back next year. From High River they left
> > for their cross country ride. The ride which ended in the accident
> > described above.
> > Although I never got to know Bob Nixon very well, I recall the
> > discussions in Reeky when he had his deer accident. If memory serves he
> > was on the edge for quite a while and suffered through a very long
> > recovery period. Of course he never fully regained his former health or
> > vigour. His mildly acidic personality seems to have survived though. ;-)
> > As we all know Bob did get back on a bike and he continues to ride. If
> > you read this Bob, I would be interested to know if you had similar
> > thoughts as 6ft6 did before you got back on the horse?
> > And we have been following the challenges Thumper has faced since his
> > accident. Paul, I would also like to know your take on 6ft6's decision.
> > Now I don't like to dwell too much on accidents. As 6ft6 noted, "We all
> > know the risks." I even recall Bob saying the exact same thing shortly
> > after a friend of mine was carted off in an ambulance after driving his
> > bike into a rock wall. I now have a better understanding of the risks.
> > So trying hard not to dwell on the prospect of having a bike accident,
> > we should recognize these are life changing moments. I know I can't ride
> > thinking of the possibility of having an accident, but when the snow
> > melts I think I will focus a little more on riding aware and riding safe.
> > --
> > Reeky Ride To The Rockieshttp://actualriders.ca/reekyrockies.htm
> Having had friends and family killed and other friends and family
> permanently disabled, and other friends and family grieviously injured
> and then recovered from motorcycle accidents during my 33 years of
> riding, your friend's story is a familiar one.
> Having had friends and family killed and other friends and family
> permanently disabled, and other friends and family grieviously injured
> and then recovered from automobile accidents during my nearly 38 years
> of driving, I choose to continue riding and driving my car and truck,
> and accept the risks that come with the level of exposure to accident,
> injury, and death that comes from all of them.
> For me, living without riding would be worthwhile
Gawd I would hope so...if it weren't for me I'd have to kill myself
every December!
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> animal impact accident in Vermont last summer. I know Bob (6ft6) has
> been wrestling with the question of will he, or should he ever ride
> again. Today Bob posted the following to a local forum. It is an
> interesting read.
>
> ******************
> 6ft6
> The last "real thing" I remember on August 21, 2010 was that it was a
SNIP