- My Life -
Back in 1983 I was in a serious, 10-speed bicycle vs. a large company
van accident. Needless to say I was injured. I broke my ribs, punctured
one of my lungs with a rib, broke my shoulder in 3 places, cracked my
skull, and ended up having a portion of the left part of my brain
removed due to damage that liquefied part of the brain. Today, there is
still bruising about my brain. If I didn't have a bicycle helmet on, I
would have died! So I've become strict with my daughter about that
subject. The doctors told my family that I would be in the hospital for
about 6 months, but with the help of God in healing, I was out in a
month and a half. I had extensive out-patient therapy, Learning how to
speak, write, walk, and function in society. At this time, I really didn't
know it was God helping me. Ever since then, I've had memory
problems, problems with learning, problems with handling problems,
and for about 7 years had suicidal problems. Which led up to my nearly
lethal overdose of one of my prescription drugs in 1990. From what the
medical records stated I had problems coping with new situations and
was easily overwhelmed emotionally. I was in the hospital 2 days then
was transferred to a psychological area at the hospital for about 2
weeks. Will discuss further when I get to the spiritual part of my life.
I've been in nearly 18 car accidents, 5 of which were my fault
(3 weather related). In one of those accidents I was taking a Woman,
I met in a bowling alley lounge, home and we were in a head-on
collision with a drunk-driver who flew through a stop sign and hit us.
We were both injured but not as severe as one would think. She had stitches on the side of her head that took out the passenger side window.
And I had stitches above my eye , where I took out the rear view mirror
and a broken wedding ring finger. I married her about 1 month later
and was divorced from her about a year after that. I think God was
trying to give me a hint when my ring finger was broken, now that I
think about it HA, HA, HA.
I graduated High school in 1986. I had to retake my Junior year
because at the end of 1983 was my head injury accident (the start of my
original Junior year). To the right are pictures of my 9th, 10th, 11th,
12th grade years and also a current picture of me.
Because of my head injury I had problems holding a job. If I'm
rushed I either make too many mistakes(bosses Don't like that) or I
had what I call a brain-shutdown (problems thinking, functioning, etc. .)
and when my health insurance ended I couldn't get any insurance
company to let me join up with them because of my head injury.
They called it "pre-existing" . So I applied for disability and was
excepted because 1) they saw in the MRI of my brain there was
definitely a portion missing and 2) after the psych evaluations, the
results didn't turn out as high as I would have liked them to be. So
that most certainly eased my mind about health issues.
In 1997, I was visiting my parents in Washington state and I slipped
off a steep grassy hill and landed all my weight(300lbs) on my ankle/foot
and ended up suffering from a spiral fracture above my ankle in which
surgery was needed to insert a metal plate on my leg to support the
fracture. After the swelling went down and they put a hard cast on my
leg and I did something both foolish and rewarding. I drove myself
back to Ohio( where I currently live )with little rest. About a month
after I got home I went to the Hospital with Difficulty Breathing and
it turned out that I had Blood Clots in my Lungs because of my driving
back home without being able to elevate my leg, a blood clot formed in
my leg and traveled into my lungs. I was in the hospital for a week (they were dissolving the blood clots). I met a nursing assistant at that hospital. She has a daughter from a previous marriage (who I treated as my own) and when she was used to me, Her Mother and I got Married (1999). Current we're in the process of a divorce due to the amount of stress I
had to deal with between her and her daughter. The stress was causing anxiety attacks, as well as other health issues. About four years ago (2005) I was in counseling with my Pastor and it was suggested that I consider getting a divorce, but I wanted to try and do my part to make it work and 'stick it out'. Things continued to get worse to the point I felt like I didn't exist where I lived. The anxiety attacks were more frequent and I was prescribed four medications to get them under control. While in counseling with my new Pastor again divorce was suggested (2008). With my health the way it was and the fact that things are getting worse instead of better, I decided divorce was the right option. So divorce is in progress (2009).
On Christmas Eve (1999), we were hit from behind on the freeway during a Heavy Snowstorm and knowing that some of my old injuries were likely to come back and haunt me, we continued (after we got permission from the police) to where we were headed. Delivering Christmas Gifts. A couple of days later the pain started to set in and I ended up doing a lot of Physical Therapy for my back, neck and right arm/shoulder. The back and neck improved, but my arm
and shoulder couldn't be raised above shoulder height . It got to the
point that the therapists decided that any other therapy would be useless.
So I suffered and became depressed and even started suicidal tendencies
again but this time I got medical help before it got too out of hand.
I learned from the past, that it really isn't worth trying to kill yourself,
when you can get the help you need to help you with that situation.
This is when My Spiritual Life Started.
