1979 II

Post accident I weighed around 130lbs and was looking like a holocaust survivor although Dodd Hall was a good experience preparing me for the handicap lifestyle and even though I now couldn't walk, i had noticeable slurred speech(talk about a bad singer),double vision, and a slight case of paralysis in all these years I've never felt disabled, although while at Dodd hall and for a short time afterwards I used a wheel-chair and they're very restricting now I use a cane and rely on bouncing off the walls, furniture and at times floor but being a professional handicapped dude over the years I've learned from my mistakes so I rarely "bite" the floor although in my earlier "handicap" days falling was part of my daily routine but nothing to serious that is if you don't consider falling down stairs, cracking my head more than once, falling from a 3 wheeled bicycle, falling into a fire when I was simply walking by(I burned my left arm horribly) but that was years ago.

Following the hospital and Dodd hall I returned home, my parents home, where my mother, father, and two sister's lived and began my life as a handicapped dude. I always loved that house located in a small farming community in central Ohio and even though things have changed like me becoming disabled living there made life just a little easier but I was consumed with becoming "ME" again the pre-accident me(and I had a long row to hoe).

I began by excersising, watching television every commercial break doing push-up, set-ups, or curls with a dumb-bell and although it's been more than thirty years ago I can still remember some of the episodes of Mash and Mary Tyler Moore, at the time they were my favorite. And along with tv and excersising I ate, ate, and ate some more.

I eventually was doing something like 500 push-ups a day(that was years ago i hate to see what
would happen if i even attempted that now)along with various other exercises coupled with excessive eating I weighed slighted over 200lbs but I was still disabled(no fat just disabled).

I eventually lost the extra weight but had to learn to live independently on social security which is hard in today's economy.

1979

In 1979 I was 23 I am older and I've practically lived my life I'm now married with children and even grand-children(unless i live to be 100 and that would be fine by me)or I'm in the process of living it, I can still remember waking up in the hospital after a 3 week drug- induced coma to my dad saying,"you were in a car wreck" he may have said something else but that was over thirty years ago and I've forgotten. The thing is when i did wake up or come around I felt confused, fine but confused(twilight zone fine).

While I was in the drug-induced coma I was given a four percent chance of survival but I wouldn't listen, it's weird a four percent chance and not one scratch(from the accident that is). And by the way I guess I should say I rolled a jeep several times, the jeep was totaled а new jeep that the warranty was still in effect for and it was absolutely totaled. When I was lying in my hospital bed someone showed me a picture of it and it was definitely a wreck but like I was saying that was well over thirty years ago and I'm still here.

I can still remember as I was probably lying in my bed thoroughly drugged up from the lingering effects of the drug-induced coma thinking "I have to use the bathroom," when I was living at home this was a procedure everyone does and I had done a billion times before but this time I collapsed
and wow was I ever shocked. I remember a nurse came rushing in worried that I might have injured myself and me thinking "what the hell" this must be some temporary thing but here I am like I said earlier some thirty-plus years later and I'm still wondering "what the hell."

After two funfilled months in the Ohio state university hospital I was unable to walk, double vision(which is very, very strange), partially paralyzed on my right side, attaxia(which slurs my speech and makes writing virtually impossible), and I can't play a musical instrument(of course I couldn't before my accident but now I have an excuse).

From osu hospital it was off to Dodd hall which is a rehabilitation facility affiliated with the hospital. At Dodd hall I made attempts to walk and at normalcy but apparently it didn't take(I suppose it did,somewhat). If nothing else I did meet quite a few people who were in the same shape as me and at that time I was starving and the food wasn't all that bad. I weighed around 170lbs. Pre accident,