Thank you from the depths of my soul for saving my life.

Thank you everyone! I guess I took a harder tumble than I thought I did. When they stuck the tube in pleural layer of my lung, a bunch of blood and other fluids dumped out. Over 2.5 liters so far. It's nearly done now tho. Here's a pic I grabbed off the interwebs. It basically shows what happened.


So, believe me, when you have 6 fractured rings, that is extremely painful!

Now I'm just hanging out waiting for nature to take its course.

 

WOW! Hang in there buddy and heal up soon.

 

Not sure what I'm going to do about the bike. It took one hell of a beating.

I will need a new tank for sure. This I've got dented pretty good by the handle bar. I'll need all new body panel mounts, bodywork, footpegs, footpeg mounts, and that's just a precursory review. I couldn't really look at it very well because of my broken ribs.

I'm still trying to figure out if I'll ride again. I want to and I don't. If I lived in SoCal I could do trackdays often enough, but now I'm living nere Nashville, so I'm kinda looking around at tracks.

 

Work out what is the minimum spend required to fix the bike is then that will tell you if you can make it a track bike. As long as the tank holds fuel that's fine, you don't need fairings or lights so that's less spend there.

So a set of pegs and you are ready to go... don't even need gaffer tape !

Sorry forgot - budget for some sliders. Lol

 

But why would you say that, hahaha!

 

Just a wild guess

 

You'd be better off showing them a crash photo of a motorcyclist with no helmet and their brains sprayed all over the road. In the immortal words of Jonathan Swift, you can't reason someone out of something they weren't reasoned into. Someone doing something as stupid as riding with no helmet has to have a visceral, gut response to change their opinion - a well stated plea is useless.

 

Hope you are feeling better.

I did not realize you moved from SoCal.

I came across this deal and it would be perfect to get you going for a great price - https://orangecounty.craigslist.org/mcy/d/1999-vfr-800/6671403844.html

Check out all the spare body work!

Take care.

 

Now that's a good deal 1 x track bike, 1 x fairings for road bike...

 

HOLY CRAP!! 2.5 cups would be IMO a lot - 2.5 LITERS???

more than this!


I can't even imagine that!

 

Yep. It fucking hurt too!

 

I think I'm going to be stopping riding street for a while. After talking with two thoracic surgeons along with pulmonary doctors, I had a very high risk of losing my lung. Not something I want to live with.
I may do only track, I don't know at this point.

I spent 14 days total in the hospital, stressing the fuck out of my wife and kids, not to mention my parents and siblings. I have stopped taking opioid based pain pills because they are messing with my head really bad. I hurt, a lot. I can't do even the most basic thing around the house to contribute, such as dishes, laundry, etc. Yes, my kids are helping, but I can't even relocate my financial business here, because I'm too hurt. Even taking 975 mg Tylenol 3 times a day, doesn't cut the pain, but I've been on opiod pain meds for all of the 20 days since this happened and it makes me physically ill to think of taking more. I have multiple fractures on 6 or more ribs. I had to have a tube shoved in my back into the pleural cavity around my lung to drain over 2.5 liters of blood and other fluids from my left lung. I've had to see the faces of my family and my brother knowing I should have done more to avoid the situation I was in. The pain, the anger, the fear they felt and all of that and more that I've felt. I've been so scared a few times, wondering if this is it, even while I was in the hospital bring tended to by trauma doctors. I'm shook. Really, really shook. I feel at any second in going to shatter into a pile on the floor. The strain it has put on my relationship with my wife is not with it. I've spent more of my life with her, than without and I almost ended in the worst possible way. I moved it to Nashville to be with my brother and I almost died right on front of him.

I really shouldn't even be alive writing this. It truly was an emergency stop situation and it's only because of track training that I'm alive. As I said above, I was close enough to lick the RV. Had I not don't all that time on the track with California Superbike School, I am absolutely certain I would be dead. There is positively 100%, 1000% no way that there are any situations or practice that you can get on the street that will teach you what to do in a situation like I had. Regardless of what keyboard warriors, self proclaimed gurus try and say here on this site. I would have been killed 100% if I didn't learn what I learned.

Not only would this have absolutely shattered my wife and kids, but it would have completely destroyed my brother who I was riding with. I gotta do better than that, be better than that.

Riding's a lot of fun, I've been part of nearly every aspect of it, except pure racing. I've commuted, traveled across country, ridden in rain, desert, mountains and prairies. I've done track days with my knee on the ground and the front wheel in the air with the throttle pinned. I've ridden solo and with friends. In all, I've ridden over 100,000 miles. I've ridden over $100,000 with of motorcycles from the majority of the top manufacturers. I've tested bikes that were pure perfection and some that were raw little toys. I've met legends of the motorcycle world, I've even sold bikes and did quite well, having a blast while doing it. I'll fondly remember all them. I just think it's time I live more for others, and less for myself. I very neary had that chance taken from me.

 

I guess you have time to think while you heal.
Heal well. That is most important.

 

I must say thats an excellent post Randy. I'm guessing your recovery time may be measured in month's NOT weeks.. It seems you got the worst of the accident even with AGATT.
Put the bike in the garage on stands & don't think about it until you are healed. At that point, make a choice (OR NOT) - family come first, business 2nd & riding a really close 3rd...
Your family will thank you for it.

 

Every time we're out and about, there is always a risk and the smaller the vehicle, the greater the risk. Sometimes we have a "say" in it, sometimes we don't (i.e. it doesn't make one iota of difference how good/skilled/prepared/etc we are).

Some of you So Cal locals might remember this crazy tragic accident:

http://articles.latimes.com/1996-09-20/news/mn-45651_1_bus-driver

Man, I can't imagine just toodling along in the #1 lane and having a bus all of a sudden come flying over the center divider from the other side of the freeway and landing on top of me!

And, while searching for a second link to that story, I came across this one (which also happened on the 170 freeway but about 20 years later) - talk about chain reaction:

https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/201...tal-170-crash-was-los-angeles-times-employee/


Back in the early 1990's, one of the guys who worked at the Honda/Kawi dealership with me told me about a brush with death he had had - mid/late night time ride (just going from point A to point B) on a major So Cal freeway, light traffic conditions, poor lighting conditions, he t-boned a black couch that was blocking most of the #2 and part of the #1 lanes at about 75mph. Later in the hospital, they told him what he had hit - he hadn't seen it at all.

I lost a good buddy of mine back in 06 here in So Cal, got crushed by a cement truck after a chain reaction crash due to a stove in the freeway - and he was in a car.

I lost one of my closest high school friends last year up in No Cal who died of heat exhaustion during a boy scout hike and he was former US Army.

I'm sure all of us have had tragedies to our families/friends/acquaintances and close calls for ourselves, either to having an accident or to suffering serious injury or to getting dead. I'm hoping that I'll be fortunate enough to be around for awhile with my family - if not, I'm hoping I don't end up a Darwin winner or candidate!

Wishing you no more complications and a full/speedy recovery Lint - if no more motorcycles, I hope you find an equally enjoyable and safer substitute!

PS Maybe I've been looking at your avatar too much - I was expecting you to look more like Despereaux… haha

 

Might be my new Avatar...

 

Ditto on Diving Pete.

I would like to suggest something to you about your healing process. Of course, you and your doctors know better about your particular situation and will take the most appropriate actions.

Pain control is a substantial part of successful and speediest recovery possible. With al the news about OD cases involving opioid medicines have put an exadurated scare into people. Opioid medicines, if taken carefully and as prescribed, are a good thing. Immediately after the injury and for a short period of time, the high test stuff which is what you were taking that screwed up your senses, is important to overcome the severe pain of the incident. If you are all tensed up trying to deal with the pain, you could be working against that injury healing. But the soon you can get to the lesser opioid content and accomplish reasonable pain relief, of course that is the action to take. There is morphine that you can step down to, then to something like Tylenol 4 and then to Tylenol 3 and so on. But you need to allow the pain killers help you to recover.

Tylenol 3 is a really mild opioid all things considered. The acetaminophen in Tylenol 3 is far harder on you than the codiene in the T3. I would be willing to bet the 30 mg of caffeine in a T3 is as bad for you as the 30 mg of codiene. everyone is different but T3s have been a fact of pain control for me since the early 80's. I am watched over by one doctor or his associates when he is away, one pharmacist, and when I was still serving, RCMP Health Services. They all know what was prescribed and how much. I even raised my own concerns to two of my doctors and they both assured me I was not in any fear of becoming problematic with it. Discuss with your doctor. Heal up.

If you are stepping away from the bike, come on up. I need a new fence, the inside of the house painted, and there are cabinets to build for the garage.

 

That stuff is weak. A bottle of wine works better for me.
I'm talking for dental pain after work is done.

 

I get where you're coming from. I was taking Lortab, i.e. 7.5mg hydrocodone/325mg acetomenophene. 2 pills every 6 hours.
What really messed with my mind was while I was in the hospital, I was in a constant morphine drip. I had them reduce it, then, as you said above, I had then bump it back up again. However, it seriously fucked with my head. I was feeling things I've never felt before and it wasn't good. I could get off of it fast enough. The oxycodone the prescribed to take home continued it. I had the singular worst dream of the 50 years I've been on this planet and it fucked me up most of today. I stopped taking it last night and I'm just dealing with the pain with Tylenol. I know it's hard on the liver, all drugs. It also has the least effect on the heart, something opiates do have, especially on me.

The doctors and nurses echo what you've said above, of getting pain under control first, which I allowed them to do. Dilaudid saved my ass more than a couple of times. That stuff is miraculous when put in an IV like.

 

Oxy is very strong and I can understand it giving you odd feelings but oxy is meant for very temporary pain relief until some healing has taken place. The codiene in T3 is not enough to cause you problems other than to dry you out and maybe bung you up if taken as prescribed. yes the Tylenol is hard on your liver. But taken as prescribed 8 a day max, you should be OK. I have been on that since early 80's at first to a minor degree, but after a few ack failures on the side of the freeway, and a couple more surgeries, I have been prescribed 8 a day ever since. From time to time I have the liver checked and it is fine right now. it did become a little toxic at one point but it settled down. you liver is an amazing organ.

I think what is working for me as far as liver toxicity is the amount of water I drink. Lots of water helps to flush impurities out of the liver. So happens, I just love ice water. Almost as much as beer and single malt. Those do not help the liver.

But again, you and your doc are the ones to come to a reasonable decision on what to take. Just don't live with excessive pain. That works against an efficient recovery.