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Thread: Injuries and accidents starting over

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2014
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    3

    Default Injuries and accidents starting over

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    Where to start, well I guess how I got into lifting when I was 19 but couldn't afford to even buy protein let alone eat right. I thought hot dogs and Ramen Noodles where a food group. I had a wife with a 2 year old and our own baby. We where the definition of poor. Buy here pay here car and a trailer. I trained and tried to eat somewhat living on jerky and Creatine chews back when the pharmacy was where you bought that kind of stuff. I got a little strength benching 215 and DL a little.

    When I moved back to my hometown I gained weight and drank beer for the first time. I decided I wanted to get in shape again in my early 20's after topping out at 235 with a 36" waist. This time I could afford to eat and through myself at the gym between working sixteen hour shifts. I went through a fairly clean divorce and kept my son. I was training in between 12-16 hour swing shifts and sleeping 2-3 hours a day. I still didn't understand dieting and nutrition but did understand I needed to eat more. I was somewhat successful and leveled off at 215 and a 34" waist at 6'3". I used the Squat Sled or whatever the thing is where you load plates and then stand up and knock down the spotter. I could do 6 something for a few reps and my bench maxed out in the 240 range.

    Fast forward about a year and I decided to get serious and hired a trainer and nutritionist ( same Guy ) who trained with the Albany Firebirds and had consulted with the Raiders. I learned a lot about dieting and nutrition and training. I blew up to about 245. Eating 5500 calories and doing BB type lifting. I didn't gain a ton of strength but just packed on muscle. I saw some of the football players doing Olympic style lifts and asked my trainer to show me how. He checked my form on DLs and thought they looked good. I could do 4something for 4 sets of ten cleanly. He showed me front and rear squats and they felt foreign to me. I never could get either to feel right. I had been in a bad accident as a kid and lost some range of motion but did not tell the trainer any of this.

    I decided to diet down and see how lean and ripped I could get but didn't yet realize that you don't make gains being calorie deficient. About this time I also busted my hand pretty bad at work. I was doing reverse grip bench with some heavy weights and almost dropped it do to the smashed hand hurting so bad. I took some pain meds and kept training. I did squats with 305 and hit the Hack Squat machine.

    That night I woke up in a whole lot more pain then I had ever been in before. I now know it was a spasm in my lumbar area and it was probably due to poor form coupled with previous injuries. I couldn't breath. I couldn't get up to use the bathroom. It was the beginning of a miserable point though I didn't know it yet. I felt better in a few days and kept training but avoided squats. I could easily use the Lead Sled Leg Press with it fully loaded and a 230 lbs buddy sitting on it and drop my knees to my chest for a set of 20. So I did those and kept training. I got down to 225 or a little less at 6-7% BF. I felt like crap because I was still trying to train heavy but was down to 3200 calories a day. I cycled my carbs. I did sprints on empty stomach. I cycled water. Everything I had learned BB did.

    About a month later I moved to NC and wanted to go to school for Sports Nutrition. My fiancé lost the job we moved here for and I was forced to take a quick job installing granite. My back got worse and worse to the point I had to take an office job. I couldn't drive some days. My wife put my shoes on for me. It kept getting worse. I kept trying to train but lost motivation when I kept having recurring spasms that would leave me on the floor for days.

    Finally, I found a spine specialist that recommended spinal injections. After two or three I started feeling better. My back fizzled out and I became more functional though I did have recurrences on occasion. I got back into lifting and blew up from 205-235 in a few months before my wedding. Shortly after I had a relapse of back problems. They where always there but the issue was minimal until now. I went from being the healthiest eater in the family to a beer swilling mess. I didn't gain a lot fo weight but my body composition changed some and I dropped to 215 and my waist was pushing 36" again.

    A few years of this and I have always been a high energy guy working on my house until late at night and then putting in long days at the office. I met another trainer and started lifting again. He was also a BB but trained different. Instead of trying to do sets of 12,10,8,6 to gain strength he did sets of 20 to 100. He would superset everything and hammer his body for thirty minutes. He was a monster of a guy and I actually started making different gains then I had before. I learned I was stuck in the same routines and the higher reps actually helped me fill out in areas like rear delts I had been lacking. I still struggled with alcohol and trying to balance work with home and working out. I kept up the crazy hours and still struggled a little with back pain off and on. I would loose a month to back injuries and then trying and catch back up.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2014
    Posts
    3

    Default Injuries and Accidents part 2

    I kept this up kind of half a$$ training for a few years off and on. One night while working on the remodels I needed some air after plumbing in the crawl space and breathing in dust. I came out and had a few beers and told my wife I would be right back. I was going to walk a few blocks to the store and get a few things for the house.
    I don't remember anything after that except a warm feeling where everything felt right in the world and I was so relaxed. I couldn't see but I heard a lady in the back of my head screaming.

    I came to in the Trauma ward and immediately tried to call my wife because she would be worried. I couldn't see or move but my wife was 7 months pregnant and I didn't want her to worry. I kept giving the nurse my old number in NY and she lept saying it wouldn't work. I kept trying it anyway. Finally a police officer came in and told me he was looking for the body. I laughed at that but he was dead serious. he gave me a phone and I remembered my Grandmother's number in FLA. I got ahold of her and repeated what I heard the officer saying.

    I had been hit crossing the road. They didn't know what kind of shape I was in but I just told her I was ok. She was crying. She tried to call my mother in NY and my wife in NC. I had blacked out again. She finally got through to my mother who still couldn't reach my wife. It was I guess ten o'clock. My wife hadn't been worried because we live in a large neighborhood of elderly people and they always ask me to help with things. She figured someone had saw me walking and asked me for help and I was still working on whatever they needed. This does happen a lot.

    My mother finally got ahold of my wife on FB and when I came to she was there with me. I was instantly relieved. Then the sswelling started. I couldn't handle the pain. I was screaming and my wife was freaking out. The shock wore off and all I felt was pain. The nurse kept telling me to try and wait until morning and the doc would be in. I kept screaming and it got worse and worse. They had medicated me so much they had a DR sit with me to make sure I didn't OD. Finally the ER DR realized it was getting worse and he called in the surgeon. The Surgeon showed up and went ballistic. I went right back to Trauma and he immediately took a scalpel to both sides of my right leg and one side of my left. I drifted into a peaceful sleep finally. When I awoke. I heard them talking. I had Compartment Syndrome in a way rarely seen. The nurse commented she learned about it in school but no one had ever seen it before. The left leg wasn't broke but the trauma to the right caused both to swell uncontrollably. If the Surgeon hadn't sliced when he did I would have lost both legs. The muscle burst as he cut. That would cause problems later with my peronial muscles but at the time I didn't know why the scars where in a big arc but they where.

    I later learned the lady that hit me was doing 45 and ran a red light. She didn't have a license or insurance and had just gotten out of jail. She told the cop I was coming in the opposite direction and she had the green light. All the people standing on the corner had not seen anything apparently. After the crowd dispersed one lady gave a statement saying the lady had run the light and I was already across 4 lanes when she ran me over. I had gone up through the windshield and over the car.
    Back at the hospital I had to have 4 surgeries in three days. Each time my Hemo count dropped but the Surgeon refused to do a transfusion. I couldn't sit up in bed without blacking out and having my BP crash. I had vacs hooked up inside my legs and they had compression pumps on my legs. I didn't sleep, I didn't eat. I didn't do anything but lay there in constant pain. Finally the day came they removed the vacs and put a nail through the shattered bones that where left in my leg.

    The PT group came in and tried to sit me up to get me out of bed. I couldn't move and when I tried my BP crashed and I blacked out again. The Director demanded to know why they hadn't transfused. The hospital policy is anything under 7 and they have to transfuse. I was at 6.8 before they even started doing the surgeries. He forced the surgeon to transfuse causing even more tension. Once I had the transfusion I slept and ate. Within days I was transferred to the Rehab department. I won't go into details but the day I managed to get myself in my chair and use the toilet myself was an amazing day. I never want someone to have to clean my bedpan again.

    They started me at Rehab and said two to three weeks or until I could at least get up on the walker and shuffle on one leg. I started sneaking out of my room in my wheel chair and doing extra training sessions. I made my self such a burden with the nurses always looking for me they kicked me out after a week. I was relieved to be home but a new kind of life started. I needed someone to make all my meals and could rarely get out of bed. The house had been half torn apart before the accident and it fell completely apart while I was in. I was embarrassed to have visitors. There was a path through the filth to my bed. Never the less I kept training and tying to get up. My mother came to stay with us and she helped at least make the house liveable.
    She cooked for me and got me out everyday even though I started loosing motivation. When she finally had to leave it got a lot worse. I had been recovering faster than anyone expected. I was getting around sort of on my own except I needed someone to get the wheel chair for me to leave the house. My wife was now about 8 months pregnant. I had therapy 3 times a week but fell into severe depression. In between therapies I didn't train like I had before. I suffered from foot drop and constant nerve issues. I had constant pain. I got to where I would lay in bed and not even try to get up. I would watch tv from 5 am until the next morning. My days and nights got all messed up and I had no drive at all.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2014
    Posts
    3

    Default Injuries and accidents Part 3

    Then I decided I had enough. I started trying to train again. I had made such great gains the first few months that when they stopped coming I got severely depressed with the bad head injuries contributing to the moodiness. I wished I hadn't walked away from the accident. Things just got worse. The lady started calling and demanding I buy her a car. It was a mess. Then I decided I had enough.
    I started getting up and remodeling again. I broke all the rules and started going up and down my stairs on my own. I had double hand rails because the PO had a blind son. I swung around like a monkey to get to the bathroom. I still had a few relapses of depression but I decided I would walk before my daughter was born. When a week before her birth I showed my wife a half shuffle in the hallway without holding on she was in tears. I wasn;t supposed to be weight bearing but I didn't care.

    By the time the baby came I was remodeling again. I would paint on my stomach if I couldn't stand. After working on the house my leg would triple in size. I got the house under control. It was getting better and smelling better to. With a teenager a 2 year old and two puppies it got bad. I kept going and in between outpatient therapy I worked. I poured everything I had into the house. 4 months out I was walking with a single crutch and the house was close to being as far as I could afford to take it. Probably more so since I had been slammed with medical bills we had thought would be covered.

    I started training on my off days from PT. I was weak but dedicated. I ate better. I went through bouts of up and downs. I realized a lot of the herniations in my spine where worsened by a weak back. My trainer had me doing planks and other workouts to strengthen my back and my hips which where the weakest. My back felt great. I kept training and even though the ankle doesn't bend like it should and the Peronials are cut and full fo scar tissue I am back to balancing on one leg of only briefly. The other day I managed to do 90 pounds on my broken leg on the lead sled. I also did stuff legged DL and the roman Chair for the first time in years. Instead of feeling worse my back feels better. I showed my PT a 300+ pound set of twenty leg presses and a one armed one legged plank on my broken leg and she decided I was in better shape then most are before their injury and kicked me out of PT. I still struggle with the Vestibular Migraines everyday but they where there to a lesser degree before hand as well. They are just there full time now but I am trying some new treatments though experimental to control them.
    I made a commitment to myself that I would get back in shape enough to do a drop hunt for moose in the Brooks Range. 10 days with 50 pounds fo gear including your gun. Folks have said good luck your screwed. They have said you won't survive it. My wife says we can't afford it and I won't risk letting you die. I have received a few promotions but the bills are still there. I got lucky in that my work is in new technology and we where between rounds of funding. I was a HS dropout that made it to upper management in a next gen startup against all odds. I am now told I physically will not be able to pack out a whole moose across soft swampy ground with a damaged leg and damaged back. All I keep saying is I am going to do it or die trying. The hunt is only 3500-4500 all in. Not a small expense with a young family and a lot of bills but I made the commitment to myself and I hope 2016 is my year. It takes over a year to just work out the logistics. In the meantime I bought a pair of logger boots and keep pushing myself. Two nights ago I stopped by a neighbors and she came out in tears. The city was going to fine her because she had a bad injury in the spring and her yard was ten feet high and full of trash. I spent the last two days in 90+ degree heat and 80% humidity clearing around all her landscaping. The first day she had to move a shed full of stuff. I dragged a 8 foot cabinet out alone and emptied the rest of the shed. I stuck a 2x4 on the short side across the span and rested it high on my shoulders. I stood with it all 10x10 of it bearing down on me and walked. I got to low spots and I stood on tip toes on my busted leg and walked. I made it across the yard and collapsed sore and exhausted. Two days later her yard is back in shape and all the clutter/falling down buildings is in neat piles waiting on a dumpster. A few people told me it was an impossible job. Her yard was full of landscaped plants and the weeds where so high there was no way to save them. Now it is a nice manicured yard again with all her plants flowering and she can crutch out to her deck and look over her yard.
    I will go to Alaska and I will kill a moose. I will pack it how ever far it needs to be packed. I am going to learn to squat and deadlift and condition myself. I am going to climb the mountains in the snow and defy anyone who tells me I am nuts. It can be done and it will be.
    ~Jeremia

    Maybe a mod can combine all of my posts into one thread. Thank you.

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