Leaderboard
-
in Blog Entries
- All areas
- Markers
- Marker Comments
- Marker Reviews
- Articles
- Article Comments
- Article Reviews
- Classfieds
- Classified Comments
- Classified Reviews
- Wiki's
- Wiki Comments
- Wiki Reviews
- Blog Entries
- Blog Comments
- Images
- Image Comments
- Image Reviews
- Albums
- Album Comments
- Album Reviews
- Files
- File Comments
- File Reviews
- Posts
-
Custom Date
-
All time
November 28 2011 - August 26 2025
-
Year
August 26 2024 - August 26 2025
-
Month
July 26 2025 - August 26 2025
-
Week
August 19 2025 - August 26 2025
-
Today
August 26 2025
-
Custom Date
04/12/2014 - 04/12/2014
-
All time
Popular Content
Showing content with the highest reputation on 04/12/2014 in Blog Entries
-
1 pointAfter leaving the hospital, the endless doctors appointments began. Primary concern was the facial fractures which needed to be surgically repaired before the bones fused incorrectly. Second is the damage to the nerves controlling my left eye. My eye was able to look right, but there was no signal to move my eye left which resulted in double vision. It was also the same side where my face was paralyzed so not only could it not move properly, the eyelid wouldn't close either. After a 3 1/2 hour surgery, metal plates and screws placed in my face aligned the bones back to where they're supposed to be. The skull fractures were fusing perfectly, or close to it anyway. I still had considerable numbness on the right side where the surgery was, as well as swelling. During the first month of recovery, I didn't notice much improvement. Still had double vision and even though the surgery was successful, the swelling and bruising made me look very poor. My facial paralysis was not improving and in fact, there is now a noticeable drooping on the left side due to the lack of muscle movement. Electrical stimulus tests showed that the nerve wasn't severed, but was damaged and recovery would be long. There was talk of decompression surgery, but the neurosurgeon didn't think that it would be as beneficial as they could have hoped. The second month, I began to notice that my double vision was lessening. If I looked to the right, I could see a single image. This was terrific news because it meant that the nerve was healing and there's a strong likelihood that my vision will return to normal. Not much on the facial movement, but the swelling had gone down and I was beginning to look somewhat normal once again. During the subsequent months, my vision was finally returned (month 4) swelling was gone (month 6) and my face was showing the beginning signs of moving once again. While still mostly paralyzed, there is not quite a bit of movement and best of all I can close my left eye. I wouldn't say that I can blink, but it is a significant improvement from before. While I am still not a good looking guy, if you didn't know that I was run over by a truck, you really couldn't tell by looking at me. There are some indications that I'm not quite right (visually ) but for the most part, I have regained muscle tone in my face. I have a long way to go, measured in months to years, but I am alive and functioning. Every day I am feeling a little more like my old self and I am thrilled at the outlook. That's all for now...
-
1 pointAs you can imagine an F250 Diesel is quite heavy and I sustained numerous life threatening injuries. The impact broke my skull in 5 places, broke my temporal bone on the left side injuring the 7th nerve, paralyzing my face and 6th nerve damage causing severe double vision. On the right side I sustained multiple fractures to the facial bone and internally suffered both epidural and subdural hematoma's. ALL of this was immediate. It was mentioned before I was home alone when this occurred. The damage was severe, as was the internal and external bleeding. I was mostly unable to see because of the damage to the 6th nerve, but the rest of my body was functional. I ran into the house, grabbed the phone and thankfully able to call 911, then got back outside. I went outside because I sincerely thought this was it and I didn't think that I would make it. Since my kids were at school, they would also be the first home, and I would much rather have a passerby find my body than have my children make the discovery. First on the scene was a occupational health manager for IBM Fishkill, who heard the dispatch while passing by my street on his way to work. He stayed with me, keeping me calm until the ambulance arrived. Mind you, I was still fully conscience but still thinking I would die. At this point, I couldn't see, my left ear was completely deaf and I was losing a substantial amount of blood. The ambulance arrived, and I heard them talking about what to do with me. They wanted to air lift me to Westchester Hospital who's trauma center is better, but they didn't think I had long to live so they elected to transport me via Ambulance to Danbury hospital. It took almost no time before they had me in the ambulance, and I remember them asking permission to cut my clothes off and my reply, are you serious, please do what you need to do. I heard the rumble of the tires hitting the gutter rumble strips on I84 as the ambulance passed on the left and right, and we got to the hospital in record time. There was a team of specialists waiting for my arrival and they began to prod, poke, examine me in every way possible. By this time signs of external bleeding had stopped, and they were interested in the internal head injuries which were severe enough that the head of Neuro Surgery was called in to examine me. Numerous CT Scans later, the decision was to place me in ICU and monitor me with CT Scans every 4 hours. I'm sure I glow by this point.