my car wreck and the aftermath
So from what I have been told (from several sorces) at midnight on 3-19 while responding to a chimney fire I lost control of the 88 Bronco II I was driving. I went off the road on my side then overcorrected and rolled in the ditch on the other side. I was ejected from the bronco and was found 25 feet away, an oncoming driver saw me wreck and called 911. The cheif of my station diverted all personell to the wreck and had the next closest stationed paged for the fire. I was transported a few miles by local ambulance and then airlifted to Alanta Medical Center. I crushed my T6 vertabra, and have some minor damage to my spinal cord. I am currently paralized from about mid chest on down.
Here is my version of "Hope for the Best, Plan for the Worst, and everything will be OK"
In hopeing for the best I am wanting to walk again, but according to everyone here at Shepard Spinal Center (where I was transfered to 6 days after my wreck and the surgery to repair my back) I need to plan on being in a wheelchair for the rest of my life, so I have commited myself to learning the skills I need to function on a daily basis from a wheelchair. In doing that, when I think about my comittment to the Fire Station (Where I am currently a liuentant) I hit a big brick wall. When I first joined the Department in my home town it was because I was unemployed and bored. But that reason quickly changed to being able to help my community (in the form of being able to go into a fire and saveing someones stuff or grabing the jaws of life and cuting someone out of a wrecked car). Now with the wheelchair in my future I know I will never be able to do the most inportant things to me again. I can stay a member of the department and help the guys train, help with the paperwork for truck checks, help with general station paperwork, but I can't go in and help save someone's stuff and I cant help save someone from a car wreck. I have expressed my intrest in staying on with the department to help in the ways I can in training and my chief has said that that would be great because he does not want to loose the knodlege that I have locked away in my head. WHile I still hold to the hope and beliefe that I will walk again, looking at the futur wtih the wheelchair it just about crushes my spirit because I know I will not be able to do the 2 things that make being a volunteer fire fighter inportant to me.
Sorry about the pitty party yall, but I just needed to get this all written down while I was thinking about it.
Be Safe
Here is my version of "Hope for the Best, Plan for the Worst, and everything will be OK"
In hopeing for the best I am wanting to walk again, but according to everyone here at Shepard Spinal Center (where I was transfered to 6 days after my wreck and the surgery to repair my back) I need to plan on being in a wheelchair for the rest of my life, so I have commited myself to learning the skills I need to function on a daily basis from a wheelchair. In doing that, when I think about my comittment to the Fire Station (Where I am currently a liuentant) I hit a big brick wall. When I first joined the Department in my home town it was because I was unemployed and bored. But that reason quickly changed to being able to help my community (in the form of being able to go into a fire and saveing someones stuff or grabing the jaws of life and cuting someone out of a wrecked car). Now with the wheelchair in my future I know I will never be able to do the most inportant things to me again. I can stay a member of the department and help the guys train, help with the paperwork for truck checks, help with general station paperwork, but I can't go in and help save someone's stuff and I cant help save someone from a car wreck. I have expressed my intrest in staying on with the department to help in the ways I can in training and my chief has said that that would be great because he does not want to loose the knodlege that I have locked away in my head. WHile I still hold to the hope and beliefe that I will walk again, looking at the futur wtih the wheelchair it just about crushes my spirit because I know I will not be able to do the 2 things that make being a volunteer fire fighter inportant to me.
Sorry about the pitty party yall, but I just needed to get this all written down while I was thinking about it.
Be Safe