Strange things...

My father used to work for Grumman/Northrop Grumman. In the mid-eighties he was part of a top secret team to come up with a stealth fighter. He, and a bunch of others, went to California to work with another company and compete against two other companies.

He went to California in April, 1985, when I was in 7th grade. I spent that summer (in between 7th and 8th grades) out there with him and had a blast. It was that summer that I started bike riding long distances with his boss on bike paths similar to the one pictured here.

When that summer was over, I came back east to continue school. Without my father around, and being in a different school (long story to be continued later, maybe), I didn't fare so well in the new surroundings.

In January, 1986, I was pulled out of that school and I moved out to California to live there. I enrolled in middle school out there and did fabulously. In three months time I was on the honor roll. Shortly after that, I had my accident. There was a certain amount of luck being injured just south of Los Angelee because I was near one of the best rehab hospitals in the country, Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center.

Strange things happen...maybe for a reason.

I'm going back to rehab...

Writer bio time
Part II:

Shortly after the second surgery, I was relocated to a rehabilitation hospital in East LA on Cinqo de Mayo. At this hospital in 1955, Dr. Vernon L. Nickel developed the halo vest, a device which is still in use to immobilize the cervical spine following severe neck injury or certain types of surgery.

It was here that I was given an honorary membership in the Blood gang. Being one of the older residents in a pediatric ward of Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, I would wheel myself over to newly brought in patients and ask them why they were here. Oh, I have GSWs to the chest. Nice! Another patient had fallen out of a pickup truck crossing the border and was run over by the border patrol. Some fun times.

It was here that I was able to take apart a car engine and put it back together as part of my occupational therapy. I also relearned to walk here. Also, upon discharging a fire extinguisher for fun, I found out that it is a white powdery substance that went everywhere! I had many experiences here, but one of the most fun parts was sneaking into one of the many abandoned wings of the hospital and wheeling around where all the people were kept in their iron lungs.

I was in this hospital from May 5th to November 17th. Over the July 4th weekend, I stood up for the first time and then they made me stand for long periods of time. I did NOT enjoy them. I would stand strapped into a standing table sweating like crazy wearing a sheepskin vest. Needless to say I walked out of the hospital wearing these sexy beasts.

Bio: Part I

Writer bio time:
Well, some of you know me, and some of you do not.

My foray into the world of disability happened on March 26, 1986. At 13, I was an avid bicycle rider in sunny Southern California. I would ride with my buddy, Bernie Yudin, every weekend up and down the coastal bike paths easily doing 30 miles at a clip. This particular fateful Wednesday, I went out on my own. I rode 20 miles and was coming home to where I lived in Seal Beach. I was looking to get my bike registered, as any teenager did (or was told to do) in the 80s to "thwart" theft. Coming out of the fire station (who said they registered bicycles on Saturdays), I hopped on my bike and headed home. I came out from between two parked cars and WHAMMO! I didn't see the VW Golf and ran right into it. The good thing is, I broke her windshield and sunroof. My body, however, was not so lucky.

I blacked out, thankfully, and came to looking up at the bright blue California sky. My whole body felt like I had cement burn everywhere, since I had broken my neck and had no feeling below my shoulders. Luckily, the accident happened right next to the fire department I didn't have long to wait for an ambulance. I was rushed to Los Alamitos Medical Center which is just up the road from Seal Beach.

I went in for surgery almost right away. The surgeon deftly removed my crushed fifth vertebrae to help reduce the swelling. I didn't sever my spinal cord, which in spinal injury terms means I am a C-5 incomplete quadriplegic. If I had severed my spinal cord, I'd be a complete quadriplegic. After the surgery, the doctors/nurses cleaned me up but there was still blood on the table. When I landed on the ground, I had almost torn off my left ear and they had missed that. So now my left ear is a little closer to my head than my right.

Normally, well in 1986, they would do the surgery in two steps. First, remove the shattered bone(s), then a few days later fuse the neck with excess bone from the pelvis. In my case, however, I spiked a fever shortly after and had some pretty awesome hallucinations. They postponed the surgery multiple times and I eventually had the second surgery on April 26. In the meantime, I had this sweet, fancy
metal headpiece bolted to my skull that could pick up alien transmissions.

I did receive many many get well cards and plastered my hospital room's walls. There was barely any open space left. One of my friends sent me tapes of Bill Cosby and George Carlin. I played those tapes endlessly. I also watched hours and hours of tv. I jumped from Happy Days to I Dream of Jeannie to Bewitched. I also dreamed of getting back onto a bike. I had my parents get me a Nishiki bicycle catalog and I had my bike all picked out. I guess it didn't really sink in that I wasn't walking anytime soon.

Stop back later for more ;)