In a thread of mine where I was selling a transmission, I told many of you that I had been in a bad motorcycle accident. That for sale thread turned into a blizzard of well wishes, prayers, and offers of help from many of my known friends here on the board, and tons of the same from people I have never met, never sold anything to, just people that knew of me and where willing to jump in and offer anything to help me. I am still so overwhelmed by all the offers, I am so blessed to have the support of the Army of GD.comers backing me up. I wanted to say than you all again from the bottom of my heart. You have shocked me so a degree I can't even explain. You all have given me the motivation I need to move on from this and get back to my life. I still have a very long road ahead of me but I'm going to be okay. Things will be different, harder, whatever I don't care. I have an amazing family taking care of my day to day stuff, an Army of friends willing to do whatever no one else can, so I'm good. Thanks again all of you!

I thought I would maybe use this thread like a blog. I will update it as the days go by as a way of keeping those that want to know how things are going for me updated. It also helps me to write down what I'm feeling when I can. So I'll start with today and go on from there.

Monday Aug 8th:

I've always hated Mondays, but I had a great Monday today. My insurance company called and told me of my first injury check headed my way, so glad I choose the Aflac accident stuff from my work. Found out that for sure my transmission was sold and paid for, thanks again to Keven McMullen Racing, Keven is such a stand up guy. Also sold some race tires I had sitting around thanks to my son and CraigsList. $1000 bucks sitting in my shop collecting dust, now money that I can use for treatments, my son also sold a gun for me, customized my wheelchair to fit my leg so I'm able to get to the doctors office much easier, thanks Cameron. Sold a pair of shocks to a GD.com member in Vegas too, so today was a really good day for the bank account. Then at 1 today i started my Hyperbaric Chamber treatments. I found a tank less than a mile from my house. Turns out I sold a car to the lady that runs it back in the early 90's, and have done her several favors over the past couple of years. She got the doctor to except half the going rate for my treatment, so as long as I can afford it, I'm going every day for an hour. They say it will cut my healing time in half, I sure feel better tonight after the first treatment so I'll continue to go as long as I can afford it. After that I went to my work to see all my friends. It's the first time I've seen most of them since my wreck. So glad I went, really picked up my spirits! Then I went to get a Chiropractic adjustment which I needed so bad after laying in bed and the couch for the past two and a half weeks. Came home motivated, focused, and ready to start putting this behind me, best I've felt in weeks! Also my oldest son came up with this keyboard that hooks up to my 70 inch flat screen, so I have internet and email from the couch, using a 70inch big screen as a monitor!! SO much better than typing on my smart phone! Thanks Chris, or should I say my son Dr. Chris....he just graduated from vet school and I'm having so much fun introducing him to everyone as my son the Doctor LOL!

So there you have it, throw in my favorite pizza for dinner and I had a freakin great Monday! I'm doing okay everyone, thanks to all of you and my amazing family, I will be back soon I can feel it!!

John

You can't keep a bad man down! Wishing you speedy recovery my brother.

Good Pizza, Good Friends, Good Attitude = fast recovery !

Good to hear for sure.

John, please keep us posted on your progress. I will continue to send prayers your way, as will many.

The offer of help from the midwest still stands.

Dwight

You are very Blessed. Thanks for the update.

John, it seems as if karma is on your side and I have always felt that "what goes around, comes around"...you must have spread a lot of good, in your lifetime.
Congrats to your Son, it truly shows dedication to complete that kind of education, small or large animal Vet?.
Tim

Sorry you had an accident. Glad to hear your spirits are good and you are working on your recovery.
God Bless you! Hope you heal up quickly!

Here is to a fast recovery oldtimer

Glad to hear things are turning around. I have to agree with you, the people that make up gd.com are the best in the world!

Wow, sorry to hear about your accident! Thats horrible! Let me know if you ever need a ride or what ever!

Cory

John I just saw this and did not know anything about the accident..... I sure hope you make a full recovery! If you need anything at all please let me know.

Best throughts and prayers headed your way for a fast and complete recovery!!!

Hoping you feel better soon!

,,,,,and the best part of the 70'' screen is no need for glasses!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


good to hear your on the road to recovery

Thank you for sharing the positives happening to you. Your story is an inspiration I know that the super awesome people of GD along with my amazing family have been there in some of the toughest times of my life

Great news! Here's hoping for a fast recovery!

Oh wow....Hope and pray for a speedy recovery for you JB!
Sorry to hear about the accident.

What a great post...Thank you!


Dale

But how is the bike???????????????












Sorry, couldn't help myself....you know we wish you a speedy recovery and call us if we can do anything.

Hey John I missed the other thread but anyways my thought and prayers are with you and your family... Get well brother! Also if you need any parts brought back to OC I will be in Scottsdale Saturday and be heading home Sunday.

Nolan

Been on here for a few years and it still amazes me how most of the users here will kick in to help when someone is down wheter they know them or not,been in keyboard fights,etc.

Hope you get well soon.

John so glad to hear the good news, and positive movement from the insurance co. (the power of prayer) You said your son just graduated from vet school, could you pm his path of schools used, my oldest daughter is looking to be a vet as well. Keep in touch with this huge extended family, and may your road to full recovery be a swift one, hope you choose to ride again, I did.

Bob "Doc" Savage

Prayers for you and yours for a speedy recovery.

Remember, I'm only a phone call, and 2 short hours away from anything that you might need help with.

Tank

Hey Friends!
Sorry for not doing an update sooner than this. I've typed it a couple times and as I was about to post it the computor would time out and delete it all. So I'm trying it again on a new system my son just built for me, hope it works! So got my sutures out last week on Monday, Doc took new X-rays and said the bones hadn't shown any healing as of yet. The outside is healing well, but the inside was taking its time. He put me on another three weeks of bed rest which to be honest really crapped me out and depressed me. I'm trying to do things to perk myself up, and it's working some this week.
I have been out of the house some, went to a movie with the family, long time in a wheelchair but good to get out, went and meet with an attorney for two hours yesterday which I'm glad I did. The bills are at $150K at this point and even though I have insurance I'm still going to have to pay lots out of pocket so I have him looking into everything I have to protect myself and my family, glad I went to him and hired him. Had to have a root canal today, it was a re-do from two years ago that got badly infected I found out when I was in the hospital, and told it could be life threating if I continued to ignore it. Who would have ever thought that I would be excited for a root canal right, but it got me out of the house for two and a half hours today so I was LOL!
Paradigm is home now from Keven McMullen Racing with it's brand new Albins installed!! I have about four or five hours of work to do to it and it's all ready to fire up for the first time in three years! Sucks that I can't prob drive it until maybe New Years though. That was the other thing that depressed me, the Doc said end of December before I can put any weight on the leg, and that means no rehab to start trying to walk until first of next year at this point. I'm still going to try to speed up that time line with good diet, Hyperbarack Chamber treatments, suppliments etc. Time will tell, but I'm not feelimg sorry for myself anymore, and trying to find ways to keep busy, positive, and find some freedom.
Thinking of buying a golf cart or power wheelchair that I can alter to support my leg being straight and long as hell and that I can drive on the sidewalk or street if fast enough so I can go to StarBucks or the store for my wife or close doctor appointments etc. If anyone has any ideas or something for sale that might work for me let me know. Not something I want to spend tons of money on, maybe $2K tops. Anyway, that's all for now, thanks again to all that have sent well wishes, prayers, offers for help etc. You have all really help my spirits more tha I can say. Drop me a note if you have any ideas about a golf cart or wheelchair, or call me.
Later Friends!
John 602-390-9572

Hey John, like a few of the others, I had not heard about your accident. I hope all is well and getting better for you every day. Let me know if I can help with anything. I have a truck and can pick up a wheel chair or golf cart if you need me to. I also have a flat bed trailer if needed. Tim.

John, good to hear you are looking at the positives, as that's the best (and not always easy) way to face something like this. I'm sure someone will have some movement ideas for ya.. Keep the updates coming...

Johm i am also dealing with a pretty good injury nothing like yours but trust me when I say time will go by faster than you think, Fallow the Dr's advice and rest. I fallowed the Dr's advice to the letter and am about 3 weeks ahead of where he told me where I will be. December will be here before you know it and once you get to the physical rehab portion of your recovery you will feel much better just because you will be more in control of your recovery. Good luck and get well.

Hey John, the kids med bil was 754K, my part was right at 80k, I learned that if you don't pay the bills, in the order of service, they did not go towards the out of pocket expense, anyway in the end I let the collectors sweat me a while and then got an attorney and with his help, negotiated settlements down to about 20k on my end + about 1.5k for the law warrior (Lawyers and mopeds.....sometimes it's okay to associate with one, just tell yore friends)
Tim
"Everyday above ground, is a good day"

John, good to hear, any progress is good progress!

Maybe you can ride a 70???

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backwards so your leg can go on the trailer?

First time i've laughed today, thanks Matt!

Just got the phone call, my super duper $6400 motorized bed is getting delivered tomorrow morning! That should (and it freakin BETTER) really help me with passing the time and not hurting my back as bad as my old spring bed is. Got 120 days to return it if it's not the ticket, trust me I will have that day circled big big big on the calendar LOL. Now I just need to find a way to get around some, CraigsList here I come I guess.. Need a golf cart I think that I can cut a big grove in the dash to rest my right leg on, and drive it left footed. Any ideas anyone about that?

Thanks everyone....

Driving left footed pretty easy after a few days

I can take off my "Walking Boot" in order to drive right footed but most of the time I just leave it on and drive left footed anyway. Gets old putting the boot on taking the boot off. On longer drives I will take off the boot though but this last time I had to drive to Casa Grande I took the boot off but about half way there realized I was driving left footed anyway.

I have an old 3 wheeled cart that was given to us by my GF's grandmother that needs a couple batteries. It's a little rough, but if you're gonna cut it up any way... Has a roof, windshield, and charger.

It's yours if you want it.

Thanks Brandon, that's really cool of you! By any chance could you email me a couple pics of it. I think I can tell if it will work with my leg just by looking at those. Not concerned about looks of it, I can bomb it with some paint or something, just need to see if my leg will fit. I have a full leg brace that keeps my leg straight. I need to prop it on or through the dash some how and still steer it. I really apreciate the offer to help, call me if that's easier. If it works, I could send my son wwith a trailer, what part of town are you in?? JB 602-390-9572

You're awesome!

PM'd

09/12

I used to hate Monday's now they seam to be the best day of the week for me. First off I sold my F350, thanks to Matt L. and Tom G. for sending your friends my way. The funny thing is they had no idea I had lowered the price from $18,900 to $17,500! I told them fair is fair, I lowered the price and will honor it for you. Met them at a credit union today and done deal. It's at it's new home and I have a little more peace of mind financially speaking. I hated to sell it, but it went to a good home for sure.

Next was my long awaited doctor's appt. Got new X-rays taken and you can see the bones are starting to set up! He gave me to Ok to start moving my knee in the air only, no weights, but ok to start trying to get range of motion back. I can't tell you how thrilled that makes me. When I can bend my knee without restriction, I can drive easier, get on an airplane and visit my Mother whom is in a memory care home in Colorado and slipping away pretty fast, set in chairs without needing something to prop up my 3.5 foot long leg, and maybe once I can sit I can start to do the last little things to Paradigm so I can start it up for the first time in almost three years! For me it's a big move towards getting some of my freedom back and I'm major excited about that!

Last is I think the summers heat wave is over. The nights are so much cooler now and the days are only hot for a couple of hours! It's been a great day, I'm even thinking about coming to Cali this weekend for boat races and SSSS! Anyone tell me the best place to go watch the boat races at, or a hotel on the water that I could see them from? I'd appreciate any ideas.

Thanks again for all the support!

John

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glad to hear things are going better but don't go to SSSS. that place is packed and you'll surely get some people accidently bumping into you and I don't think you want to take the chance to get that leg hurt!!

Well friends, just got home from the Ortho Doc, he took new X-rays today and the leg is healing up really good he said, the knee not so good. You can see all the fractures still pretty clear where he did the cadaver bone graphs, and they just aren't healing very fast. HOWEVER, he said I can park the walker and now try a cain! I also asked him how he felt about me riding around in a bumpy truck or Jeep type thing, like a bumpy dirt road kinda of deal. I would be in a seat wearing a seat belt getting bumped around a little but no direct pressure to the bottom of my foot and therefor not my knee either. (Get where am going with this) He said he had no problem with bumpy dirt roads as long as I was wearing a seat belt and not letting my leg bang up and down....So I smiled at him and said "Good, I'm headed to the dunes in my sand rail for Halloween LOL!". He just smiled at me and said I set him up, but thought it would still be fine if I took it easy and cruised only. He isn't to gung ho about me trying gimp along in the sand, but I'll just have to be really careful I guess. Now I just gotta sell the wife on it!
Have a great week everybody!

Good news for sure! I've found that a visit with Dr. Sand will always pay great healing dividends. Perhaps your wife will see the wisdom in such a visit...

doubtful, but thinking positive about that LOL!

thats awesome news. if you need someone to drive you around in that awesome FUNCO ill volunteer my time

What the?

Bottom of my knee joint was shattered in multiple pieces, doctor took the smallest pieces out and replaced them with cadaver bone and used a mesh and epoxy to glue it all together.