I have posted many testimonials from tons of other people about how The Challenge has helped them and changed their lives. Well today I am posting my personal experience to give everyone an understanding about why I am so happy to have been introduced to The Challenge.
November 10 2007 is a day that completely changed my life. I
was involved in a car wreck that nearly took my life. I was heading home late
one night around 3 or 4 am when I fell asleep on the highway with my cruise
control set and ran off the road at 70 mph and hit a tree head on....
Thankfully the lady that was out delivering newspapers that morning heard the
commotion and didn’t hesitate to call the police. The second thing that saved
me that morning was the fact that there was an officer just less than 1 mile
away that quickly responded. When he arrived at the scene in his report he
wrote “Upon arrival the individual was hanging upside down in the automobile
strapped in with his seat belt, I approached the vehicle trying to elicit a
response without a reaction. I smelled gasoline from the vehicle and there were
open flames present so I immediately cut the seat belt from the individual and
pulled him away from the vehicle after which immediately combusted into flames.
Shortly after checking the individuals breathing and heart rate the paramedics
arrived and transported him to the Roosevelt County Hospital.” This gentleman is someone that I will never
forget and owe literally everything to. He did end up winning a metal for
outstanding service and bravery because of his quick response and pulling me
from the car before I burned alive.
After being transported to the Roosevelt County Hospital it
was concluded that my injuries were beyond the level of care that they could
provide so I was immediately transported via helicopter to the Covenant
Hospital in Lubbock, TX and immediately received treatment for my injuries that
included; bruised skull, bruised and partially collapsed lungs, cut above my
right eye, dislocated right elbow, broken right radius, ulna and wrist, broken
right tibia and fibula and shattered the ankle joints causing my foot to be in
a position 180 degrees from where it normally should be (put you foot up and
picture your ankle facing the sky and toe facing the ground and that was my
foot).
This obviously resulted in numerous surgeries to and after
the 3rd surgery on my leg the Dr. walked in the ICU and said “I
believe we may have saved the leg”. Even with me doped up on all the Morphine
and pain killers they had me on, that one sentence hit me pretty hard and I can
remember being scared for the first time during all of this because just like
every other young guy on the planet I believed I was untouchable (yes even
though I was sitting in ICU with multiple injuries). Well needless to say that
thought quickly left me after hearing that sentence and knowing that I almost
lost my leg and I was actually thinking that it may still happen because all I
actually heard from the Dr. was “May have saved”.
The total number of surgeries for all of my injuries was 5
on my leg and 2 on my arm. To this day my fibula on my right leg is still in 4
pieces because they just sort of put it all there hoping it would grow back
together (it didn’t), I have a metal plate and 13 screws that were put in place to fix my tibia and my
ankle has more metal in it then it does bone. My right arm has a metal plate
and 11 screws in the radius, and my ulna
was damaged enough when my elbow was dislocated that it wouldn’t fully relocate
into my elbow which doesn’t allow my arm to fully extend. My ulna at my wrist
had to be cut and fused to my wrist and a metal screw placed trough the wrist
because the damage was to extreme and my wrist carpals wouldn’t set correctly.
The next 6 months of my life were spent in a wheel chair and
going to the Dr. so he could keep an eye on everything and make sure everything
was setting correctly. After about 4 months I started going to Physical Therapy
in order to learn to use my arm and hand again and after a month I was able to
barely brush my teeth using my right arm again. I then started in on Physical
Therapy for my leg and was working on rehabilitating the muscles in my leg foot
and the entire body because of the time spent in the wheel chair, this was the
time that I actually was able to get rid of the wheel chair and began using a
platform walker to get around. The next 3 months were spent in some extremely frustrating
therapy trying to stand without assistance, walk and building strength back in
my leg. These 3 months were absolutely the longest and hardest months of my
entire life! The amount of pain that I went through during this time was
unbelievable and the frustrations that went with it were insurmountable. I was
able to push myself to get to the point to get discharged from Physical Therapy
and continue with life as I like to say. It took me 10 months from the time I
was flown to the hospital until I was back working for a living again.
I look back on that time and think to myself “Great job!
Back on your feet working in less than a year!” and even though I am extremely
proud of that fact the following years were not kind on me. The level of pain
that I experienced daily due to the injuries was indescribable. I can remember
to many nights lying in bed crying myself to sleep because the pain pills I was
taking were not helping and I knew I couldn’t and shouldn’t take more for fear
of damage to my liver. This was a constant issue for 5 years and was at the
point that I was using 2-3 bottles of pain killers (always the arthritis ones
because they are stronger) a month just to take the edge off of the pain. Just in
case you’re wondering that is over twice the recommended daily intake for pain
killers. I would switch up the brands every few weeks so my body wasn’t getting
use to the specific brand in hopes that I would get more of the effects from
them.
 |
| Me at my heaviest...255 pounds!! |
friendships in jeopardy and caused some issues one night while out with friends that could have cost me a friendship that I care about greatly. I am extremely happy that those friends were able to forgive me and that we remain close friends even though they are across the country now. Not only was I drinking uncontrollably but I was also binge eating and the excessive alcohol and food caused me to gain some serious weight. At my peak I weighed in at 255 pounds and was wearing a size 40 pants. The added weight did not help my mindset and caused me to be pushed even further into the dark place I was in. I started to feel that life was useless and so was I. Then my buddy introduced me to something that absolutely changed my life.
Now, here we are 5 years and 4 months after that fateful night
that I tried uprooting that tree with my car (I did uproot it by the way) and I
am now 4 months into The Challenge and I am extremely happy to say that I do
not use pain killers except for the occasional headache. I now weigh in at 191
pounds and am actually still dropping some weight! I feel 1000 times better
than I have in the recent years and have a completely positive outlook on life
and know that great things are in my future. I have quit drinking and eat clean
foods on top of
my daily Vi-Shape protein shakes that I have twice a day.
Instead of dreading waking up in the morning and having to go all day on my
feet I look forward to the mornings (after spending 2 or so hours a day at the
gym to improve my physical health even more) and go none-stop all day long with
a smile and positive attitude. I cannot express how happy I am that I was
introduced to The Challenge and what it has done for me.
 |
| Down to 191 pounds and in the best shape of my life!! |
If you or anybody you knows suffers from chronic pain please
share this post with them and maybe they will be thanking you for changing
their lives in the near future!
For more information about The Challenge you can go here and find out everything about it. www.betterfuture4you.org
If you have any questions or concerns at all feel free to click this contact me link below!!
 |
| Size 40 pants Size 34 pants |
I hope this post has touched you in a way that makes you
want to better your situation or help someone else better theirs. Thank you for
reading and please share it with everyone you know because they may also have
someone that needs the information!
Oh and here are a few of the pictures of my car from the wreck. The 4th one is actually a view at the drivers seat from the back seat window, you can see what's left of the steering wheel underneath part of the hood.
