A photo of me dirtbiking in the desert about 8 years ago. I thought I was the shit, doing my little jumps and throwing the occasional no-footer. Well this time my luck ran out.

October 7th. What started as a great day of riding ended with me lying in a giant washed out section of trail unable to move my legs (more on that later, I can move them now). Thinking of all the TV I've seen about back injuries I didn't allow myself to try to move, nor anyone else to move me. Blood was pouring from my face, and as my friend went to get help (not easy, a half hour car ride to the nearest town from our spot in the desert) I laid in the dirt pouring my water over me to cool off, and trying not to go to sleep or go into shock. Surprisingly the pain wasn't as bad as you'd think; my face was numb and my back, although it hurt, was in some kind of amazing adrenaline filled shock response. Time was moving slower than ever before, but I tried to think of positive things like my best days of surfing, my girlfriend, and the great beer I had planned to brew in the next week.

Finally a cop arrived with some oxygen. Soon after an ambulance came and they gently put me on a backboard. Amazing how great it felt to lie flat with pure oxygen pumping into my lungs. The nearest hospital was probably a good 40 minutes away, and it was a bumpy ride. Not cool, but I was relieved by some killer narcotics.

Oh by the way, straight out of Kill Bill, just before the ambulance arrived I looked at my foot and thought to myself, "Fucking move!" Well holy shit I got it to twitch. Maybe I won't be in a wheel chair for life I thought. Not bad considering I had zero feeling in my legs, and it could still move a half inch.

Hospital #1, Antelope Valley Hospital. Cat scans, X-Rays, MRIs oh my. L1 burst fracture in my lumbar spine (think "exploded vertebrae") with a piece of the bone compressing my spinal cord up to 80%. Oh wait there's more, a broken neck, but not all the way through. Hopefully I'll be able to avoid one of those horrible halos they drill into your head (I did). Not to mention a broken nose, as if I care about that at the moment. Well, being a community hospital that's short staffed on spine surgeons I was life flighted via helicopter to Cedars Sinai hospital in Beverly Hills. Closer to home anyway.

Hospital #2. Fortunately this world class facility staffs one of the best spine surgeons in the world. Surgery number 1 I received a ton of metal to reconstruct my spine. Oh and luckily my lung collapsed afterwards, I really needed that. Let's just say that chest tubes hurt just as much as a broken back. Fire with every breath. Surgery number 2 I got some nice rods and screws to hold everything in place. All titanium of course. Also, a plastic surgeon put my face back together, but it wasn't that bad in the first place. Just my nose and not really out of place much. Awesome, I won't be disfigured.

Now, 1 month and 3 days after lying in the dirt realizing I was still alive I've got some giant healing incisions, a really weak back, a ninja turtle style back brace to wear for 3 months and I can only hobble around slowly with a cane. But supposedly I'll be making a full recovery, which is fantastic news.

So a month in the hospital really sucked, and I've been through hell, but I will be back. Hence there haven't been any posts on this site, but I may still post a few things while I'm rehabing my back and weak legs. Little by little I'm getting my life back.

- Justin

P.S. Fuck you imageshack.us Your image hosting always sucked anyway.

Posted at 05:57 PM | Comments (0)