I frequently joke that I’m the luckiest unlucky person I know. Or, the unluckiest lucky person, depending on context.
Never! Each and every one of those stories (and many more) have a bit of hijinks attached to them, and while I definitely should’ve been more careful (or at least as careful as I was) in each situation, I don’t think I’d trade a single one of them for more piece of mind.
Honestly, that’s a very short list of my shenanigans, and I’m only 20. I can honestly say that each of those stories ends well because I try to be prepared.
Another story I forgot… I had just gotten a new KTM dirt bike (it was probably only 60 or 90cc, but that’s still a lot for a 9 or 10 years old…) and I was absolutely gunning it around a small track. I came up on a 90 degree left-right-left-straightaway uphill, and about 80% of the way up the hill it blew a rod and the rear tire locked up. Some weird physics happened and the bike went flying the rest of the way up the hill, with me standing (dumbfounded) staring at it slowly rolling through the air, until it hit the ground with a metaltwisting crunch.
The dealer replaced the bike for free (since the damage to the bike was a result of a warranty malfunction) with a newer, better model (woohoo customer service!). I assume it was actually the manufacturer who did it, but if I ever decide to get another dirt bike (or a street legal type that KTM makes) I’ll get KTM because of that, and a few other great experiences with 'em.
A few months ago, I went into Anaphylaxis, exactly 10 minutes after taking the next to the last dose of an antibiotic. I got to the ER just in time to stop being able to breathe. I remember getting to the hospital, and then I passed out getting out of the car. I don’t even remember hitting the concrete. They fixed me up, and sent me off to ICU for awhile. I do remember my face, tongue, neck, ears, arms and legs swelling to triple their normal size, and my body was one big, extremely painful hive.
It all ended well, obviously.
Now, I’m scared to death of taking ANY sort of antibiotic. The Dr. told me that I’d better take care of myself, because I’m allergic to most of them. I need to talk to my doctor about what options I have, if I need an antibiotic in the future, because I will do everything in my power to NEVER go through that, EVER again.
One week after surgery, felt this strange pressure in my chest, couldn’t breathe, and thought I was going to pass out. It felt like my heart was trying to pump Jello, but couldn’t do it. Then I felt a “glug” and I could breathe again. I thought “I’m not sure what just happened, but it was not a good thing”. I decided I needed to lie down and call 911. (I was home alone and, as I walked to my bedroom, I had the presence of mind to unlock the front door)
The MRI showed a very large blood clot almost blocking the arteries to my lungs (complete blockage = dead).
Two days in ICU, 3 weeks in the hospital , a second surgery and 7 units of blood cells to deal with blood loss from a combination of blood thinner and a broken blood vessel at the initial surgery site, and a permanent filter placed to prevent further clots from reaching my heart.
I lived to tell the tale.
I have also had anaphylaxis, nothing quite like feeling your airway slowly going away…
I was also crossing the street with a friend of mine after a night out. Two cars drag racing ran us down - I made it to the curb as I have a long stride. She did not and was hit and killed. I felt the heat of the vehicle as it passed my legs.
As a gunner on an M-110I once watched as a 200lb shell fell out of the loading cradle from about 10 feet up in the air. It had just enough time to tumble parallel to the ground before it struck the rear spade. It sheared the fuse in half including the firing wires and the 1/2 pound of comp b explosive. Had it detonated it would have killed all 9 of us and likely wound a dozen more.
I was struck by a semi coming home from college about 8 AM on Saturday morning driving through Columbus on I 70. I was going about 65 mph. The semi was even with my rear driver’s side wheel when he changed lanes or drifted into me. He sent me skidding to my left. He must have tapped his brakes when he heard the crunch because I can still recall with absolute clarity the front grill of that truck. I’d spun so that we were nose to nose. Rather than wait to see how that would turn out I turned the wheel hard over to the right to continue the spin. I bounced off the driver’s side fuel tank and then watched as the rear wheels ran up over the right front of my car. I was then in an uncontrolled spin out and bounced off the concrete barrier crossed all four lanes spinning and hit the other side and then crossed back. On one was injured but for a split second I was sure this was going to be the end.
Whooping cough when I was a kid. Obviously I have no memory of it, but my Mum tells me that twice I stopped breathing completely. To this day she bears a grudge to that Doctor and refused to deal with me, as she maintains that he refused to diagnose the illness for a long time as it has a tendency to cause panic.
No counting racing? Flipped a Harley FLH nose for tail three times, let someone take two shots at me before I returned fire, had my heart stop for about 30 seconds or so once. And for a few months I lived in New Jersey.
A few days after giving birth to my 4th child, I got a high fever and sharp pain in my lower abdomen. It was Puerperal fever which is what most of those women who die in child birth die from. It used to kill about 1 in 8 women, but now a simple dose of antibiotics made me all better.
Have been on two mountain cliff faces, one in a sleetstorm, that almost went very badly.
With an inebriated driver, spun to a stop about a foot from a speeding train.
Wrestled with an armed home invader for his gun.
Closest, though you’d never know it to look at me, was via malnutrition. I’d gone a long time without money, and was surviving on ice cubes in order to bring down psychological hunger. Didn’t realize that stuff like that didn’t actually help. I woke up one morning paralyzed, but after an hour of trying, I could move. That evening I was paralyzed again, and, thankfully, the next morning my friend convinced my dad to take me to the hospital. They say if I’d gone one more day, the involuntary muscles (say, the heart) would’ve locked up, too, and I’d be gone.
When I was about eight or so I was biking to school with a friend and we were talking and not paying attention to traffic (which wasn’t all that busy anyhow). I cut across the entire street and a van came within about an inch of running me over.
Not sure if I would have been killed, the van was probably going around the speed limit which was 25, but this was the days before helmets were mandatory (or even hardly discussed in bike safety talks we had at school), but surely would have made at least a chunk of my childhood completely different…
Almost bled out twice – one from placental abruption with my youngest, who also survived to give me gray hairs, and from a hysterectomy that went wrong. My OB-GYN is also a friend of ours (that’s not creepy at all) and he said that only having to go back and face my husband and tell him that I died was what kept him and three other doctors at the table, fighting to keep me from bleeding out.
A huge thank-you to all of you that donate blood regularly – it seems a lot of Dopers would not be here today without you.
I remembered another event - that is, I was two at the time, so this is told to me by my parents. Apparently when we were at my grandparents’ house I found my grandfather’s prescription sleeping pills and swallowed a bunch of them. Got rushed to the hospital and had my stomach pumped, and was in a coma for a couple of days.
I’ve spent plenty of time in the hospital but not really life-threatening stuff.
I did have a real medical issue once. I was having surgery on my eye once and I guess they bumped some nerve or muscle that can cause you heart rate to drop a bunch. They had to give me a shot to get it going back again. Of course this is second hand information; I was obviously busy at the time.
