Belleville, Michigan
I have quite a story. On 9/16/92, I was standing about 55 feet up on top of a building. At the time I had an eight-week-old son (Devin) and a four year old daughter (Joanna). The equipment I was using threw me approx. 20 feet up and 20 feet away from the building
onto concrete. I broke approx. 20 bones, some in eight places. The doctors told me it would be at least 2 1/2 years before I would sit up in bed on my own. Seven weeks later, I hopped into the doctor’s office. I hopped because I was unable to put weight on my right leg for three months. I shattered five vertebrae, my pelvis, tailbone, and my astabulum (the socket in the hip that is where the femur bone
connects.)
It’s been twelve years now and I’ve never been back to see a doctor except for a leg that I didn’t break in the fall. Due to the accident, I developed Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy in my right leg. My brain tells my right leg that it’s burning in a fire. Blisters actually rise on my leg. On my best day, my foot feels as if it was struck 30 seconds ago with a 10 lb. sledgehammer. I get cramps that not only break the bones in my foot, but also curl my toes so far under my foot that the knuckles on my toes rip open and bleed. In twelve years I have never turned off the television because I not only feel the pounding, but, even worse, in complete quiet I hear it.
For the first four and a half years, I was unaware of a doctor’s experiment. Every 18 hours, I would drive 50 miles round -trip and beg to get a ganglion block, an epidural type procedure. The last couple of months with this doctor I agreed to have a permanent epidural implanted. This device is a fanny pack around your waist with an IV bag inside which contains, in my case, morphine and a local anesthetic to anesthetize me from the rib cage down. owever, the epidural became infected after three months of getting it filled every three to five days.
I am also trying to live the life of a full-time student, a father and a drummer. At one time, I was rehearsing and recording with three bands. Seven weeks after I fell, my band mates carried me down the stairs of a recording studio, placed me behind the drums and I recorded two songs. These songs were recorded on November 9th, my birthday. On New Year’s Eve, I walked into the studio and recorded a song. However, I did have a minor ailment. I had a cast on my arm with eight pins underneath it and a 14” metal fixator holding my wrist together.
RSD is by far the cruelest human ailment I’ve ever or will ever experience. People always say, “Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry,” when I tell them of this horrible incident. I have to say life truly sucks with this disease. But, every time someone says that, I
thik of my family, take a big, deep breath and say, “I can still do that; why are you sorry?” I have spent more time with my children than a dad could in 10,000 lifetimes.
I now have an intra-thecal pump, and a doctor who is the best, most caring and dedicated pain physician on the planet. My pain levels have been cut in half, but I’m still in pain that would be legendary in Hell. The one thing I have that none of 100’s of friends I’ve got is a family that has sacrificed all for me. They literally have had it so much worse than I have. This disease makes a person feel so much guilt for the people that truly care for them. I try to imagine watching someone I love going through this and it just makes me feel so helpless. Therefore, I just, as everyone else I know with this truly unimaginable affliction, have become able to take such pain without anyone knowing I’m even uncomfortable. “Never let ‘em see you sweat” is my motto.
I appreciate every breath. Most of the time I don’t appreciate them until later 
But when I see all the love and true selflessness around me, I truly appreciate every breath, in my opinion, more than other people. This disease gives you a love/hate relationship with life. Everything, however, happens for a reason, and I’m surrounded by such love that I can sometimes smile when I should be weeping.
Peace, Light, and Love