afraid to die?

[jsarno]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

Add me to the list. I went through a stretch where I insisted on taking my pulse every night before I went to sleep. Strange, I know

Anyone been near dath?

Probably the closest I ever actually came to death was my senior year of high school. Last week of school, I had what started as a simple itch on my finger and a headache. That night at the dinner table I picked up my fork and I suddenly felt like I was on fire. I threw the fork and started shaking violently. My brother grabbed me and pinned me down. We went straight to the hospital where a bunch of tests were done on me. Everything came out normal.

They figured it was a one time occurrence so I was sent back home. The next morning I felt totally fine and went to take my last final ever in high school. Came back home and when I started to put my hands around the remote control to watch tv the same thing happened again. I started shaking like mad.

Over the next two weeks my temperature was averaging 105 degrees, I couldnt' hold anything, I couldn't walk without assistance, a whole layer of skin peeled off, I lost nearly all my hair, my eyes were blood red, and I dropped 45 pounds.

But no matter how many doctors I was sent to all over the mid-Atlantic not one doctor could diagnose what I had. And since they didn't know they were reluctant to give me any medicine. Plus I'm allergic to aspirin.

Finally, the day I've always feared came. My primary doctor sat me down and basically told me that unless they could figure out was happening it was very possible I wouldn't recover, and that my family and I should prepare for that possibility.

I gotta say, I was numb. I don't know if it was that I was too sick to feel fear but I was more confused than anything else. Like "Ok, now what do I do?"

Ultimately, while they still don't know what I had, I got better. Mainly because my dad decided I wasn't going down without a fight and had me put on any and every medicine hoping one would work. It was about 6 months before I fully recovered and got to 100%. Even today, nearly 15 years later I have some residual effects actually.

WOW! So what was it that fixed you? Antibiotics? No one has any clue what it was???

I can think of only 1 time I came close to death.
I used to race ATV's, and at the start of the race, I knew my helmet strap was broken, but I didn't care, it was my "lucky" helmet. On the second lap, I was hit by another rider and it knocked my helmet off, no big deal I thought. Well, I tried to pass this one rider by doing a jump in high 3rd gear (likely around 30mph) and when my ass end hit the jump it flipped me. I was in the air trying to make even it out, but I couldn't. The only thing I could think was...this is going to hurt and lean to the right so the ATV doesn't land on you. So I landed on compacted dirt (no give) on my head and chest with my legs still in the air...lucky I didn't break my back. My ATV was still flipping and the "oh shit" bar that's on the back of the ATV missed my neck by maybe 2 inches. I actually felt the fiberglass hit me, but the bar stopped the force of the ATV. Had I been 2 inches to the left, it would had landed solely on the back of my neck and killed me. When I was done sliding, I was in the middle of cactus patties. I never blacked out, and recall every second of my flipping. Funny that was the worst wreck I've ever had, and I didn't break a single bone in that incident. It knocked the wind out of me, but I regained my breathe (eventually), got up, got back on the ATV and finished the race with a flat tire and bent handle bars (actually got a standing ovation from the small crowd). There were literally cactus needles in my back that had to be tweezed out. I was always told if you don't get back up "on the horse" the "horse" wins. I wasn't going to let the ATV beat me, and I wasn't going to let fear beat me.
When I see the video I cringe at how lucky I was, and to this day, that track has a rule that if your helmet falls off, you HAVE to stop and put it back on or you are disqualified.
Not quite a "near death" experience, but inches from death experience.