No one plans on tragedy striking, but danger is always here, waiting for a momentary lapse in decision making. The lapse in judgment may only span a second. One second too many.
I learned this on December 7 while felling trees. A rogue limb five stories above me snapped off and sailed straight into my head. The impact flattened me.
Somehow, I walked to my back door and got inside my house. Had my wife not been home, I would have died. She called my neighbor. I vaguely remember a high-speed ride, laying on my wife’s lap as she compressed bleeding. I walked into the emergency room, where the trauma team was waiting, and then I lost consciousness.
My fist surgy was that night, repairing a right subdural hematoma, a broken skull, a broken orbit, a broken sinus cavity, and a broken palate. My wife has a picture of me prepped for surgery. It’s grizzly.
“How’s he doing?”
“We are doing our best.”
That means it’s 50/50.
Within 24 hours, all three of my sons had arrived to join my wife and my nurse DiAnn. I was never alone. Even at my worst, with my speech alternating between non-sensical and obscene, I was never alone.
After the first surgery, my pain worsened. This I remember. A splitting headache so intense that I couldn’t bear it. I couldn’t sleep. Yet day after day, my CT scans showed no evidence of ongoing bleeding.
My wife continued to insist that this level of pain couldn’t be normal, that I have a high pain threshold and wouldn’t be complaining of unbearable pain if there wasn’t trouble somewhere. 7 days after my first surgery, I had my second.
Burr holes on the left this time. Blood literally sprayed out. The pressure relieved, I finally began feeling better. Still a mess, but better.
Moved to subacute, and then to Mary Freebed, where I spent a few weeks beginning my rehab. How blessd I was to have friends and colleagues, many of whom had stopped by to see me after my surgeries, coming to spend time with me.
I started remembering some things, including my first post-op meetings with the operating doctors. They shared with me something I’ll never forget, and this is really the part of my story I’d like to share.
“IT’S A MIRACLE THAT YOU ARE ALIVE, WALKING, TALKING, AND ON YOUR WAY TO HEALING. IF YOU HADN’T BEEN AS FIT AND AS CONDITIONED AS YOU WERE WHEN THAT TREEE HIT, YOU WOULDN’T BE HERE TODAY.”
I’ve given a great deal of thought to this these past few months, and feel obligated to share with you my simple program. Nothing dramatic. Nothing that requires exceptional athleticism. Just a program that I’ve assembled based upon what I’ve learned in pain management, metabolic medicine, and bioidentical hormone restoration therapy.
As you read through this, keep in mind that despite my devastating injury, I have no spine damage, no muscle injury, no vision or hearing loss, no damage to my posture. Yes, I have lost strength, but with my return to weight training, I anticipate that this will return.
So here is my program.
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MORNING SUPPLEMENTS
-3 grams of omega three fatty acids
-5 grams of creatine
-1500 mg of magnesium thionate
-one Super B vitamin tablet
-1500 mg of berberine
-vitamin D 5000 units
-vitamin C 500mg
-prebiotic/probiotic 1 dose
-resveratrol 500mg
-multivitamin 1 dose
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NUTRITION
-Breakfast: 3 eggs, 2 pieces of bacon, Met Rx 30g protein bar
-Lunch: meat and vegetable mix
-Dinner: similar to lunch but alternating with salmon
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BEVERAGES
-No alcohol
-Green tea or Irish breakfast tea in 18 oz. beverage container, 2-3 times daily
-Ice water
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BIOIDENTICL HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY (BHRT)
-2200 mg of bioidentical testosterone pellets place every 3-4 months OR bioidentical testosterone cream
applied to scrotum twice daily to maintain a free testosterone level of 28-38 ng/dl
-200 mg of Armor/NP thyroid by mouth on empty stomach daily; goal is free T3 thyroid of 3.4-4.2 pg/ml
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TRAINING
3-4 times weekly; 45-60 minutes each session as designed by my personal trainer
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LAB WORK
-blood draw at Revive Pain Solutions every 3-4 months to assess/adjust
-blood donation when hemoglobin/hematocrit reach 18/54
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Trust me, this is a very basic, straight forward way to take care of yourself. Even if you are just starting from scratch, it won’t take more than 12 months to get the system up and running.
Our next piece will focus upon best gear set up (“all the gear, all the time”)