Anyone know what happened to Kurt aka KEW?

[davidscott]

Well, after reading 2 pages about cats I finally made to the end of the thread. LOL


I just wanted to provide an update. Kurt is alive and well. He did have an accident a few months back that resulted in him requiring brain surgery but I'll let him tell that story when he comes back. But he's recovering as expected.

He lives about 3-4 hours from me and has loaned me a few speakers. He came to my house last week to pick some up and drop off another pair. We chatted for about an hour and then he was on his way back home. So, yep, Kurt's doing well.

Thanks again for the update.

 

[ryanosaur]

As it has been a little over 6mos now, I wanted to revisit this…

@KEW
We miss you! Hope you are doing well, friend. <3

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

also @ErinH - have you heard any news from Kurt?

 

[panteragstk]

Agreed. Not the same around here.

 

[ErinH]

also @ErinH - have you heard any news from Kurt?

I haven't. I'll shoot him a message.

 

[KEW]

Hey guys, thanks for your well wishes!
On July 18, 2021, I slipped on a recently painted and "wet from rain" ramp and busted my butt (actually my elbows which I used to break my fall). Things were normal the next day until early hours of 7/20. Around 1am, my girl friend said I woke up and mumbled something like "frappy boga de be ba" and went back to sleep. I had never done anything like that before, but she assumed that I was in some state of semi-dream sleep, so she ignored it and went back to sleep.
The next morning I told her "the blanket is blue" which was clearly a problem because I was definitely awake and the blanket was not blue and it was an absurdly random thing to declare even if it were blue!
This was in Ajijic, Mexico so my girlfriend called a local friend who quickly picked us up and took us to the hospital. My own ability to communicate was sketchy at best and based on my incoherence they ran a CT scan of my brain and determined that I had a subdural hematoma. (bleeding inside the cranium such that the blood was putting too much pressure on the brain). They needed to do surgery quickly before it got worse; however, figuring out the right blood pressure medication to stabilize me took until the 21st (my blood pressure normally runs high which I medicate, but it was bouncing all over the place after the accident). They cut open my scalp, put in a shunt to allow the blood to escape from the brain cavity, and closed me back up.
The next week and a half are pretty foggy! I had absolutely no vocabulary, but think I could nod yes or no ... but couldn't comprehend enough to understand complex thoughts.
About a week in, my thought process was such that I became very concerned about my driver's license, which I had left with a bike shop (a security deposit of sorts) when I rented a bike for 3 days. I devoted a lot of thought/time to coming up with the words to communicate this to my gf, but the only two words I could summon were "ride" (to suggest bicycle) and "sheriff" (to suggest driver's license). Needless to say this was not successful, but it is interesting on how I solidly fixated on something that really wasn't that important in the grand scheme of things.
At about two weeks, I was clearly regaining vocabulary and they let me go back to the condo where I continued to sleep about 20 hours/day (which is apparently the best thing your body can do to re-establish the brain connections/signals). Strangely the words I had the toughest time regaining were not necessarily obscure words. I did not make it obvious to her that I could not remember my gf's name (after 8 years together). At one point I devoted myself to remembering it and it took about 5 minutes; however, that did not re-establish her name the next time I would have used it (instead of just "hey")!
Just as learning something new, I was learning relatively fast during the first month with so much room for improvement, and progress slowed as I had less and less improvement left to make.
Today, I still have some problems retrieving a word every now and then. We all have the "word on the tip of my tongue" experience, but I recognize that it is too often for me (maybe 10 times in a week as opposed to once). I also have to be realistic and note that my "get up and go" is not as ready as it used to be. I like to think I am still slowly improving, but given the potential for much worse outcomes, my quality of life is very good and I cannot complain. As an account to emphasize that, after the surgery, the doctor told my gf "All we can do now is wait and see", my gf said "what do you mean" and the doctor replied "if he makes it". I feel like the same person and it is only if I really examine myself that I notice compromises in my ability.
For example, I believe constructing this post took more time than it used to; however, I also believe that the readability/coherence of this post is pretty much on par with a post before the accident!
Thanks again for the positive thoughts! I am sorry I have taken this long to log back on and give an account.

Some other interesting points regarding my accident are:
1) My head never hit the ground, I landed on my elbows, but the resulting jarring of my head tore a few blood vessels to allow the bleeding.
2) If we had (and there was NO apparent reason to) gone to the hospital immediately after my fall to get checked out they would have released me because these are small blood vessels slowly leaking and would not have shown on the CT scan until there was more time for the blood to accrue. -
3) This accident probably would not have happened had I been in the US. I slipped on a ramp which was an alternate route to using the two steps next to it. The ramp is for a caterer to use when pushing a hand truck and at about 25 degrees slope. It had been recently painted and when wet was extremely slippery. In the US, because we are such a litigious society, there would have certainly been sand added into the paint or some other means of providing a higher level of friction. This is the first experience in my life where I realized that the US propensity to law suites proves beneficial!

Cheers,
Kurt

 

[ryanosaur]

Hey guys, thanks for your well wishes!
On July 18, 2021, I slipped on a recently painted and "wet from rain" ramp and busted my butt (actually my elbows which I used to break my fall). Things were normal the next day until early hours of 7/20. Around 1am, my girl friend said I woke up and mumbled something like "frappy boga de be ba" and went back to sleep. I had never done anything like that before, but she assumed that I was in some state of semi-dream sleep, so she ignored it and went back to sleep.
The next morning I told her "the blanket is blue" which was clearly a problem because I was definitely awake and the blanket was not blue and it was an absurdly random thing to declare even if it were blue!
This was in Ajijic, Mexico so my girlfriend called a local friend who quickly picked us up and took us to the hospital. My own ability to communicate was sketchy at best and based on my incoherence they ran a CT scan of my brain and determined that I had a subdural hematoma. (bleeding inside the cranium such that the blood was putting too much pressure on the brain). They needed to do surgery quickly before it got worse; however, figuring out the right blood pressure medication to stabilize me took until the 21st (my blood pressure normally runs high which I medicate, but it was bouncing all over the place after the accident). They cut open my scalp, put in a shunt to allow the blood to escape from the brain cavity, and closed me back up.
The next week and a half are pretty foggy! I had absolutely no vocabulary, but think I could nod yes or no ... but couldn't comprehend enough to understand complex thoughts.
About a week in, my thought process was such that I became very concerned about my driver's license, which I had left with a bike shop (a security deposit of sorts) when I rented a bike for 3 days. I devoted a lot of thought/time to coming up with the words to communicate this to my gf, but the only two words I could summon were "ride" (to suggest bicycle) and "sheriff" (to suggest driver's license). Needless to say this was not successful, but it is interesting on how I solidly fixated on something that really wasn't that important in the grand scheme of things.
At about two weeks, I was clearly regaining vocabulary and they let me go back to the condo where I continued to sleep about 20 hours/day (which is apparently the best thing your body can do to re-establish the brain connections/signals). Strangely the words I had the toughest time regaining were not necessarily obscure words. I did not make it obvious to her that I could not remember my gf's name (after 8 years together). At one point I devoted myself to remembering it and it took about 5 minutes; however, that did not re-establish her name the next time I would have used it (instead of just "hey")!
Just as learning something new, I was learning relatively fast during the first month with so much room for improvement, and progress slowed as I had less and less improvement left to make.
Today, I still have some problems retrieving a word every now and then. We all have the "word on the tip of my tongue" experience, but I recognize that it is too often for me (maybe 10 times in a week as opposed to once). I also have to be realistic and note that my "get up and go" is not as ready as it used to be. I like to think I am still slowly improving, but given the potential for much worse outcomes, my quality of life is very good and I cannot complain. As an account to emphasize that, after the surgery, the doctor told my gf "All we can do now is wait and see", my gf said "what do you mean" and the doctor replied "if he makes it". I feel like the same person and it is only if I really examine myself that I notice compromises in my ability.
For example, I believe constructing this post took more time than it used to; however, I also believe that the readability/coherence of this post is pretty much on par with a post before the accident!
Thanks again for the positive thoughts! I am sorry I have taken this long to log back on and give an account.

Some other interesting points regarding my accident are:
1) My head never hit the ground, I landed on my elbows, but the resulting jarring of my head tore a few blood vessels to allow the bleeding.
2) If we had (and there was NO apparent reason to) gone to the hospital immediately after my fall to get checked out they would have released me because these are small blood vessels slowly leaking and would not have shown on the CT scan until there was more time for the blood to accrue. -
3) This accident probably would not have happened had I been in the US. I slipped on a ramp which was an alternate route to using the two steps next to it. The ramp is for a caterer to use when pushing a hand truck and at about 25 degrees slope. It had been recently painted and when wet was extremely slippery. In the US, because we are such a litigious society, there would have certainly been sand added into the paint or some other means of providing a higher level of friction. This is the first experience in my life where I realized that the US propensity to law suites proves beneficial!

Cheers,
Kurt

Wow, Kurt. That is a story, and I'm glad you are able to tell it!

Just seeing your name pop up with your handsome avatar is like a friendly hug from a long lost buddy!

Needless to say, my thoughts and hopes are with you for continued, and hopefully FULL, recovery.

Best to you my friend.

R

 

[Mpsafranski]

All this talk about Dags. (Think Brad Pitt in Snatch.)
...
We've adopted a total of 4 cats, all were feral born to the same mother. She brought them to us because we had been feeding her with the possible hope of adopting her. She resisted our charms, only to deposit her offspring on our doorstep. Twice.
We did trap and get her fixed: she still comes around almost daily for some food.
The Kittens... now 5 and 6 years old (1 boy and 1 girl in each litter that we got our hands on), are fantastic and mighty beasts. It wasn't even our intention to adopt the last two, but after we got them fixed, they kept finding their way back to us and inside. The boy, Marmalade, actually came in while still feral and deuced out the litter box while we slept: we both heard the cat door flap and just thought it was one of the Varsity Squad at first... Heard the scratching in the litter box... we were both like, "who is that?" and the Lady grabbed her phone to light up the room a little... and away went the little orange kitten... followed by a very big smell!
We had a feeling he was going to be ours at that point.
We captured him and Sparq (his little sis) and got them fixed as well, prior to trying to get them adopted by some friends who just kept letting them out. The two of them kept coming back to us until we finally confronted our friends about why they kept letting the cats out before they got trained to call their place home... One of them, the female, actually accused us of trying to steal the cats back!!!... Neither the Lady or I suffer fools gladly, so we put it pretty plainly.
Next thing you know, we had four.
And then our neighbors went out and adopted their own cat, who started coming over to our house, and even sneaked indoors to sleep at night! SMDH. She, the neighbor lady, then accused of of trying to steal that cat!!!
Somebody dropped a, "B!tch-U-Crazy!" Afterall, we were now feeding 5 cats, with theirs trying to creep in on our scene and make it 6. I said to the guy that they needed to deal with their cat and cut the cr@p. Turns out, he was the one letting them out at night before they identified to their home.
Fortunately that stopped.

So it's the Lady and myself, four fur-oscious killers, and their needy-yet-very-independent Mom.

4 “rescue” cats and a rescue dog here. Last cat we got was born to a feral bengal. When we got him he was covered in fleas so that was a fun evening. He’s the only male pet we have, friendly as hell but is a little bastard always into stuff.

have always loved cats but always wanted a dog and wore my wife down saying “I don’t want to go my entire life never having one” so we rescued ol Winnie from a place here in Wisconsin that rescues dogs from the south mostly Alabama. Shepherd lab mix. We were lucky enough 4 years ago to get her as a pup. And then realized I’m not much of a dog person hahaha. I love them in general but wildly different when they’re other people’s. Don’t get me wrong, she is the sweetest, most well behaved dog we could ever ask for and is patient, tolerant and nothing but sweet to our two year old. Blessed to have her in every way, and glad that not only did I get to have my dog, but my boy is growing up with her too. Something about a boy and his dog.

so that’s us, 4 cats, a dog, a 2 year old and a baby girl due September. My niece and nephew 3 and 5 call our house the petting zoo

 

[lovinthehd]

Hey guys, thanks for your well wishes!
On July 18, 2021, I slipped on a recently painted and "wet from rain" ramp and busted my butt (actually my elbows which I used to break my fall). Things were normal the next day until early hours of 7/20. Around 1am, my girl friend said I woke up and mumbled something like "frappy boga de be ba" and went back to sleep. I had never done anything like that before, but she assumed that I was in some state of semi-dream sleep, so she ignored it and went back to sleep.
The next morning I told her "the blanket is blue" which was clearly a problem because I was definitely awake and the blanket was not blue and it was an absurdly random thing to declare even if it were blue!
This was in Ajijic, Mexico so my girlfriend called a local friend who quickly picked us up and took us to the hospital. My own ability to communicate was sketchy at best and based on my incoherence they ran a CT scan of my brain and determined that I had a subdural hematoma. (bleeding inside the cranium such that the blood was putting too much pressure on the brain). They needed to do surgery quickly before it got worse; however, figuring out the right blood pressure medication to stabilize me took until the 21st (my blood pressure normally runs high which I medicate, but it was bouncing all over the place after the accident). They cut open my scalp, put in a shunt to allow the blood to escape from the brain cavity, and closed me back up.
The next week and a half are pretty foggy! I had absolutely no vocabulary, but think I could nod yes or no ... but couldn't comprehend enough to understand complex thoughts.
About a week in, my thought process was such that I became very concerned about my driver's license, which I had left with a bike shop (a security deposit of sorts) when I rented a bike for 3 days. I devoted a lot of thought/time to coming up with the words to communicate this to my gf, but the only two words I could summon were "ride" (to suggest bicycle) and "sheriff" (to suggest driver's license). Needless to say this was not successful, but it is interesting on how I solidly fixated on something that really wasn't that important in the grand scheme of things.
At about two weeks, I was clearly regaining vocabulary and they let me go back to the condo where I continued to sleep about 20 hours/day (which is apparently the best thing your body can do to re-establish the brain connections/signals). Strangely the words I had the toughest time regaining were not necessarily obscure words. I did not make it obvious to her that I could not remember my gf's name (after 8 years together). At one point I devoted myself to remembering it and it took about 5 minutes; however, that did not re-establish her name the next time I would have used it (instead of just "hey")!
Just as learning something new, I was learning relatively fast during the first month with so much room for improvement, and progress slowed as I had less and less improvement left to make.
Today, I still have some problems retrieving a word every now and then. We all have the "word on the tip of my tongue" experience, but I recognize that it is too often for me (maybe 10 times in a week as opposed to once). I also have to be realistic and note that my "get up and go" is not as ready as it used to be. I like to think I am still slowly improving, but given the potential for much worse outcomes, my quality of life is very good and I cannot complain. As an account to emphasize that, after the surgery, the doctor told my gf "All we can do now is wait and see", my gf said "what do you mean" and the doctor replied "if he makes it". I feel like the same person and it is only if I really examine myself that I notice compromises in my ability.
For example, I believe constructing this post took more time than it used to; however, I also believe that the readability/coherence of this post is pretty much on par with a post before the accident!
Thanks again for the positive thoughts! I am sorry I have taken this long to log back on and give an account.

Some other interesting points regarding my accident are:
1) My head never hit the ground, I landed on my elbows, but the resulting jarring of my head tore a few blood vessels to allow the bleeding.
2) If we had (and there was NO apparent reason to) gone to the hospital immediately after my fall to get checked out they would have released me because these are small blood vessels slowly leaking and would not have shown on the CT scan until there was more time for the blood to accrue. -
3) This accident probably would not have happened had I been in the US. I slipped on a ramp which was an alternate route to using the two steps next to it. The ramp is for a caterer to use when pushing a hand truck and at about 25 degrees slope. It had been recently painted and when wet was extremely slippery. In the US, because we are such a litigious society, there would have certainly been sand added into the paint or some other means of providing a higher level of friction. This is the first experience in my life where I realized that the US propensity to law suites proves beneficial!

Cheers,
Kurt

Good to hear from you again and glad to see you're improving!

 

[Mpsafranski]

Hey guys, thanks for your well wishes!
On July 18, 2021, I slipped on a recently painted and "wet from rain" ramp and busted my butt (actually my elbows which I used to break my fall). Things were normal the next day until early hours of 7/20. Around 1am, my girl friend said I woke up and mumbled something like "frappy boga de be ba" and went back to sleep. I had never done anything like that before, but she assumed that I was in some state of semi-dream sleep, so she ignored it and went back to sleep.
The next morning I told her "the blanket is blue" which was clearly a problem because I was definitely awake and the blanket was not blue and it was an absurdly random thing to declare even if it were blue!
This was in Ajijic, Mexico so my girlfriend called a local friend who quickly picked us up and took us to the hospital. My own ability to communicate was sketchy at best and based on my incoherence they ran a CT scan of my brain and determined that I had a subdural hematoma. (bleeding inside the cranium such that the blood was putting too much pressure on the brain). They needed to do surgery quickly before it got worse; however, figuring out the right blood pressure medication to stabilize me took until the 21st (my blood pressure normally runs high which I medicate, but it was bouncing all over the place after the accident). They cut open my scalp, put in a shunt to allow the blood to escape from the brain cavity, and closed me back up.
The next week and a half are pretty foggy! I had absolutely no vocabulary, but think I could nod yes or no ... but couldn't comprehend enough to understand complex thoughts.
About a week in, my thought process was such that I became very concerned about my driver's license, which I had left with a bike shop (a security deposit of sorts) when I rented a bike for 3 days. I devoted a lot of thought/time to coming up with the words to communicate this to my gf, but the only two words I could summon were "ride" (to suggest bicycle) and "sheriff" (to suggest driver's license). Needless to say this was not successful, but it is interesting on how I solidly fixated on something that really wasn't that important in the grand scheme of things.
At about two weeks, I was clearly regaining vocabulary and they let me go back to the condo where I continued to sleep about 20 hours/day (which is apparently the best thing your body can do to re-establish the brain connections/signals). Strangely the words I had the toughest time regaining were not necessarily obscure words. I did not make it obvious to her that I could not remember my gf's name (after 8 years together). At one point I devoted myself to remembering it and it took about 5 minutes; however, that did not re-establish her name the next time I would have used it (instead of just "hey")!
Just as learning something new, I was learning relatively fast during the first month with so much room for improvement, and progress slowed as I had less and less improvement left to make.
Today, I still have some problems retrieving a word every now and then. We all have the "word on the tip of my tongue" experience, but I recognize that it is too often for me (maybe 10 times in a week as opposed to once). I also have to be realistic and note that my "get up and go" is not as ready as it used to be. I like to think I am still slowly improving, but given the potential for much worse outcomes, my quality of life is very good and I cannot complain. As an account to emphasize that, after the surgery, the doctor told my gf "All we can do now is wait and see", my gf said "what do you mean" and the doctor replied "if he makes it". I feel like the same person and it is only if I really examine myself that I notice compromises in my ability.
For example, I believe constructing this post took more time than it used to; however, I also believe that the readability/coherence of this post is pretty much on par with a post before the accident!
Thanks again for the positive thoughts! I am sorry I have taken this long to log back on and give an account.

Some other interesting points regarding my accident are:
1) My head never hit the ground, I landed on my elbows, but the resulting jarring of my head tore a few blood vessels to allow the bleeding.
2) If we had (and there was NO apparent reason to) gone to the hospital immediately after my fall to get checked out they would have released me because these are small blood vessels slowly leaking and would not have shown on the CT scan until there was more time for the blood to accrue. -
3) This accident probably would not have happened had I been in the US. I slipped on a ramp which was an alternate route to using the two steps next to it. The ramp is for a caterer to use when pushing a hand truck and at about 25 degrees slope. It had been recently painted and when wet was extremely slippery. In the US, because we are such a litigious society, there would have certainly been sand added into the paint or some other means of providing a higher level of friction. This is the first experience in my life where I realized that the US propensity to law suites proves beneficial!

Cheers,
Kurt

So glad you were able to post. Hope you continue on the road to complete recovery!

 

[NINaudio]

Wow @KEW, that's one hell of a story. Glad to hear you're doing better and hope you continue improving.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Hey guys, thanks for your well wishes!
On July 18, 2021, I slipped on a recently painted and "wet from rain" ramp and busted my butt (actually my elbows which I used to break my fall). Things were normal the next day until early hours of 7/20. Around 1am, my girl friend said I woke up and mumbled something like "frappy boga de be ba" and went back to sleep. I had never done anything like that before, but she assumed that I was in some state of semi-dream sleep, so she ignored it and went back to sleep.
The next morning I told her "the blanket is blue" which was clearly a problem because I was definitely awake and the blanket was not blue and it was an absurdly random thing to declare even if it were blue!
This was in Ajijic, Mexico so my girlfriend called a local friend who quickly picked us up and took us to the hospital. My own ability to communicate was sketchy at best and based on my incoherence they ran a CT scan of my brain and determined that I had a subdural hematoma. (bleeding inside the cranium such that the blood was putting too much pressure on the brain). They needed to do surgery quickly before it got worse; however, figuring out the right blood pressure medication to stabilize me took until the 21st (my blood pressure normally runs high which I medicate, but it was bouncing all over the place after the accident). They cut open my scalp, put in a shunt to allow the blood to escape from the brain cavity, and closed me back up.
The next week and a half are pretty foggy! I had absolutely no vocabulary, but think I could nod yes or no ... but couldn't comprehend enough to understand complex thoughts.
About a week in, my thought process was such that I became very concerned about my driver's license, which I had left with a bike shop (a security deposit of sorts) when I rented a bike for 3 days. I devoted a lot of thought/time to coming up with the words to communicate this to my gf, but the only two words I could summon were "ride" (to suggest bicycle) and "sheriff" (to suggest driver's license). Needless to say this was not successful, but it is interesting on how I solidly fixated on something that really wasn't that important in the grand scheme of things.
At about two weeks, I was clearly regaining vocabulary and they let me go back to the condo where I continued to sleep about 20 hours/day (which is apparently the best thing your body can do to re-establish the brain connections/signals). Strangely the words I had the toughest time regaining were not necessarily obscure words. I did not make it obvious to her that I could not remember my gf's name (after 8 years together). At one point I devoted myself to remembering it and it took about 5 minutes; however, that did not re-establish her name the next time I would have used it (instead of just "hey")!
Just as learning something new, I was learning relatively fast during the first month with so much room for improvement, and progress slowed as I had less and less improvement left to make.
Today, I still have some problems retrieving a word every now and then. We all have the "word on the tip of my tongue" experience, but I recognize that it is too often for me (maybe 10 times in a week as opposed to once). I also have to be realistic and note that my "get up and go" is not as ready as it used to be. I like to think I am still slowly improving, but given the potential for much worse outcomes, my quality of life is very good and I cannot complain. As an account to emphasize that, after the surgery, the doctor told my gf "All we can do now is wait and see", my gf said "what do you mean" and the doctor replied "if he makes it". I feel like the same person and it is only if I really examine myself that I notice compromises in my ability.
For example, I believe constructing this post took more time than it used to; however, I also believe that the readability/coherence of this post is pretty much on par with a post before the accident!
Thanks again for the positive thoughts! I am sorry I have taken this long to log back on and give an account.

Some other interesting points regarding my accident are:
1) My head never hit the ground, I landed on my elbows, but the resulting jarring of my head tore a few blood vessels to allow the bleeding.
2) If we had (and there was NO apparent reason to) gone to the hospital immediately after my fall to get checked out they would have released me because these are small blood vessels slowly leaking and would not have shown on the CT scan until there was more time for the blood to accrue. -
3) This accident probably would not have happened had I been in the US. I slipped on a ramp which was an alternate route to using the two steps next to it. The ramp is for a caterer to use when pushing a hand truck and at about 25 degrees slope. It had been recently painted and when wet was extremely slippery. In the US, because we are such a litigious society, there would have certainly been sand added into the paint or some other means of providing a higher level of friction. This is the first experience in my life where I realized that the US propensity to law suites proves beneficial!

Cheers,
Kurt

Best wishes! Hope you continue to remain improved.

You do sound like yourself, which is a good sign.

One of the units I cover at my hospital is the ICU unit, so I have seen many “subdural hematoma” patients (just had a patient last week who also improved). It seems like most of the patients do recover and go home or to rehab. But I have never given it much thought since I have never personally known anyone who has had a subdural hematoma. I admit that I will be thinking of you the next time I see another subdural hematoma patient.

Good luck and best wishes!

 

[snakeeyes]

Hey guys, thanks for your well wishes!
On July 18, 2021, I slipped on a recently painted and "wet from rain" ramp and busted my butt (actually my elbows which I used to break my fall). Things were normal the next day until early hours of 7/20. Around 1am, my girl friend said I woke up and mumbled something like "frappy boga de be ba" and went back to sleep. I had never done anything like that before, but she assumed that I was in some state of semi-dream sleep, so she ignored it and went back to sleep.
The next morning I told her "the blanket is blue" which was clearly a problem because I was definitely awake and the blanket was not blue and it was an absurdly random thing to declare even if it were blue!
This was in Ajijic, Mexico so my girlfriend called a local friend who quickly picked us up and took us to the hospital. My own ability to communicate was sketchy at best and based on my incoherence they ran a CT scan of my brain and determined that I had a subdural hematoma. (bleeding inside the cranium such that the blood was putting too much pressure on the brain). They needed to do surgery quickly before it got worse; however, figuring out the right blood pressure medication to stabilize me took until the 21st (my blood pressure normally runs high which I medicate, but it was bouncing all over the place after the accident). They cut open my scalp, put in a shunt to allow the blood to escape from the brain cavity, and closed me back up.
The next week and a half are pretty foggy! I had absolutely no vocabulary, but think I could nod yes or no ... but couldn't comprehend enough to understand complex thoughts.
About a week in, my thought process was such that I became very concerned about my driver's license, which I had left with a bike shop (a security deposit of sorts) when I rented a bike for 3 days. I devoted a lot of thought/time to coming up with the words to communicate this to my gf, but the only two words I could summon were "ride" (to suggest bicycle) and "sheriff" (to suggest driver's license). Needless to say this was not successful, but it is interesting on how I solidly fixated on something that really wasn't that important in the grand scheme of things.
At about two weeks, I was clearly regaining vocabulary and they let me go back to the condo where I continued to sleep about 20 hours/day (which is apparently the best thing your body can do to re-establish the brain connections/signals). Strangely the words I had the toughest time regaining were not necessarily obscure words. I did not make it obvious to her that I could not remember my gf's name (after 8 years together). At one point I devoted myself to remembering it and it took about 5 minutes; however, that did not re-establish her name the next time I would have used it (instead of just "hey")!
Just as learning something new, I was learning relatively fast during the first month with so much room for improvement, and progress slowed as I had less and less improvement left to make.
Today, I still have some problems retrieving a word every now and then. We all have the "word on the tip of my tongue" experience, but I recognize that it is too often for me (maybe 10 times in a week as opposed to once). I also have to be realistic and note that my "get up and go" is not as ready as it used to be. I like to think I am still slowly improving, but given the potential for much worse outcomes, my quality of life is very good and I cannot complain. As an account to emphasize that, after the surgery, the doctor told my gf "All we can do now is wait and see", my gf said "what do you mean" and the doctor replied "if he makes it". I feel like the same person and it is only if I really examine myself that I notice compromises in my ability.
For example, I believe constructing this post took more time than it used to; however, I also believe that the readability/coherence of this post is pretty much on par with a post before the accident!
Thanks again for the positive thoughts! I am sorry I have taken this long to log back on and give an account.

Some other interesting points regarding my accident are:
1) My head never hit the ground, I landed on my elbows, but the resulting jarring of my head tore a few blood vessels to allow the bleeding.
2) If we had (and there was NO apparent reason to) gone to the hospital immediately after my fall to get checked out they would have released me because these are small blood vessels slowly leaking and would not have shown on the CT scan until there was more time for the blood to accrue. -
3) This accident probably would not have happened had I been in the US. I slipped on a ramp which was an alternate route to using the two steps next to it. The ramp is for a caterer to use when pushing a hand truck and at about 25 degrees slope. It had been recently painted and when wet was extremely slippery. In the US, because we are such a litigious society, there would have certainly been sand added into the paint or some other means of providing a higher level of friction. This is the first experience in my life where I realized that the US propensity to law suites proves beneficial!

Cheers,
Kurt

Sorry to hear about what happened. You’ve been through a lot. Glad to have you back! It’s true we all missed you and your posts.

 

[shadyJ]

Thanks for the update, Kurt. That is a hell of a life experience!

 

[Danzilla31]

Hey guys, thanks for your well wishes!
On July 18, 2021, I slipped on a recently painted and "wet from rain" ramp and busted my butt (actually my elbows which I used to break my fall). Things were normal the next day until early hours of 7/20. Around 1am, my girl friend said I woke up and mumbled something like "frappy boga de be ba" and went back to sleep. I had never done anything like that before, but she assumed that I was in some state of semi-dream sleep, so she ignored it and went back to sleep.
The next morning I told her "the blanket is blue" which was clearly a problem because I was definitely awake and the blanket was not blue and it was an absurdly random thing to declare even if it were blue!
This was in Ajijic, Mexico so my girlfriend called a local friend who quickly picked us up and took us to the hospital. My own ability to communicate was sketchy at best and based on my incoherence they ran a CT scan of my brain and determined that I had a subdural hematoma. (bleeding inside the cranium such that the blood was putting too much pressure on the brain). They needed to do surgery quickly before it got worse; however, figuring out the right blood pressure medication to stabilize me took until the 21st (my blood pressure normally runs high which I medicate, but it was bouncing all over the place after the accident). They cut open my scalp, put in a shunt to allow the blood to escape from the brain cavity, and closed me back up.
The next week and a half are pretty foggy! I had absolutely no vocabulary, but think I could nod yes or no ... but couldn't comprehend enough to understand complex thoughts.
About a week in, my thought process was such that I became very concerned about my driver's license, which I had left with a bike shop (a security deposit of sorts) when I rented a bike for 3 days. I devoted a lot of thought/time to coming up with the words to communicate this to my gf, but the only two words I could summon were "ride" (to suggest bicycle) and "sheriff" (to suggest driver's license). Needless to say this was not successful, but it is interesting on how I solidly fixated on something that really wasn't that important in the grand scheme of things.
At about two weeks, I was clearly regaining vocabulary and they let me go back to the condo where I continued to sleep about 20 hours/day (which is apparently the best thing your body can do to re-establish the brain connections/signals). Strangely the words I had the toughest time regaining were not necessarily obscure words. I did not make it obvious to her that I could not remember my gf's name (after 8 years together). At one point I devoted myself to remembering it and it took about 5 minutes; however, that did not re-establish her name the next time I would have used it (instead of just "hey")!
Just as learning something new, I was learning relatively fast during the first month with so much room for improvement, and progress slowed as I had less and less improvement left to make.
Today, I still have some problems retrieving a word every now and then. We all have the "word on the tip of my tongue" experience, but I recognize that it is too often for me (maybe 10 times in a week as opposed to once). I also have to be realistic and note that my "get up and go" is not as ready as it used to be. I like to think I am still slowly improving, but given the potential for much worse outcomes, my quality of life is very good and I cannot complain. As an account to emphasize that, after the surgery, the doctor told my gf "All we can do now is wait and see", my gf said "what do you mean" and the doctor replied "if he makes it". I feel like the same person and it is only if I really examine myself that I notice compromises in my ability.
For example, I believe constructing this post took more time than it used to; however, I also believe that the readability/coherence of this post is pretty much on par with a post before the accident!
Thanks again for the positive thoughts! I am sorry I have taken this long to log back on and give an account.

Some other interesting points regarding my accident are:
1) My head never hit the ground, I landed on my elbows, but the resulting jarring of my head tore a few blood vessels to allow the bleeding.
2) If we had (and there was NO apparent reason to) gone to the hospital immediately after my fall to get checked out they would have released me because these are small blood vessels slowly leaking and would not have shown on the CT scan until there was more time for the blood to accrue. -
3) This accident probably would not have happened had I been in the US. I slipped on a ramp which was an alternate route to using the two steps next to it. The ramp is for a caterer to use when pushing a hand truck and at about 25 degrees slope. It had been recently painted and when wet was extremely slippery. In the US, because we are such a litigious society, there would have certainly been sand added into the paint or some other means of providing a higher level of friction. This is the first experience in my life where I realized that the US propensity to law suites proves beneficial!

Cheers,
Kurt

Oh my Lord I'm just glad you are okay! What a crazy experience! Can't wait till your healed up enough to get back on the forum. It's great to hear you've come this far. Keep getting better and just know your much missed around here!

 

[Shanman]

Thank God you're alive to type and tell us the story. So happy to hear you are OK, I feared worse being someone who is entrenched in taking care of cancer patients all the time.

 

[jinjuku]

Just as learning something new, I was learning relatively fast during the first month with so much room for improvement

Should have started a musical instrument or another language then. Glad to be hearing from you.

 

[panteragstk]

Hey guys, thanks for your well wishes!
On July 18, 2021, I slipped on a recently painted and "wet from rain" ramp and busted my butt (actually my elbows which I used to break my fall). Things were normal the next day until early hours of 7/20. Around 1am, my girl friend said I woke up and mumbled something like "frappy boga de be ba" and went back to sleep. I had never done anything like that before, but she assumed that I was in some state of semi-dream sleep, so she ignored it and went back to sleep.
The next morning I told her "the blanket is blue" which was clearly a problem because I was definitely awake and the blanket was not blue and it was an absurdly random thing to declare even if it were blue!
This was in Ajijic, Mexico so my girlfriend called a local friend who quickly picked us up and took us to the hospital. My own ability to communicate was sketchy at best and based on my incoherence they ran a CT scan of my brain and determined that I had a subdural hematoma. (bleeding inside the cranium such that the blood was putting too much pressure on the brain). They needed to do surgery quickly before it got worse; however, figuring out the right blood pressure medication to stabilize me took until the 21st (my blood pressure normally runs high which I medicate, but it was bouncing all over the place after the accident). They cut open my scalp, put in a shunt to allow the blood to escape from the brain cavity, and closed me back up.
The next week and a half are pretty foggy! I had absolutely no vocabulary, but think I could nod yes or no ... but couldn't comprehend enough to understand complex thoughts.
About a week in, my thought process was such that I became very concerned about my driver's license, which I had left with a bike shop (a security deposit of sorts) when I rented a bike for 3 days. I devoted a lot of thought/time to coming up with the words to communicate this to my gf, but the only two words I could summon were "ride" (to suggest bicycle) and "sheriff" (to suggest driver's license). Needless to say this was not successful, but it is interesting on how I solidly fixated on something that really wasn't that important in the grand scheme of things.
At about two weeks, I was clearly regaining vocabulary and they let me go back to the condo where I continued to sleep about 20 hours/day (which is apparently the best thing your body can do to re-establish the brain connections/signals). Strangely the words I had the toughest time regaining were not necessarily obscure words. I did not make it obvious to her that I could not remember my gf's name (after 8 years together). At one point I devoted myself to remembering it and it took about 5 minutes; however, that did not re-establish her name the next time I would have used it (instead of just "hey")!
Just as learning something new, I was learning relatively fast during the first month with so much room for improvement, and progress slowed as I had less and less improvement left to make.
Today, I still have some problems retrieving a word every now and then. We all have the "word on the tip of my tongue" experience, but I recognize that it is too often for me (maybe 10 times in a week as opposed to once). I also have to be realistic and note that my "get up and go" is not as ready as it used to be. I like to think I am still slowly improving, but given the potential for much worse outcomes, my quality of life is very good and I cannot complain. As an account to emphasize that, after the surgery, the doctor told my gf "All we can do now is wait and see", my gf said "what do you mean" and the doctor replied "if he makes it". I feel like the same person and it is only if I really examine myself that I notice compromises in my ability.
For example, I believe constructing this post took more time than it used to; however, I also believe that the readability/coherence of this post is pretty much on par with a post before the accident!
Thanks again for the positive thoughts! I am sorry I have taken this long to log back on and give an account.

Some other interesting points regarding my accident are:
1) My head never hit the ground, I landed on my elbows, but the resulting jarring of my head tore a few blood vessels to allow the bleeding.
2) If we had (and there was NO apparent reason to) gone to the hospital immediately after my fall to get checked out they would have released me because these are small blood vessels slowly leaking and would not have shown on the CT scan until there was more time for the blood to accrue. -
3) This accident probably would not have happened had I been in the US. I slipped on a ramp which was an alternate route to using the two steps next to it. The ramp is for a caterer to use when pushing a hand truck and at about 25 degrees slope. It had been recently painted and when wet was extremely slippery. In the US, because we are such a litigious society, there would have certainly been sand added into the paint or some other means of providing a higher level of friction. This is the first experience in my life where I realized that the US propensity to law suites proves beneficial!

Cheers,
Kurt

Ok, fine. That's a good excuse for not being around.

That's an insane story and we're all very happy to hear from you. Hope you continue to improve, granted hanging out with us might hinder you as we inadvertently make you dumber. Well, some of us.

You really just never know what can happen.

 

[Swerd]

@KEW

I just caught up on all this. Sorry to hear about your fall, and glad to hear that you're recovering. That accident was kind of scary.

I don't think you're ready to wear a helmet full time, but it's something you might consider .

 

[j_garcia]

@KEW

I just caught up on all this. Sorry to hear about your fall, and glad to hear that you're recovering. That accident was kind of scary.

I don't think you're ready to wear a helmet full time, but it's something you might consider .

At least some really big headphones