It's Been A Long Long Road

In 1984, I was an 18 year old boy working a very tough job in a warehouse for a company that sold horse trailer parts and equipment and custom conversion equipment for vans and pick up trucks. This job was high paced and required extremely heavy lifting, in an atmosphere that was less than idea for safety. With that said, today marks the 24th anniversary of the day that changed my life forever, the day that I injured myself.


I was attempting to remove a box from a seven or eight foot high shelf that held roughly a 200 pound rubber mat. The trick to getting these boxes down from their perch was to push it from the back side until it was almost halfway out. Then you went around to the other side and climbed up on the bottom shelf, grabbed hold of the box and jump down which, in theory, would cause the box to slide down to your waiting arms to guide it the rest of the way. That's the way it should work, unless the contents of the box shifted too fast and you were not able to beat it to the ground.

To my detriment, this was the case on July 31, 1984. The box managed to slide on top of me before I was able to brace myself for the hit. The weight was too much for my back to handle and the result was a crash to the ground with 3 disks rupturing under the pressure. At that very moment, I was introduced to a pain that I had never dreamed could exist. As an indestructible 18 year old (in my mind at least), I was about to enter into a world of pain that most people don't experience until they reach extreme old age.

So here I am, 24 years later, still dealing with debilitating pain. After 5 open back surgeries and too many lesser procedures to count, you would think that medical science would have been able to provide some relief, but alas, that is a dream that alludes me.

You would think that an accident of this magnitude would cause a person to be bitter, and it definitely has the potential to do just that. Just like any other black cloud that enters into our lives, there has been a silver lining to be found here. I have been blessed with the opportunity to be a stay at home dad for my boys and have been able to guide their lives in a way that has helped them to grow to be really good men. I am convinced that in today's busy world of two income families, children are all too often the ones who have to bear the brunt of the cost. I am in no way casting aspersions on those who do not have the luxury of keeping a parent at home to raise their kids, but I wish that everyone had the ability to do so. While we have not been able to live a lavish lifestyle due to our financial situation, I must admit that I am extremely satisfied with the life we have. If pain is the price to pay for the blessings we enjoy, it has been worth every minute of it, but that's just my two pennies.