Ever been seriously ill/injured?

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When I was born, I had a nasty case of hydrocephalus (water on the brain), and I had to have a serious operation when I was just seven weeks old. I was a very sick little boy for quite some time, and I suspect that (from what my mum has told me) I was very close to dying. I still have some scarring on the outside of my brain from the operation, which has caused my epilepsy, and a few pockets of fluid in the middle of my brain as well.

So yeah, that's my worst illness.

Of course it happened to me. Why do you think I have so many medical problems now? There's something to be said about the damage instilled by severe concussions and being fried twice by lightning. I have such neuropathy now that I barely have any feeling in my hands and feet. I get bizarre phantom pains all over the body and I have to fight myself not to scream out because it freaks people out. I also have trouble walking at times, like the brain forgets how to send the right signal to the leg muscles or something.

How do you know that? Not many people know that the saying about lightning never strikes the same place twice is a myth. I belong to a lightning strike survivor support group and a number of people have been hit twice. One lady is quite famous for getting struck 3 times in the same parking lot in same parking space.

I remember one man who was struck over 70 times I think; he was in the Guinness Book of Records. I have also-- just from reading and hearsay-- heard more stories about people who got struck twice than people who got struck once.


You guys must be radioactive.

Not yet. Give me time.

Concusion, cuts and broken leg from a car accident. Cracked pelvis from a fall. But nothing I'd consider serious.

I suppose I'm either lucky or tougher than I appear since I've hadn't had to go to the hospital for anything before.
I think the worst illness/injury stuff that has happened to me thus far is a couple bad cases of the flu, ear infections and food poisoning. Although I appear frail I guess I am surprisingly hardy since I haven't broken anything when i thought I had.

I've been very lucky. None of them were that serious; in order of age:

-I was choked at the age of three. I don't know how severe it was, except that it was enough to worry my mother quite a bit.

-I had surgery at a young age (six, maybe? I don't remember how old I was) to have a mouth muscle moved, as it was too low. It moved back not too long after that; a second go got it high enough that when it went back down again it wasn't a problem. It's still lower than it's supposed to be, but it doesn't matter.

-I've sprained my right ankle three times, my left ankle twice, my left wrist once, and my left index finger once. Nothing serious; the wrist and finger were x-rayed (checking to see if the first was broken and the second was fractured) but turned out to be all right.

-Two years ago I had fits where I literally couldn't breathe - not couldn't breathe as in I actually was breathing and just couldn't feel it, but periods where I actually could not draw breath. That sparked a bunch of tests (x-rays galore, EKG, a heart ultrasound, more x-rays) for... nothing. We never did find out what was wrong; one of the nurses said it might have been scarred flesh. Honestly, I think it might have been anxiety, but it hasn't been a problem since, so I don't know.

-A year or two ago (blah, you'd think I would remember, as it wasn't that long ago) I fell backwards, head over heels down a flight of wooden stairs. According to the doctors, I should have broken my back, but instead I only sprained my finger.

-A year ago I had to have a spreading, discolored patch of skin removed and tested for cancer. There was no cancer; indeed, it wasn't even cancerous.

-Supposedly I'm supposed to go to the doctor's soon for what appears to be a torn rotator cuff in my left shoulder. While I'd like it stop hurting, an MRI doesn't sound appealing. Can't imagine why.

Nothing serious, but what the hell...

As a kid:

-Smashed Middle Finger on right hand three times, losing nail all three times.
-Smashed Middle Finger on left hand, losing nail.
-Cracked skull open when wagon tipped over, resulting in bloody red hair and twelve stitches.
-Knocked Right Knee into center table, resulting in permanent scar.
-All four Wisdom Teeth extracted, during which my heart rate got so low they panicked and thought I was dying.

For the most part, completely healthy until college, when the floodgates opened:

-Sliced Right Pointer Finger on glass while picking up garbage and recycling as part of summer landscaping job, resulting in four stitches.
-Dislocated Right Ring Finger twice. The second time, it switched positions on my hand.
-Bit by Black Widow that was living in the loft I built for my dorm room. Lower Right Leg swelled up and turned red. They claim if I hadn't come in when I did, I might have lost my leg. Ironically, I was docked a letter grade for missing class the day I did go in. That was how strict they were in the University of Miami School of Architecture.
-Fractured Right Knee where my ligament tore the tip of the bone off, but not completely. They said I should have torn the ligament instead. This happened while playing basketball and I blocked a guy's shot up against the backboard when I had "hops". When I came down, my Right Leg landed in between his legs, which scissored mine. Spent a month in a full leg cast, which sucked for getting to class, especially with no friends to help.
-Right ACL partial tear while skiing.
-Right Meniscus shredded while skiing (same incident).
-Avulsion Fracture of my Right Ankle from a slap shot I blocked in Hockey.
-Right ACL complete obliteration while playing Hockey. It did not even show up on the MRI anymore. I finished the season wearing my brace from the partial tear seven years earlier. My team was in first and Hockey is the only sport I played competitively that I do not have a trophy in. We lost in the playoffs as the #1 seed, which sucked. Reconstruction was cool, finally getting it fixed after seven years of living with a brace and having it give out all the time due to the partial tear.
-Left Meniscus tear fixed.
-Non-malignant Tumor in throat removed.
-Hit by other car resulting in numbness and burning in neck, spine, and lower back. MRIs showed two bulging discs, one pinched nerve, a whole lot of advanced arthritis, scoliosis, and chifosis.
-Right Labrum Tear not fixed.
-Hiatal Hernia not fixed.
-All four corners of my two big toes chronically ingrown. Three of the four have been permanently removed in the past year. The fourth will occur when it gets ingrown next.
-Thirteen non-malignant polyps removed from colon.
-Anxiety attacks started last fall resulting in multiple series of heart tests, even though I told them it was anxiety.
-Ulcer at bottom of colon still present.
-Screws from ACL Reconstruction had to be removed since my body decided to grow extraneous bone between my Tibia and Fibula, which fractured where the lower screw stuck out. The Tibia and Fibula are now fused together.
-Left Rotator Cuff Tear newly discovered.

The most damaging things are words especially to a child. Wounds of that nature hurt far worse any physical injury.

Was very sick when I was born and almost died.

I have had chronic ear infections and fevers when I was an infant.

Have sprained my muscles a few times in my childhood

Woke up one night suffocating because I couldn't breath for some reason so my mother had to hit me in the back and I got air. I was able to breath again.

Got very dehydrated in summer of '96 when we were in New Mexico visiting some village underground because I didn't drink any water. My parents had to take me back to the RV which belonged to my grandparents and give me some water to drink and give me wet rags to put on my skin.

Broke my joint in my arm when I was pumping gas and I tripped over the hose and fell back and on my arm.


I think that's it.

When I was eight I broke my left arm so severely it looked like a goose's neck; a broken goose's neck with the bone almost protruding through the skin. I didn't cry at all. They say autisitic people have an unusual amount of endurance to extreme pain and I believe it.

yes i was having a picknic one day and a small meteor fell out of the sky hit me in the head and i now have a head ingury. it sucks because it was such a beautiful day outside. the rock also landed on my cake after it hit me in the head and ruined it

I had my appendix on the verge of rupturing. That's about as ill as I've been.

Had it removed and boy was it about to explode. I would've been in the hospital for a while.

I was hit by a car while delivering papers last year, nothing was broken, but I got deep tissue bruising and spent a day on my couch because of it. It hurt like hell. I still have the paper route.

Oh and when I was born My lungs didnt work. /sarcasm/happy memories/