When is enough ENOUGH, or Why me?

[Brian D. Bray]

I've been taking stock of things lately and came up with some personal statistics that make me wonder.

I have been missed by lightening strikes by a distance of 2 feet or less 4 times in my life.
I've had serious open and closed head injuries 6 different times.
My guardian angel has called my name 4 seperate times, that have kept me from being killed or severly injured--I ignored his warning 2 other times and got badly injured.
I have almost been run over by a car twice--same car same day, they were really trying to run me down.
I have stared down the barrel of 3 pistols that were aimed at my forhead and walked away clean, if counting long guns too and 4 more.
I have taken more knives away from people trying to fillet me with them than I can remember--Yes I have scars.
I have had a near death experience (doctor's term, not mine) during surgery at least once that I have been made aware of.
I suffer acute/chronic pain 24/7 usually level 7 on a 1 mild to 10 sever pain scale.
I have also survived a burst appendix and 2 car wrecks.

The last time I had contact with the other side I asked if I could cross over, they told me no.  I still have some things I have to do over here on this side yet.  By my own count I should have died 55 years ago and 14 more times since then, I turn 60 this year.

The wheelchair on the deck and the cane beside my chair proves I'm not superman and I am distructable but, hey, Let up a little!

Anybody had anything similar, can't die despite frequent accidents etc?

[Jerrymac]

I have fallen many times. Once was about twenty five feet up and landed on concrete. Flipped a car once. Miraculously avoided a high speed collision by less than an inch. A motorcycle accident put me in the hospital for two and a half weeks with hemorrhaging to the back of the brain.(Mom bumped into me. She thought I was dead for awhile.) Bullets flying around me a couple of times. Nearly bleed to death from an ulcer. (Dr. thought I was about to crash.) Through all of this I never have had a broken bone. The only real surgery was when my tonsils were removed at the age of five. Had a tornado go over the house. My ears were popping. I'm sure there are other things but I can't think of them right now.

   

[JP]

Was pulled under an eighteen wheeler when I was 24, in a rain storm, had bad tires at the time, dern hydroplaning, made note to self, never let that happen again, on the next car, that one was totaled.

Had a youngn' "not see me" and ran flat into me, and made the car I was in do a 180, only thing that stopped me was the sign in the middle of the neutral ground, that was still bent over three yrs later, haha. Oh, and that car was totaled as well.

When I was a kid I supposedly had the mumps that swelled my head up like a pumpkin, but don't remember that one, but they say it happened.

Other than that, I wish I were dead once, when I was about 30, with pneumonia, my temperature was 105 1/2 for a few days or so, had to sleep on my stomach, and my head felt like it was in a vice and my eyes were about to pop out.

Oh, and I get stung just about every day by, uh... honeybees! :-D


...JP

[Scadsobees]

Oh good grief!

I was in a car crash when I was 11 and got some teeth knocked out. :roll:  I'm too cautious to get hurt too much.

It takes a lot of "reckless" to face those criminals, so THANKS A LOT FOR YOUR SERVICE  :)

Although that lightning would make me nervious :roll:

-r

[beemaster]

The TWO that really stick in my mind are:

1) While driving to a golf course with my Dad and friend Steve, a car at a cross intersection (no light there) flew the intersection at nearly a hundred miles an hour (my guess on speed) while being chased by a cop car. The car was airborn and level with my windshield as I drove, it passed before my car only a few thousandths of a second before I would have been in direct alignment with his from grill in my windshield. The cop car (who should have known better missed my cars rear equally close. There is no doubt I would have been turned to jelly if that car had hit me. It was surrealistic to see a car BLINKFAST hurl infront and behind my car.

2) I (like Jerry) took a nasty fall, mine just over 20ft to a asphalt surface, I sacrificed my right arm to protect my face, I broke it in 7 places but compounded my neck and back, pain which still bothers me today (nearly 25 years later) and after 2 seasons of apitherapy on my neck (which definitely helped, but was not a cure all).

Statistically, only 1 in 4 people survive a 20 foot fall (Federal safety reports I am tested on frequently, along with endless back safety quizs at work) and out of the 1 in 4 survivors, 3 are severly handicapped - so I can't help but think I was extrememly lucky that day. Safety harnesses are set NO LONGER than 6 feet n case of a fall, the force of a 6ft fall can easily knock out your teeth as your jaws slam together, and still severe neck damage can occur. As you double the distances, you multiply the inertia by 4 - by time you get to 20ft or more, you are a sac of brinks just asking to turn into pulp. I'm always amazed when you hear people falling 10 stories, bouncing off a tree limb or two and surviving - it is amazing the force those tree limbs can absorb!

Brian, I've never had a Guardian Angel speak to me, not even a like whisper in my ear though. I have had that natural feeling of danger steer me away from trouble from time to time, if THAT was a guardian angel pumping warnings directly into my head, then maybe I have had intervention.

[Mici]

just today i heard over radio : "more and more police-officers leaving the force due to ever growing hazards" and now i can see how one can face those hazards. Now...i surely can't compete you, your job is simply a "near-death-magnet" but then again.

- ate watermelon around the age 1-2, my dad carried me to get me washed up and he slipped, fortunately he, while doing a barrel roll (LOL) threw me into the pool, otherwise... (he broke a few ribs)

- went across the road at i don't know, maybe 5, a neighbour missed my head by an inch, he actually stopped like they do in films (or so they tell me)

- while storing hay i climbed up a ladder went about the upper deck of the barn, jumping on the hay like crazy when...i fell down another whole, about 4 meters deep, made a few rolls on the other ladder and into the vent hole (could have easily crashed my head 100 different ways) but got of with a few bruises, actually burns. no, did not broke a bone

-while making modification to our super tall ladder it somehow got loosed and extended (it was almost horizontal, a bit downwards) and the extending parts missed my neck  and the artery by less than an inch, again only a bruise.

-falling of a bike at more than 30mph probably doesn't count but still had quite a few of those, hehe.

- 2 car crashes both at about 40 mph, which isn't a lot but hey, people get killed at 20 or less, i got off with a few bruises.

i know it's not much but.... counting my age, i am quite experienced :-D

[Jerrymac]

Speaking of guardian angels.... can't say as I have heard any either but, many times that is MANY times, I have been delayed. Just some little something for no good reason keeps me from getting on with the trip. Then some where down the road there is a major accident, or a tornado just went through, or a store got robbed, or something weird happened. And when figuring it out I realized I would have been in the big middle of it if I had not been delayed.

[Brian D. Bray]

Falls:

Statistically, only 1 in 4 people survive a 20 foot fall (Federal safety reports I am tested on frequently, along with endless back safety quizs at work) and out of the 1 in 4 survivors, 3 are severly handicapped - so I can't help but think I was extrememly lucky that day.

Add 3 more incidents I should not have survived--I had forgotten all about the falls.  1st was 25 feet when the top of the tree I was climbing broke off below me.  2nd was wen I fell of a cliff while coon huntin when a teenager, and the 3rd was falling off a roof.  Wierd thing is that I was never really hurt from the falls--all my disabling injuries came from auto accidents or assaults while I was a police officer.

The only disease I included was appendicitis as I had 2 uncles die of that before penicillin came along.  Mumps made me look like a chipmunk chewing nuts. 

[annette]

Brian,

I don't know what to say, I just think you are very, very lucky to be alive.  Count your blessings.

That goes for all of you. I have always wondered how a person can live to be so old, in this unbelievably fragile body. Seems we should be living in a suit of armor instead of this soft body.

Take Care (I mean that)
Annette

[Kimbrell]

Brian,
I've always believed that we don't die until we have accomplished everything we were sent here to do.  Guess none of us is finished yet...

[Brian D. Bray]

Brian,
I've always believed that we don't die until we have accomplished everything we were sent here to do.  Guess none of us is finished yet...

That is exactly my problem.  I know one of the things I have yet to do and am working hard at making a refuge for my family that is as self-sufficient as possible so that survival is not reliant on commerce.  I do wish they would let me know what else I must do so I can get it done and go home.

[Kimbrell]

Brian,
That's part of the wonder in life... Not knowing what tiny act that only you can accomplish will make a vast difference to someone else.
The things we have to give to others are seldom material, I think.  It's the unique gifts each of us has.
   Sorry, didn't mean to sound "preachy" :)