I've blathered on several times about the spinal surgery I've had but, read on..
I have been shot at more than once, stabbed, had to check out a suspicious package under a car (in the days when certain 'freedom' elements in the Eastern Bloc were targeting western businessmen) and attacked more times than I care to recall but I have only been terrified -I mean bowel wateringly 'what the fuck am I going to do' shit scared once.
I'd had a little niggling pain in my left arm for some time, it flared up occasionally to a deep ache in all the muscles but it was, generally, bearable.
I was driving (on a very busy M6 between J6 &J7) one day when I went to change gear. I swerved into lane 2 and in my 'fuckitI'm going to die' frame of mind I tried to pull the wheel over so I could get back into lane 1.
I couldn't change gear. My left arm didn't work. Don't get me wrong, I was still holding the gearstick but no matter how I tried, my left arm wasn't going anywhere. I managed to get through the traffic, onto the hard shoulder and stall/stop. I still couldn't get my left arm to let go of the gearstick.
I looked at the offending limb and everything went dark - tbh I think I blacked out for a second out of sheer despair. All the things I loved doing, including driving, would be no longer. Playing guitar, picking up and cuddling my kids, all over. My job, which neccesitated being able to drive, gone. I have never been so frightened in my life.
I burst into great racking sobs, which is how the motorway policeman found me, tears streaming down my face and still with my left hand clamped to the gearstick.

All is now good due to some phenomenal surgeons and some (psycopathically sadistic) physiotherapists.
There are lots of great stories on here about frightening occurences but, think about what your life would be like if YOU lost the use of a limb.
That's terror.
(Captain Placid 24/7 ball gags, brownie mix and clown porn, Wed 11 Apr 2012, 18:40, 13 replies)

I'd wank with the other hand and pretend it was you.

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Wed 11 Apr 2012, 18:55, closed)

Same sentiment for our love trist, Dr.

( The Mock Turtle ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Wed 11 Apr 2012, 19:51, closed)

textbook.

( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Thu 12 Apr 2012, 9:26, closed)

I know the feeling.
Took a nasty motorbike accident last year, leg crushed between motorcycle and car. I came too with the bike resting on my leg with the certain knowledge that it was bad, but no idea how bad. When the nice chap from UPS dragged the bike off me, I looked down to just see a sort of twisted lump with a boot on the end. My whole life I've worked on my feet, pubs, restaurants, clubs. I was terrified. I cried and cried and cried. I thank my stars every day that I'd bought decent boots, and decent trousers that saved my leg.
( Windy Pig I'm naturally quite suspicious about the moon., Wed 11 Apr 2012, 19:50, closed)

That wouldn't have happened in the Beetle
You moto-spastic, WP
( Major Turd for tonight only, Wed 11 Apr 2012, 20:19, closed)

i dunno,
Beetles are crafted from tinfoil. I don't think its possible to survive a crash in a beetle.
( Windy Pig I'm naturally quite suspicious about the moon., Wed 11 Apr 2012, 20:21, closed)

Plus they are specifically geometrically designed
to take your face out with the windscreen in any crash over 6 mph.

And they are awful, awful cars, but that's OK, because they have "character"

Charles Manson has "character", too.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Thu 12 Apr 2012, 9:31, closed)

The only thing missing from this story is
what was actually wrong with you
(Nitrous Nitrous, Wed 11 Apr 2012, 22:25, closed)

Two cervical discs were, to quote the neurosurgeon, 'buggered beyond repair'.
They were bulging into the spinal cord and into the nerves that control my arms. I eventually had them removed and replaced with bone from my hip and a titanium plate spanning 3 vertebrae.
(Captain Placid 24/7 ball gags, brownie mix and clown porn, Thu 12 Apr 2012, 7:03, closed)

Ouch!
Sounds painful. Amazing what they can do tho.
(Nitrous Nitrous, Thu 12 Apr 2012, 9:10, closed)

*makes mental note to sit on CP's left from now on*

you should post the delightful pics from the op on your neck...around lunchtime would be best I reckon.

*clicks with both arms, because mine are fine - yay!*
( Pooflake braces for an onslaught..., Thu 12 Apr 2012, 8:39, closed)

I don't have any good ones of the scar on the back of my neck
There's a couple of the front one and an out-of-focus one of the rear (fnaarr) before the staples came out.
I'll see if I can find them and post in this thread.
(Captain Placid 24/7 ball gags, brownie mix and clown porn, Thu 12 Apr 2012, 9:01, closed)

I'd drive an automatic.

( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Thu 12 Apr 2012, 9:27, closed)