Saffs15

Video of /u/here_comes_the_king wrecking some plinko.

I pretty much copied all of the text. Left off some that you have to see the picture to understand though. There's definitely some gore, but if you can stomach it, the pictures definitely make it a better story.

• Pic 1: February 9, 2010. On vacation in Boulder, CO. I was getting pants out of the trunk of my friend's car when another car lost control on ice & crushed me in between. I remember thinking 'that wasn't so bad,' but when I looked down my right leg was gone. It was severed & lying underneath the car.

• Pic 2: It was a long 20 minutes waiting for an ambulance to get up the canyon. My friends & strangers passing by had tied a tourniquet, then covered me with blankets & jackets. I was on a life flight when these were taken by my friends who were with me.

• pic 6: About a week post accident. Efforts were made to reattach, but it was unsuccessful. I was put in a medically induced coma for a week after going into septic shock. It was officially amputated on Valentines Day.

• pic 7: First time out of bed, 2 weeks post accident. 10 surgeries by this time, mostly in reconstructing efforts. My surgeons saved a part of my ankle & grafted it below my knee to give me a chance at not having an above knee amputation.

• pic 8: I was transferred back to a hospital in Utah for 3 weeks of inpatient rehab. Parts of my leg began to die, so I had to go into a hyperbaric chamber 4 hours a day for a couple weeks. Altogether I was initially in the hospital for 6 weeks straight.

• pic 9: Despite treatment,some parts became necrotic, & I was readmitted beginning of April 2010.

• pic 10:After the dead parts were cut off, I used a wound vac between bi-weekly debriding surgeries & daily wound care.

• pic 17:In the hospital during this time, I had 5 hours of therapy a day. Left leg had severe muscle & nerve damage. I couldn't lift my foot at all, so I wore a boot to help heal it in a way that would allow for me to get use back.

• pic 22:My knee froze up from lack of use & scar tissue via trauma. Could only get 85 degrees flexion, and 15 degrees extension at this time.

• pic 23: 6 months post accident. A lot of walkers, wheelchairs, & crutches

• pic 24: One of the screws had come through the bone & was causing intense pain. The phantom sensations were unbearable at times. It could feel like my toes were breaking, or a screwdriver was going through my heal, or I was standing on hot coals.

• pic 25: After a little while I was able to get them removed. Helped a ton with the pain.

• pic 28: 9 months post accident. I could finally start wearing a shrinker sock to shape my limb & get ready for a prosthetic.

• pic 29: My skin grafts were proving hard to work with, so my plastic surgeon had to remove them & stretch my healthy skin over the wounds.

• pic 31: A while later he did a scar revision as well.

• pic 33: 10 months post accident. Still healing from the previous surgery. My left leg was now completely healed, although I still have nerve damage & a pretty disfigured scar. When I flex my foot, all the muscle that was pushed down bulges out.

• pic 34: Wound wouldn't heal. Discovered I had a hematoma, & had to do 3x a day wound care for a few weeks with iodine ribbon until it healed.

• pic 35: A little while later I had to have a scope to determine why I was still having so much pain. My bone was shaved down as well, as it had a protrusion that would make walking in a prosthetic problematic.

• pic 36: January 28, 2001. I was FINALLY getting a prosthetic 12 days before my 1 year anniversary.

• pic 37: My leg was so weak from a year of not being walked on...a few hours after this picture was taken, I fell & broke my femur.

It was an eventful day

• pic 38: Hospitalized for a week.

• pic 39: 3 months post femur accident I got the go ahead to start weight bearing.

• pic 40: And proceeded to go everywhere I possibly could

• pic 43: After a year of not being able to walk, it's all I wanted to do! I was often punished for my enthusiasm.

• pic 45: Still had some problem areas. Had a few more surgeries for scar tissue removal/bone shaving.

• pic 46: 2 years post accident, had another surgery to remove the hardware from the femur break.

• pic 47: Walking in a prosthetic was much better with all the metal out.

• pic 48: 2.5 years post accident. Walking was still really painful & especially hard without a cane...

• pic 49: or a crutch.

• pic 50: Next surgery, anterior knee release to straighten my still frozen knee. We realized I needed it to have a normal gait when walking, & it also would help with the pressure points/pain.

• pic 51: I've become hard to stick over the years.

• pic 52: Doctor resplinting my freshly cut leg... (Picture of her in pain)

• pic 53: ...an hour later with drugs! (picture of her smiling with her mom, I assume.)

• pic 54: Hours of daily therapy & stretching.

• pic 56: The first anterior knee release worked, but froze pretty quickly with scar tissue. Had to have a redo a couple months later

• pic 57: Which made surgery #32

• pic 58: Over 3 years post accident--A few months ago I had a posterior knee release to get my knee to bend past 90 degrees

• pic 59: CPM machine for 4 hours a day, with wound care & ice pack machine inbetween...

• pic 60: And an hour a day with my therapist, torturing me just for fun

• pic 62: Had to be re hospitalized for the pain during long therapy. It froze up after the first week, & I went in to have it manipulated--turned into another full surgery. All my thigh muscle was cut off the bone (adhered from scar tissue), and my knee capsule was released.

• pic 63: That was surgery #34, and hopefully my last :)

• pic 64: In the meantime I stay sane by travelling. And, I am now walking well enough where people can't tell if I'm wearing pants, or thigh highs.

• pic 65/66: (pictures of her and friends out and about, with the thigh highs. Can't see the prosetchic at all.)

• pic 67: And soon I should be getting my finalized prosthetic! I still wear this one with pride though.

It's been a rough & fun few years :)

Edit: I copied all of this out and everything because it's such an incredible story. I have alotta respect for ya OP, you're pretty awesome. Sorry to see you had such a tough road, but definitely happy to see that you're doing so much better nowadays.

Same here. I loved the Kurds, great people and the Peshmerga were great soldiers too.

We're you guys 1st Cav? My unit relieved 1st Cav, and then got relieved by 1st Cav in Mosul. (I also happened to be a 19K.)

Edit: Just saw your post confirming it. Don't think it was you guys we relieved, we were a couple years later then that. However we were out of Fort Bliss, and I had a buddy there who deployed out of Bliss to Mosul with 1st Cav in that time frame. Might have a mutual friend.

I'd mentioned a Pollard for Devin deal before on here. First let me state, Pollard's awesome and I would be very saddened to see him leave. Having both McCourtys would be the only way I'd be fine with it.

But it'd work because, well, we get both McCourtys. And The Patriots would be happy with it because they'd never have to face Pollard again, which we all know they'd be delighted about.