Life of Pain

Almost from the very outset of my days I have been very hard on my body. Injuries are a part of life but I have had more than most, less than some(Evel Knievel has me beat). I would like to
say I don't know why but that's not true. I have a high tolerance for pain, which is a product of my early football years where you played hurt as a rule rather than the exception. I am also very clumsy and I love to take risks. Combine that with a childhood of very little supervision(a subject I will touch on later) and a group of friends who thought of and recruited you to participate in various lane brain activities and that is a recipe for a lifetime of injuries. Though some are more severe than others, they all count. You have heard about six degrees of separation well my body is like six inches of separation. You could get a six inch ruler and start at my feet and go from spot to spot where I have had an injury and go all the way to my head. Well that's not really true but close enough and it sounds good. This list will surely be added to as my brain only works intermittently nowadays, but here it is........

Let's start with stitches and where I have had them.

Back of the head-fell back into the corner of a table. 2nd grade.

Front of the head-Jump out of a swing when I was two. My mom said I yelled Superman right before my forehead hit a piece of concrete.

Eye lid and eye-brow-In a car wreck I got hit from the side and my head busted the passenger side window out.

Cheek-running and slipped on ice, my cheek hit a small knee high light fixture in the Marriott parking lot.

Fingers-A: finger got caught in a bicycle chain against the sprocket.
B: finger got sliced by a buddy showing me how sharp his knife was.

Hand-Slipped while wrestling in the VI parking lot and caught myself before hitting the ground.
Palm landed right on a broken beer bottle.

Other injuries:

Nail stuck deep in my foot. Jumping on a mattress in the woods is when it got lodged in there. I then proceeded to walk about a mile to my house and my mom had pull it out with two hands and her feet flat against my feet.

Broken hand and foot-motorcycle accident when I was 13.

Broken Neck. You heard right. I dove into the shallow end of a pool. Very Painful. The doctor said it was my 7th vertabrae and had the fracture extended any further I would have either been in a wheel chair or worse.

Dis-located shoulder. A guy landed on me when my body was perpendicular the ground during a Rugby game. Shoulder popped right out. They kept on playing and I had to push it back in myself and help myself off the field.

Torn ACL-Football injury. Happened more than once.

Severe Sun burn: Don't know if this qualifies but this has also happened more than once. One time my whole face was covered with blisters the size of quarters.

Black-eyes. Many but two that I remember are when I tried a Ninja move on Paul one night and he instinctively tagged me in the eye. Another time I closed my own eye by attempting to tackle in a Rugby game using my helmet like I used to do in football. Only problem is you don't wear a helmet to play Rugby. This brings me to my next injury.

Concussions-I have had several from various sources. Car wreck. Rugby game. Bicycle wreck.
I am sure there are more for some reason I can't remember them.

Back-This happened initially at Fedex. I hurt it bad about once or twice a year trying to be the strong guy. I live with back pain every waking minute. If you don't have back pain you're lucky.

Those are the major ones for now....on the minor side I have had about 55,000 bruises, cuts and scrapes. One day I will probably wake up and won't be able to move. I'm getting old now and don't do the things that cause injury much anymore, but at least the pain let's know you are still alive.