Surviving a gunshot wound

I have a friend who was shot through the pelvis with an arrow 20 years ago. Still walks with a limp. He still hunts, fishes and rides motorcycles. If anything the whole experience taught him to enjoy every day as if it may be your last, because it might be. Good luck. Get well, enjoy life.
 
9x56MS said:
I have a friend who was shot through the pelvis with an arrow 20 years ago. Still walks with a limp. He still hunts, fishes and rides motorcycles. If anything the whole experience taught him to enjoy every day as if it may be your last, because it might be. Good luck. Get well, enjoy life.
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:what:

Jeebus! That must’ve been excruciating going in and coming out. He has a great outlook after such trauma, nice to read that :thumbup:.

Stay safe.
 
Thank God you’re alive, and seeming to be doing well, @Bfh_auto!
Thankful doubly that it went clear through. :eek:

You sound like me.
“I don’t need help. I AM the help!”:thumbup:

So, this is the one time you are forced to be a little lazy, no big deal. It’s actually work to do it. So work hard at taking it easy!
Hiking with those two boys later means more than how quickly you can get back to working.

I am glad you don’t like meds. I imagine our lives have taken a similar arc.:)

Get well soon, friend!
Just Keep Swimming. But not too fast…;)
 
Howland937 said:
After a fairly recent neck surgery, I was given a weeks supply of pain meds and told I'd need to call the Dr for a refill. I still have 4 days worth of the first prescription, and switched to Tylenol as soon as it made the pain bearable. The pain is what makes me recognize my limitations, so I don't want to be pain free. There are other reasons, and you touched on them in an earlier post. Same boat here.
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Yes sir. That is spot on. I'm thankful you can get by without them as well.
I went to get my rifle from the police station last night (two people are the entire force). The officer on duty was the one who hadn't helped at the scene.
He was surprised and happy to see me able to walk with my crutches. I guess the fire fighters had painted a pretty grim picture of how I was when I was life flighted out.
I know why I'm healed and in grateful to Him every day.
It still hurts to sneeze though.
 
9x56MS said:
I have a friend who was shot through the pelvis with an arrow 20 years ago. Still walks with a limp. He still hunts, fishes and rides motorcycles. If anything the whole experience taught him to enjoy every day as if it may be your last, because it might be. Good luck. Get well, enjoy life.
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That's a good story. A limp is OK as long as you can still do.
I couldn't imagine having an arrow sticking out of me. It would be painful to remove. Even a field point would be no fun.
 
I don't like to talk about this but my oldest Son shot his self when he was 2 years old. The Wife came home after a hectic day at work, dropped her purse in a chair by the table and started cooking supper. He got into her purse and got her pistol out. It was a M-60 S&W loaded with hollow points. It went through the meaty part of his hand, damaged his stomach, nicked the liver and hipbone and exited his back. He was in the hospital for 3 weeks and had multiple surgeries. He survived and is pretty much normal today except for the scars and that things like stomach virus's hit him harder than normal. The odd thing is that we never heard from the Police. I would have expected that a gunshot wound and an emergency room visit would trigger a call?
 
Bfh_auto said:
That's a good story. A limp is OK as long as you can still do.
I couldn't imagine having an arrow sticking out of me. It would be painful to remove. Even a field point would be no fun.
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He has a picture of himself on a hospital gurney with the broad head tipped arrow sticking out both sides of his hip. It is pretty gruesome. Needed 5 pints of blood during the surgery to remove the arrow. Guy who shot home swore he thought it was a deer. Personally I never have seen a 6 foot tall deer wearing camo.
 
9x56MS said:
He has a picture of himself on a hospital gurney with the broad head tipped arrow sticking out both sides of his hip. It is pretty gruesome. Needed 5 pints of blood during the surgery to remove the arrow. Guy who shot home swore he thought it was a deer. Personally I never have seen a 6 foot tall deer wearing camo.
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It's unbelievable what some people can "see".
It's a good thing no-one tried to remove it before hand. It may have ended worse for him.
I can believe he needed that much blood. I got 3 units of blood and 2 of packed red blood cells. Pelvis injuries bleed and are hard to control.
I would have that picture framed if I was him.
 
Hal said:
Man - you'd think that they'd at least let you stay on the dope longer in order to make up for missing deer season.
What's wrong with those people anyhow?

Back in the 1980s you could stay in a drug-induced fog for a month or longer if you had a kidney stone,,,,I still to this day can't remember anything between Christmas 1983 and my Birthday in Feb of 1984.....(Darvon is wonderful )
All kidding aside - here's to a speedy recovery.l)
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Drug addiction is huge and it often starts with regular prescriptions. Docs are hesitant to give out narcotics in a lot of places now. Plus there is some evidence that Tylenol and Ibuprofen taken together or in sequence work as well for many people.
 
Glad to hear you're recovering!

As someone who had to spend 6 months (collectively) in traction and another 6 in a halo brace due to a cervical spine injury that almost left me paralyzed, PLEASE do not rush the healing process. It's ok to rest and get some light movement (if your doc says so) but proper healing just takes time and there is no getting around that. If I may be so bold...do what you can do, whatever you can do, to keep a positive attitude as often as you can. A few bright spots a day can make a huge difference in recovery, I swear to every god that has ever existed.
 
daniel craig said:
Glad to hear you're recovering!

As someone who had to spend 6 months (collectively) in traction and another 6 in a halo brace due to a cervical spine injury that almost left me paralyzed, PLEASE do not rush the healing process. It's ok to rest and get some light movement (if your doc says so) but proper healing just takes time and there is no getting around that. If I may be so bold...do what you can do, whatever you can do, to keep a positive attitude as often as you can. A few bright spots a day can make a huge difference in recovery, I swear to every god that has ever existed.
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I totally agree to both posts you made. Ibuprofen and Tylenol in conjunction are better for migraines than narcotics.
Attitude is everything. If you're happy you see blessings. If you're bitter you see road blocks.
These three make it easy to be cheerful;)
 

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daniel craig said:
Drug addiction is huge and it often starts with regular prescriptions. Docs are hesitant to give out narcotics in a lot of places now. Plus there is some evidence that Tylenol and Ibuprofen taken together or in sequence work as well for many people.
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Yes - it is serious. I know myself because I was hooked on Percoset. I was taking four of them an hour and washing them down with a beer. That went on for a month. All I did was lay on the couch, watch TV and take pills & drink beer. At some point in that month, the kidney stone passed, but, the pills and beer continued.
One day I walked into the bathroom and flushed probably 300 pills down the toilet. The next 72 hours, as my body flushed out all the poison & every muscle in my body screamed out as the again started to work - was pure hell.

Also, an addition to acetaminophen eventually destroyed my daughter's liver & she died about 10 years ago from liver failure. She had been taking Tylenol for her migraines and - just overdid it.

Given the choice between narcotics and Tylenol, I would be hard-pressed to say which is worse - probably the Tylenol since the damage it causes can be so severe & in such a short time it can go unnoticed and ironicly, the symptoms and damage of an overdose probably make you take yet more of it.

Anyhow - my initial post was made in jest & the OP took it that way. I'm a firm believer that laughter is the best medicine.
 
Hal said:
Yes - it is serious. I know myself because I was hooked on Percoset. I was taking four of them an hour and washing them down with a beer. That went on for a month. All I did was lay on the couch, watch TV and take pills & drink beer. At some point in that month, the kidney stone passed, but, the pills and beer continued.
One day I walked into the bathroom and flushed probably 300 pills down the toilet. The next 72 hours, as my body flushed out all the poison & every muscle in my body screamed out as the again started to work - was pure hell.

Also, an addition to acetaminophen eventually destroyed my daughter's liver & she died about 10 years ago from liver failure. She had been taking Tylenol for her migraines and - just overdid it.

Given the choice between narcotics and Tylenol, I would be hard-pressed to say which is worse - probably the Tylenol since the damage it causes can be so severe & in such a short time it can go unnoticed and ironicly, the symptoms and damage of an overdose probably make you take yet more of it.

Anyhow - my initial post was made in jest & the OP took it that way. I'm a firm believer that laughter is the best medicine.
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You hit on an excellent point. Overdoing any medication is bad. Drinking a lot of water can minimize the liver or kidney damage. But it can't completely stop it.
I'm glad you made the choice to dump the pills. Addiction can be difficult to beat. But the end results are so worth it.
It makes your testimony stronger and can help someone fight it because they know they aren't alone.
On a positive gun related note. I'm planning on finishing setting up my reloading closet next week and getting all my wife's and brother's ammo loaded for deer season.
I've been enjoying this past week with my Wife, Mom and Mother in law. My two sons have been keeping me busy building train tracks and watching them soon around on bicycles. My Church Family keeps checking in on me along with some of my friends. I'm blessed and I know it.
 
Wow, I'm glad you're (relatively) OK. Sounds like at a minimum, you'll walk again and you have a supportive family & church group to see you through.

Re. the "as tolerated" advice and your comment that you can tolerate a lot, my advice is to tolerate about as much as the physical therapist would want you to, but not more. Otherwise, you might fall into this group that members are posting about here: "I pushed too hard when I was young and dumb and now I have permanent nerve damage."

Maybe I missed it or maybe it's being indelicate, but what was the scenario? You said it was an accidental shooting. Were you out hunting or at a range or something else? Do you know who shot you?
 
Smaug said:
Wow, I'm glad you're (relatively) OK. Sounds like at a minimum, you'll walk again and you have a supportive family & church group to see you through.

Re. the "as tolerated" advice and your comment that you can tolerate a lot, my advice is to tolerate about as much as the physical therapist would want you to, but not more. Otherwise, you might fall into this group that members are posting about here: "I pushed too hard when I was young and dumb and now I have permanent nerve damage."

Maybe I missed it or maybe it's being indelicate, but what was the scenario? You said it was an accidental shooting. Were you out hunting or at a range or something else? Do you know who shot you?
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I know whose fault it is. But I don't have any hard feelings. It was a unloading room the range incident.
 
Howland937 said:
After a fairly recent neck surgery, I was given a weeks supply of pain meds and told I'd need to call the Dr for a refill. I still have 4 days worth of the first prescription, and switched to Tylenol as soon as it made the pain bearable. The pain is what makes me recognize my limitations, so I don't want to be pain free. There are other reasons, and you touched on them in an earlier post. Same boat here.
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I always have said that a little bit of the pain is a like a reminder "hey dummy, take it easy mmk?"
Hal said:
Yes - it is serious. I know myself because I was hooked on Percoset. I was taking four of them an hour and washing them down with a beer. That went on for a month. All I did was lay on the couch, watch TV and take pills & drink beer. At some point in that month, the kidney stone passed, but, the pills and beer continued.
One day I walked into the bathroom and flushed probably 300 pills down the toilet. The next 72 hours, as my body flushed out all the poison & every muscle in my body screamed out as the again started to work - was pure hell.

Also, an addition to acetaminophen eventually destroyed my daughter's liver & she died about 10 years ago from liver failure. She had been taking Tylenol for her migraines and - just overdid it.

Given the choice between narcotics and Tylenol, I would be hard-pressed to say which is worse - probably the Tylenol since the damage it causes can be so severe & in such a short time it can go unnoticed and ironicly, the symptoms and damage of an overdose probably make you take yet more of it.

Anyhow - my initial post was made in jest & the OP took it that way. I'm a firm believer that laughter is the best medicine.
Click to expand...
I'm sorry that happened to your daughter, it is quite a tragedy to lose loved ones so young. Moderation is the spice of life when it comes to putting anything in out bodies.
 
Yikes man, getting shot sucks, but a 7.62 to the pelvis? Prayers for a fast recovery and that the circumstances around the accident are also sorted out favorably. That sounds like quite the ordeal, but as others said, you lived to tell the tale and hopefully you're back to doing what you need to do quickly and with minimal pain. (I've found gabapentin to be a good non narcotic pain reliever but it's not OTC).

I've found often that when guys get injured, they try to do too much too fast, it's a tough guy thing in our lizard brains, there's probably no fixing that but just being aware of it might be a good thing.
 
Tylenol is the second leading cause of liver failure , right behind alcohol. Mixing the two can be lethal. Ibuprofen ( and all of the other NSAIDS ) trash your kidneys. So two of the most dangerous drugs out there are OTC. Bfh_ auto, it sounds like you on the best and wisest course for as full a recovery as possible. Hang in there, stay the course and don't get any on ya' !!!
 
DustyGmt said:
(I've found gabapentin to be a good non narcotic pain reliever but it's not OTC).
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Gabapentin is an anti-convulsant and has its own set of warnings. If taken for long periods of time, severe withdrawal symptoms lasting for many days and resembling opioid withdrawal can appear if one suddenly stops taking the drug. It can be helpful for certain types of nerve pain...but be careful!
 
tark said:
Gabapentin is an anti-convulsant and has its own set of warnings. If taken for long periods of time, severe withdrawal symptoms lasting for many days and resembling opioid withdrawal can appear if one suddenly stops taking the drug. It can be helpful for certain types of nerve pain...but be careful!
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Yes it does. Every medication has a nasty side effect. Especially if taken for long term.
I'm thankful I've even been able to limit my muscle relaxer and Tylenol intake to 10 pm and 6 am. During the day I don't need anything besides a tremendous amount of water, salty food, a little coffee, and cat naps.
Y'all have been a blessing even if I don't see your faces or hear your voices.
After Wednesday I'll be posting on the reloading forum again as I get back into casting and reloading.
 
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