Posted: 4/27/2003 5:00:05 AM EDT
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Have you ever had anything happen to you that literally changed the way you live your life/totally changed the way you look at things. I know alot of times Ill watch a movie or read something that really makes me think and reflect but Ive yet to have a "milestone" that has completely altered something in my life. If you have post your experience. |
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Well, when I was 16 I was hit buy a truck (while walking) and ended up in the Hospital for a bit over 3 months. I couldn't walk for a year and a half, and did 2 years of "High School" at home with tutors. That made me "grow up" really fast, I think. At least I was able to graduate on time. [:)] Then in 1995 my Father passed on; and a year later my Mother had an aneurysm, and then she passed away in 1998. A few months after that my (now ex) wife tried to kill herself. Those events all happening in a relatively short period of time really changed the way I see a lot of things.[:\] Eric |
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I had a stroke when I was 42. It was a mild stroke but a stroke nontheless. Different strokes for different folks. The first two years following that event I was physically very cautious. Didn't want to over exert myself etc. My life got got back to normal but you always remember what a close call you had. Now this was nothin' compared to what some people go through. I learned a long time ago that age has nothing to do dying. Theres no connection. I was told by the nuerologist that my chances of having another one are better than for somebody that has never had one. It does result in an attitude change. Very hard to explain to strangers. Now however, I have no problem working on scaffolding 200 feet high. Things just don't scare me as easily as it once did. But all in all I would say that my divorce and change of lifestyle at the age of 50 was much more a life altering experience. I find it easier to cop a fuck you, bunker mentality now. I try to avoid doing that however.[:D] One other thing, I don't eat food I don't like, just to be polite anymore. I've left out the natural things like deaths, those always change your life a little. |
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Life altering experiences are every day for I adapt the best I can. The most changing experiences have been life threatening. I worked myself literaly almost to death one time. Staring it straight in the face I came to the realization my family is better off with me alive and living in a cardboard box than me dead and a good insurance payoff. |
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Two and a half years ago, I took a month off of work to help my dad take care of my mom as she slowly died from inoperable lung cancer. Before she got sick, she took care of everything and everyone. She remodeled the kitchen, helped elderly neighbors with yard work, etc. You couldn't stop her. Toward the end, she couldn't eat or drink, was in a lot of pain, and knew she was going to die soon. Yet she didn't want any of the pain medication her doctor prescribed. She would be in obvious agony and my dad would want to give her the medication and she would shake her head "no". Once he told me he was going to give it to her anyway and I about cracked him. I told him that it was her choice and went in and asked her why she didn't want the medicine. She tried to scribble the word "sleep". I asked her if she didn't want to sleep and she said yes. I went back to my dad and explained to him that all she wanted to do was stay awake as long as possible. She was about to die and was in a lot of pain, yet looking outside and probably just being able to think was more important than getting rid of the pain. The next night I was awake with her when she died. I had just asked her if she was o.k. and she nodded her head "yes". A couple of minutes later I noticed the interval between her breaths was getting longer and longer. I held her hand and she died. I now work only at work - I don't bring work home nor do I think about work at home. I live my life everyday, and do not get caught up in the everyday world. Life is too important to merely be alive, you have to live. |
| A couple of years ago, while I was waiting to go into the OR for some very minor hernia surgery, I was thinking about the remote possibility of not coming out of the anesthesia. In what might be best described as an epiphany, I realised that I really didn't care if I came out of it or not. Decided then and there to make monumental changes in my life. |
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when my mom showed up at my college house to help me move out because i was graduating. i answered the door and quickly noticed that she was completely bald & very skinny. she told me she had cancer and had about 5 years to live. [shock] [shock] [shock] my sister & her (no dad) opted not to tell me what was going on while i was in my last semester of school. [pissed] this was the wrost possible thing they could have done to me. i was so traumatized that i went into a state of complete & total depression for 3 straight years. i couldn't hold conversations with people (it took too much energy), i quickly distanced myself from loved ones & friends. then i'd have stints of total anger. then i was just constantly bitter. i wanted to be with my mom, but when i was, it was just so difficult to see her like that. thank the lord that she was one of the lucky ones & pulled through. still when she gets check ups, my mind just goes absolutely ape shit. that was 13 years ago. i NEVER been the same after that sunny day i answered my front door. |
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My dads death. On a Friday evening a couple years ago my dad had a heart attack while carrying bundles of shingles up a ladder onto our garage. He went to the hospital and was given drugs to get him "stabilized." On Monday morning he had an angiogram that showed blockages in two major arteries. One of the major ones was blocked 100% and the other 90% according to the doctors. They scheduled him for bypass surgery the next morning, Tuesday. The doctors had planned on doing a "beating heart" bypass but for some reason couldn't and used a 'heart and lung' bypass machine. After opening his chest they grafted four arteries and closed him up. After this his blood pressure fell drastically and the doctor reopened his chest and put him back on the machine. They left him on it overnight to "let his heart rest," and tried to get him off the machine again in the morning. It didn't work, so they arranged to have him fly from Bismark, ND to Minneapolis to a more capable hospital. the plane couldn't fly because of bad weather, so he got a 5-6 hour ambulance ride instead. he was connected to the heart and lung machine while in the ambulance, and was on so many blood thinners that they went through 10 units of blood on the ride. He got to the hospital and was moved onto their equipment. We were told by the surgeon there that he had an approximate 50% chance of survival and that we had two choices. 1. let him go now. 2. continue and put him on an [url=http://www.ctsnet.org/doc/1779]LVAD[/url] (left ventricle assist device) that replaces the function of the left side of the heart. And allows him to gain strength while waiting for a heart transplant. We decided to continue. He had the LVAD successfully implanted but they could still not close his chest because he wasn't completely stabile. Some of the muscle tissue in his left leg had died during the ambulance ride. They said that this was probably caused by a "balloon pump" blocking blood flow to the leg. The balloon pump is a balloon like thing that goes in an artery in the leg and helps move blood around the body. Because of the tissue swelling over his whole body, orthopedic surgeons performed fasciotomies on all four limbs in order to relieve the pressure that would kill tissue. What this operation was is where they cut through all of the big muscles in his arms and legs from armpit to wrist down to the bone in order to open them up and decrease pressure from swelling. Over the course of the next few days his right leg was amputated just below knee because of the tissue that died on the ambulance ride. He was also put onto a dialysis-like machine because his kidneys stopped (supposedly caused by toxins released by the dead tissue in the amputated leg, and only temporary). The amputation didn't work and tissue continued to die in his left leg. The amputation was moved up to right above the knee. The next day we were told that told that tissue was still dying in his leg and a "hip disarticulation" was needed. Meaning they would be cutting off his leg above the hip and there would be no hope of walking with a prosthetic, ever. At this point after a lot of family talking including his seven brothers and sisters and talking with doctors about what kind of life he could expect even if he survived the several risky operations yet to come, we decided to let him pass away. This was on a Tuesday 11 days after his heart attack. That after noon my mom and I and a nurse disconnected the three cables to his heart pump and the whole family watched while his heart stopped. I still regret letting him suffer as long as he did. I guess up until the point that we decided to let him pass, there was still hope that he could make it through the operations and be able to move about on his own and still enjoy the things he liked to do, and so we kept going. Once it was clear that he would be wheelchair bound at best, and only if he survived a very risky transplant operation that was 2-3 years away at least, the right decision was easy to make. |
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Quoted: Got cancer at the age of 38 and survived, 12 years this year and things still look bright. A whole lot of things that seemed important at the time were tossed aside in favor of those that really are. I take a lot more time to smell the flowers since then. [beer] that kicks ass, fox! glad yer still with us! |
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The top 4 for me. 1)Getting saved through receiving Jesus. It completely changed me over a period of time, & learning from the bible. 2)Getting married. I now can understand how 1 man can faithfully stay with 1 woman for their whole lives & be satisfied. 3)Having a child. It gave me a totally new view of what we go through to be here. I started to fell bad when I would see a fawn killed on the road. All that work for nothing. 4)A very important member in my family had an affair, & moved out on their spouse. It broke my hart in ways I can't express, & I stopped looking at the person as reverently as I had. I prayed & counseled their partner, & now they are back together, & happier than they ever thought they could be again. Thank God. It really changed me in a lot of ways. |