The motorcycle accident of 2007

Warning! This is a very long blog!

It will be 2 years this April that Cam got in his motorcycle accident. Cam and I started talking about it a couple of nights ago and decided the story needs to be written down. It’s not enough that he got in a motorcycle accident and pretty much broke the entire left side of his body from his collar bone to his waist, it’s everything that happened after the accident! We were laughing pretty hard the other night, and I imagine down the road, some of the details will start fading, so I have to write this down.

It was Easter weekend 2007, and a bunch of us went camping at Jeff and Missy’s property. They own 5 acres out in the middle of nowhere. The property is a few exits past Wendover. Once you get off the freeway, you go about 25 miles on a dirt road, look for the abandoned AirStream RV and that is the property. We love going there. No one is around you for miles. It is a great place to ride dirt bikes and 4-wheelers, and just relax and read, play cards etc. We go every Easter weekend to kick off the camping season.

So, it was Easter Sunday afternoon. Most of the other couples left that morning, because they had to work Monday. Cam, Jeff, Missy, their son’s Nick and Mike, and our friend’s 19 year old son, Matt, and I stayed because we were all lucky enough to have Monday off. We decided it would be fun if we all jumped on some form of ATV and go on a leisurely ride. There were just enough machines for all of us. Missy and I were on 4-wheelers, Jeff, Nick, Mike and Matt all had their own dirt bikes. Cam used a dirt bike that our friend Anthony’s brother had built out of used motorcycle parts. Not the nicest bike in the world, but it would do.

Missy and I packed some waters and snacks and we took off. It was just a mellow ride. We stuck to dirt roads and avoided the mountains that were to the West. After about 45 minutes we came to a place where over the years, some of the older kids have built some jumps and so we stopped there. Cam did not have a helmet (I know! Shame on us!), so he mostly just watched everyone. There is one spot that has a pretty small jump, it’s actually more of a bump, and then a few yards ahead of that is a much bigger jump. Cam decided to go over the little jump. I was just sitting on my 4-wheeler watching everyone and I watched Cam go over the little jump. Suddenly his motorcycle just took off! Cam hit the big jump at full speed and went flying! He landed face down and the back end of the dirt bike landed on him, the back tire still spinning and giving Cam a pretty nasty tire burn on his back.

We all went running to Cam. Jeff threw the bike off him and turned Cam over onto his back, Cam just flopped over like a rag doll. Cam was out cold, there was blood smeared across his face, and blood was coming out of his ear. I thought I was going to throw up. Missy grabbed me and told me that she and I needed to take the 4-wheelers back to camp and get their truck so we could come back and get Cam. Jeff assured me that Cam was alive, he was just unconscious. Jeff has done some emergency training, so I felt okay leaving him with Cam. So Missy and I rode the ATV’s back to camp. I was in a total daze. When you see your husband, or anyone you love for that matter, unconscious with blood coming out of their ear, it is incredibly disturbing to say the least.

Missy and I made it back to camp after what seemed like the longest ride ever! Missy grabbed the keys to their truck and we headed back. I was still in a total daze. I didn’t cry, I couldn’t really talk, I was just mostly shaking and I felt really hot, like I was burning on the inside. So at this point you are probably wondering why we didn’t call 911. We didn’t because the property is so far out there, there is no cellular service. You have to go about 15 miles down the dirt road to get service.

Missy and I finally made it back to the scene. Cam was standing up! I don’t think I can put in words the relief I felt. Jeff had tried to clean up some of the blood around Cam’s ear. Ends up his sunglasses cut him just above his ear and it was blood from that cut that was going into his ear, then running back out. Cam could hardly move. He was in shock, I looked in his eyes, his pupils looked normal, but his eyes were just glazed over. And to answer why the motorcycle took off over the jump like that? Turns out the throttle stuck and the dirt bike hit what’s called a “power band” which I guess is like turbo kicking in. Cam couldn’t control it and didn’t have enough time to react.

We helped Cam into the truck as carefully as we could and drove him to camp. Poor guy, the slightest bump made him moan. For those who may be reading this and don’t know Cam, he is a pretty tough guy. He’s been a construction worker for about 20 years. He is the type of guy who can put a drill bit through his leg, wrap some duct tape around it, and work the rest of the day. (Yes, that has happened) I could tell he was in some serious pain. We got back to camp and helped him into our camper. I got out the first aid kit and tried to clean up his face. He was filthy! He had blood and dirt all over his face. And it’s not regular dirt out there. It’s like baby powder, and Cam was covered in it! He let me clean him up a little, but then he made me stop. He couldn’t sit for very long, he just wanted to get out of the camper and go outside. Missy had left us and took the truck back to the crash site, so they could put the dirt bike in the back and bring it back to camp. They were all just getting to camp when Cam and I were getting out of the camper.

Cam was still in shock, and was pretty incoherent. He kept wanting to sit down, but we made him stand up and stay awake while we made the game plan. Clearly I had to get him to an emergency room. Wendover is about an hour and half away, and we discussed whether or not they had an emergency room. We had only been to the casinos there. None of us had ever bothered checking out the rest of the town. We decided there had to be an Instacare there at least. We didn’t think there was a full hospital, but there had to be something. Women have babies, and people get in accidents and have heart attacks etc, there had to be some sort of an emergency room. We couldn’t take our truck. We have one of those campers that fit in the bed of the truck and goes up and over the top. The jacks were down it would be way too much trouble and time to get our truck ready to go. Matt offered us his truck.

We got Cam into Matt’s truck and he and I headed for Wendover. Cam was more awake by this time. He kept asking what happened. To this day he doesn’t remember the accident or the hour or so we spent at camp after. His first memory is he and I in Matt’s truck. I made Cam talk to me so he could stay awake. Finally when I knew we had cell service I handed him my phone and suggested he call someone. I needed Cam to stay awake and keep talking, so I thought calling someone was a good idea. So Cam calls our friend Andy, or what I thought was Andy. I heard him ask if Andy was there, so I figured his wife Brenna had answered the phone. It sounded like Andy wasn’t there, so I thought Cam was just talking to Brenna. He just made small talk, didn’t say anything about the accident. He talked for about 5 minutes then hung up and said “your sister Amy says hi”. He called Amy! Andy is the first person listed on Cam’s phone, but he’s second on mine, because Amy is first! I had no idea what Amy must of thought of that call. She and Cam get along fine, but it’s not like they call each other to chat. I called Amy a couple of days later to explain that she got the concussion call. She and I had a good laugh about it.

We finally made it to Wendover. There is a convenience store right off the exit. I figured the person working there could direct me to the emergency room. I told Cam to stay in the truck, I’d be right back. I ran into the store, there was an employee and 2 customers; one was an older lady like in her 70’s and the other a guy about my age. I asked the employee if there was an emergency room. The old lady asked me what happened, I told her my husband was in a motorcycle accident and I need to get him checked out. They asked if he was okay, I said yes, but he may have a couple of broken bones and probably a concussion. Just then, the door opens and in comes Cam. The old lady let out a little scream. You have to picture this. Cam is 6’2”, weighs 230 pounds, and keeps his head completely shaved bald. He was covered in dirt and still had dried blood all over his face. He seriously looked like Frankenstein’s monster. He was even walking like the monster. I assured everyone he was okay, and again asked where the emergency room is. I was told they don’t have one! They suggested we go to the fire station because there are paramedics there. That was good enough for me!

The fire station is right on the main road, we found it very easily. I pulled up, jumped out of the truck and ran to the door. It was locked. I knocked and knocked and looked in windows. There was not a soul there. I ran around to the back, no one. I was so disappointed I didn’t know what to do. I just wanted someone to help my husband! The sun was starting to go down. I went back to the truck and Cam and I discussed what to do next. He was clear headed by then, he was just in a lot of pain. We had 2 options. We go all the way to Salt Lake and get him to a hospital, or we go back to camp and leave in the morning. We were in Matt’s truck. We were all so sure there was an emergency room in Wendover, that we hadn’t even discussed the plan if there wasn’t. We couldn’t call them and let them know what was going on. I told Cam I could take him to Salt Lake, get him taken care of, take him home, and then drive back to the camp site. Even if it was 5am, I didn’t care. I let Cam make the call. He wanted to just go back to camp and leave in the morning.

It was dark by the time we made it back to camp. Jeff had made a nice fire and Missy was working on dinner. We told them what happened in Wendover. Cam sat by the fire for about an hour, ate some dinner and wanted to go to bed. There was no way he was going to be able to climb up into the bed we usually sleep in. Luckily the kitchen table area turns into a second bed, so I made that up for him. I asked him to try and stay awake as long as he can. I put in a Lord of the Rings movie for him, and watched about the first hour of it with him. He fell asleep about 10 minutes into the movie.

I went back to the fire where everyone else was. I wanted to make sure Mike, who was about 10 at the time was okay. He witnessed the whole thing. Cam’s always been a part of his life and I imagine it would be pretty traumatic to see something like that so young. He was doing okay. He was just really worried about his Uncle Cam. Jeff, Missy, Matt and I stayed up by the fire until about 1am talking. I checked on Cam about every 10 minutes. I finally went to lie down, but didn’t really sleep. I was just so worried and freaked out and every time Cam moved in his sleep he would wake up in pain. I probably got about an hour and a half of sleep in 20 minute intervals.

As soon as the slightest bit of daylight appeared, I got up and put my shoes on. Cam was awake too. I started up the truck and turned the heater on and helped Cam in. It was up to me to get the truck and camper ready to go. I got 3 of the jacks up with some struggle, but the 4th one would not budge. I tried and tried and it wouldn’t budge. Then suddenly this strength came to me that I’ve never felt before. I’ve heard that adrenaline can do some strange things like it gives people super human strength and they can lift cars off of people etc. That is exactly what happened to me. I got the jack up! Then I realized I hadn’t drained the water from our cooler. We have a huge cooler and it still had some ice, a lot of water and food, drinks etc. It usually takes 2 guys to lift it out of our camper. I didn’t have time to drain the water which would only lighten it by a few pounds anyway. Somehow I was able to just pick it up and slide it into the camper. I thought I was going to faint afterward. Jeff still wonders why I didn’t wake him up to help me, I didn’t even think about it that morning. I just wanted to go.

Cam and I hit the road. I actually felt really good knowing my husband was going to be at a hospital in a couple of hours. Cam was still in so much pain and the pain was starting to really wear on him. He was miserable. We couldn’t get to Salt Lake fast enough. We got near Wendover and I checked the gas. We had just over a half a tank. I told Cam we should stop for gas. He said we’d be fine. We’ve done the trip before on one tank. Besides, we got down there on less than half a tank, so we’ll be okay. About 45 minutes out of Wendover I happened to look at the gas gage and it was on less than a quarter of a tank! I couldn’t believe it! We were going to run out of gas! If you’ve done the drive, then you know how screwed we were. I wanted to kick myself for not going with my gut and filling up in Wendover.

Sure enough, we ran out of gas. The truck finally ran out right at the exit sign for The Delles. There is a Sinclair station there. I could see it! It was exactly a mile away. It really sucked that we ran out of gas, but it could have been worse. At least I could actually see a gas station! I told Cam I was going to walk to the station, get some gas and come back. He insisted on coming with me! I told him that was ridiculous! But he insisted. So we started walking. About a quarter mile into the walk a guy pulled over in a very small truck. He asked if we needed help. We asked if he could take us to that Sinclair so we could get some gas. So we squeezed into his little truck cab. For some reason, Cam didn’t want this guy to know he was so injured, so this guy had no idea Cam’s condition. We get to the Sinclair, I borrow a gas can from the store and fill it up. There is a frontage road that runs parallel with the freeway, and the guy said he’d just drive down that until we got to the truck. All we had to do was climb the lovely rusty barbed wire fence between the road and the freeway! He didn’t realize Cam was very injured, and for some, I can only guess not wanting to show any kind of weakness reason, Cam didn’t want him to know. Cam said that was a great idea. The guy did us a big favor and showed an act of kindness by picking us up anyway. So, he drove us down the frontage road and dropped us off where our truck was parked. I helped Cam over the fence the best I possibly could, but it almost killed him to climb over it. He hardly said a word the rest of the way home. The pain was just too much.

We had to stop at home before we went to the hospital. We had our dog, Tosh, with us and had to drop him off. I had to check my insurance papers and make sure we went to a hospital that even accepted our insurance. We were home long enough to drop off Tosh, check on the cats, check insurance information and get Cam out of his jeans and into a pair of shorts. We were there about 15 minutes. I didn’t bother changing I didn’t care what I looked like. (I’ll be sorry for that later I think) Luckily, a hospital just a couple of miles away accepted our insurance. We hopped in my truck, with no camper on it thank God, and went to the hospital.

I got us checked in and luckily there wasn’t much of a wait. We were given a hospital bed in the middle of the hallway, and a nurse took some scissors and cut off Cam’s hoodie and shirt he was wearing and put a hospital gown on him. Then another nurse gave him an IV with Morphine in it. The Morphine barely did a thing. After about an hour, a doctor finally checked on him. And what an ASS this doctor was. When he found out that Cam’s accident happened the day before, he treated us like we were some druggies that waited to come down or something before going to the hospital. He basically accused us of that. It was useless to try to explain why it had taken us so long to get him to a hospital. He didn’t want to hear any of it. I realize we looked like crap. I hadn’t showered in 3 days, we were both dirty, and well, we were people who had been camping for 3 days! But that is no excuse for treating us the way he did. He was angry that he couldn’t put stitches in the cut above Cam’s ear because too much time had passed. In his words, “If you would have gotten him here yesterday like you should have, I could have done stitches. Now all I can do is liquid stitches, and there will be a terrible scar!” (Well Dr. ASS, there is hardly a scar at all!) They discovered a little fluid in Cam’s lung and he was angry about that too. He told me Cam’s lung could have collapsed while we were waiting to get to the hospital. That kind of freaked me out. The doctor actually warmed up to me fairly quickly, and ended up being okay with me. But he treated Cam like some druggie and treated me with the “what are you doing with this type of guy” attitude. That really pissed me off. I can barely get Cam to take an Ibuprofen when he is in pain, and here this doctor is treating him like he is there for the Morphine.

We were at the hospital for about 3 ½ hours. Towards the end, the doctor was nicer to both of us. I think after he saw the x-rays and saw that Cam broke his collar bone, 4 ribs and compressed 3 vertebrae in his back, he realized Cam wasn’t faking anything. They had also taken some blood, which I’m sure they did a toxicology test on. And maybe he saw that results showed that there wasn’t any kind of drug in Cam’s system, legal or illegal. I would love to see the look of surprise and/or humility on the doctor’s face when he saw those results! He wrote a prescription for some Percocet, put a sling on Cam and sent us on our way.

They had cut off the shirts Cam was wearing, so I had to take him home wearing the hospital gown and his shorts. The hospital is on a pretty busy road and I was helping Cam to my truck. I started laughing at how funny we must look. I’m helping this big, bald guy in a hospital gown through the parking lot. It probably looked like I was trying to help some mental patient break out. We both started laughing. The Morphine had finally kicked in and Cam was feeling pretty good. The pharmacy was on the way home, so I dropped it off, took Cam home, then went back and picked up his prescription.

Cam took a shower while I was gone, and was still wearing just a towel when I got home. He didn’t know what to wear. Cam’s a construction worker, he wears t-shirts and long sleeved t-shirts. There was no way he was going to try to get one of those on. (Cam does own some other, nice things to wear for special occasions, but they are all over the head things like sweaters). I suddenly remembered that I had bought him an obnoxious Hawaiian shirt to wear to a golf tournament we had played in the year before. It was button up! I found it and he put it on.

While we were at the hospital I had asked the doctor what Cam should do about sitting and sleep. He couldn’t sit for very long and he couldn’t lie down for very long. The doctor recommended a Lazy-Boy. Well, we didn’t have one of those! I remembered Jeff and Missy had one in their basement that they weren’t using. I called Missy; they were home from the camping trip and were going to come to our house anyway to check on Cam. I asked if we could borrow their Lazy-Boy, of course we could! So they brought that over and we set it up in the living room. As soon as Cam got in the chair, he fell asleep. What a relief! It had been about 36 hours since his accident, and he was finally able to sleep. He looked so cute too. I had purposely bought him a really obnoxious Hawaiian shirt it had pineapples and Ukulele’s on it. Jeff, Missy and I couldn’t help but giggle. I was really so happy my husband was alive, I couldn't stop smiling.

I was worried about the fluid in the lung, so I took Cam to a doctor a couple days later for a follow up. He checked Cam out, and everything was fine. I had brought the Percocet prescription with us, and the doctor couldn’t believe that the hospital doctor had prescribed such a low dosage! Cam was complaining that the pills weren’t doing much. I know nothing about prescription drugs, so I didn’t realize it was a low dosage. He said considering the injuries Cam had, he should have been prescribed 3 times the strength. (Thanks Dr. ASS!) He wrote a new prescription and that worked much better. Cam’s sister’s came to visit the day after we got home and brought a bunch of their dad’s button up shirts for Cam to wear. I took the week off work, (thank you FMLA.) And Cam actually went back to work the next Monday. He couldn’t do much, but he went.

Cam finished the second prescription of pain killers and hasn’t had any since. For a long time certain things still hurt him like sneezing and tying his shoes. But for the most part, he is as good as ever! The funniest thing is a few weeks ago he slipped and fell on some ice at work and he heard a loud crunch! He says he got up and he felt better than he has since the accident! Seems like that fall popped some things in place that should have been popped in place a long time ago!

Sorry if this was the longest most boring blog ever, but I had to do it.