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What flirts with death have you had |
dangergirl299
Grand Member (first year) 
Joined: Feb 18, 2003
Posts: 893
From: Bay Area
|  Posted: 2004-10-01 1:54 pm Permalink
Quote:
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On 2004-10-01 13:18, Gigantalope wrote:
Dangergirl, I thought you would have a story or two.
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Yes, I've been "learning things the hard way" since 1972!
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8FT Tiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 30, 2003
Posts: 1172
From: Kansas City, MO
| Posted: 2004-10-01 7:04 pm Permalink
At the age of almost one year old I was playing on the floor at my parents home when I found a very thin 2" long shard of glass from a beer bottle that had been broken earlier in the day. They thought they had swept it all up but missed a piece. You know what happened next don't you? Yep, I swallowed it. It slit the inside of my throat and went all the way to my stomach. I vomitted blood like crazy. My mother finally reached the Dr. on the phone and he told her to pack me full of Wheaties cereal to wrap around the glass and prevent further damage.
I eventually passed the thing into a diaper.
My Mother still has the glass in a compartment of her jewelry box. Gives me the creeps just to see it!
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Tiki_Bong
Deleted
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 0 | Posted: 2004-10-01 10:28 pm Permalink
In my 20's, I shot cocaine while peaking on LSD. I vaguely remember stacking all my cheap-ass furniture against the front door of my cheese-bag apartment because I thought the cops were gonna bust in at any moment (they didn't - until 2 weeks later).
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calneva
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Aug 10, 2004
Posts: 18
From: sf
| Posted: 2004-10-01 11:15 pm Permalink
In the 2 years that I've lived in CA I've almost killed myself twice. You know those idjits who think they can take a short cut to Fort Funston beach by climbing down the cliffs? Yeah, that's me. I slid probably 50 feet straight down until I dug my heels in and grabbed onto some vines. It took me a half an hour to get the remaining distance down. Luckily I was just scraped up, bruised and embarrassed. The month after that I got sucked out by the riptide in Pacifica and almost drowned. A surfer had to drag me back in. If my wife ever finds out about these things, she'll never let me out of the house.
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docwoods
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Feb 29, 2004
Posts: 595
From: outside the windy city
| Posted: 2004-10-02 12:06 pm Permalink
Let's hear it for the power of Tiki protection!
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Raffertiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Oct 31, 2003
Posts: 1527
From: L.I.
| Posted: 2004-10-02 12:40 pm Permalink
A bunch of years ago I was training for another marathon with a 20 mile run. After 19 miles I felt my bloodsugar level start to drop. (I'm diabetic). There were no stores on the way to get sugar, and I was out of Gatorade. My parents house was closer than my apartment, so I headed there. One half mile later, my brain was getting fuzzy, and my muscles were getting rubbery and spastic. I could'nt walk a straight line. I remember a nice citizen with 2 kids in his car drive past and call my an F-ing drunk. It was 11am on a Sunday morning. (Thanks for nothing, genius.) I barely made it to my parents house and proceeded to glom down a full bag of jelly beans, and a liter of soda. Feeling somewhat better, I walked home. When I checked my blood/sugar level (after the jellybeans and soda) it measured 40. Since normal levels are between 90 & 120 I figure mine must have been in the teens. After that I took to wearing a fanny pack stuffed with Power Bars.
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TikiGardener
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 24, 2002
Posts: 1359
From: 1st website dedicated to Tiki Gardens
| Posted: 2004-10-02 1:31 pm Permalink
When I was 17, I got a horrible pain in my chest. I told my parents, and they told me it was just "stress". So I wandered around in excrutiating pain for three or four days. I actually got used to it, and figured out how to move in a way that didn't cause me pain. The I noticed that when I opened my mouth to brush my teeh, I could hear a squishing sound that went in the same rhythm as my heartbeat.
After some convincing that I didn't think it was stress, my parents told me to walk to the doctors office. Which was a mile and a half away. After getting there, and having all the tests come up negative for heart attack. The doctor asked me to walk to the hospital. which was on the other side of the island ( another mile or so ). I told him their was no way I could do that. So a patient offered me a ride. He was a stogey smoking ex marine.
So a dose of lethal second hand smoke later, I get taken to various xray rooms etc.
One half an hour later a nurse tells me that my doctor would like to talk to me. He says;"I'd like you to go to the emergency room". "Oh Really!?!" was my reply.
Turns out I had a collapsed lung.
But thats not the death thingy. After the chest tube insertion, they sent me up to my room. But not before giving me some morphine. About 20 minutes later I just turned to my mother ( who was just about to leave ) and very calmly said "Get Help".
I then went into severe shock. Seems I'm allergic to morphine. I can say it is truly weird feeling when you feel all your muscles go slack, and you can feel your bones sink into the hosptial bed because they've lost all support.
The last thing I remember was the voice of the nurse reading BP values and her voice getting more and more strained.
Then I flatlined ( so they tell me ).
Then I just remember seeing everyone in the room looking amazed, and in diferent places than they were before eveything went black.
Then there was the time I was opening a shop during a nor'easter in NYC. As I walked up, I felt something brush my back, and then heard an amazingly loud bang. I turned around and saw that I had missed getting my skull crushed by a clay 3 foot flower box that had fallen from the fifth story of the building the shop was in. Not even a scratch. I don't no why, but I just looked at it for a second, and then went back to opening the shop.
Several tree branches have tried the same thing. all just grazing me, and not leaving a mark.
And at least a half dozen times have I had other drivers test my driving skill, by pulling various things that the people in the car with me have thought were going to kill us.
Some friends think that death is a really poor shot in my case. Some day he'll get it right...
TG
[ This Message was edited by: tikigardener on 2004-10-02 13:34 ]
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Tiki-bot
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 24, 2002
Posts: 1345 | Posted: 2004-10-03 12:48 pm Permalink
I got heatstroke at Burning Man in 2001. I'd heard about heatstroke and how dangerous it was, but never really gave it much thought. After a typical alcohol fueled night of partying (which was my enebriant of choice - many preferred other substances so as to avoid dehydration) I went to my tent to sleep. I awoke about 3 hours later and walked to the nearest bank of porta-potties. At first I thought I was just groggy from no sleep, but it soon became apparent I was having some serious trouble. I became extremely confused on the way back to my tent. I waved down a passing Nevada state official in a golf cart and when I tried to speak, I couldn't form any words. I just blubbered out some sounds. The uniformed officers ignored me and drove away, apparently thinking me some drug-tripping loon. I was not on any drugs, so I had no confort that this would eventually "wear-off". A serious panic hit me and my motor skills were fading as I began stumbling down the street. I could literally feel parts of my brain shutting down, and even more panic set in. My brain felt hyper-compartmentalized: I could feel a thought in one corner, but couldn't get it to the other part where words were formed. It was a very out-of-body experience, like I was watching it happen to someone else. I honestly thought, "So this is what dying feels like".
I stumbled into the Ranger camp next to ours where they knew me, and they immdiately called for a vehicle and took me to the medical tent. I ended up getting 4 liters of saline over the next couple hours, which revived me pretty well. I was still terrified I was dying and tears ran uncontrollably from my eyes the whole time. I was so freaked out afterwards I packed my stuff and went home that night.
Went back the next year, no problems and had a great time.
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SES
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Sep 14, 2003
Posts: 992 | Posted: 2004-10-03 1:26 pm Permalink
Death flirts with me so often I have just learned to ignore his advances.
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sungod
Grand Member (7 years) 
Joined: Feb 07, 2003
Posts: 219
From: Tampa Bay/New Port Richey
| Posted: 2004-10-04 4:24 pm Permalink
I drive in Florida traffic all day. Does that count?
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badmojo
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 23, 2003
Posts: 666 | Posted: 2004-10-05 1:26 pm Permalink
Does it count if it was self inflicted?
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cynfulcynner
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 24, 2002
Posts: 1800
From: Ocean Beach, San Francisco
| Posted: 2004-10-05 2:08 pm Permalink
I broke my leg a few years ago, which would have been a brush with death in the days before antibiotics (it was a compound fracture).
I was in the hospital for a few days after the surgery to put my leg back together. They gave me large quantities of IV fluids, so I had to pee s lot. The physical therapists hadn't shown me how to get around on crutches yet. I HAD TO USE A BEDPAN IN FRONT OF A MALE NURSE!!
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docwoods
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Feb 29, 2004
Posts: 595
From: outside the windy city
| Posted: 2004-10-05 2:39 pm Permalink
Cynfulcynner,was he cute? It's always worse when they're cute.
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cynfulcynner
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 24, 2002
Posts: 1800
From: Ocean Beach, San Francisco
| Posted: 2004-10-05 3:00 pm Permalink
Quote:
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On 2004-10-05 14:39, docwoods wrote:
Cynfulcynner,was he cute? It's always worse when they're cute.
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He was! aaaaaaaagggghhhh!!
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Tikiwahine
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 09, 2003
Posts: 3288
From: Ontario, Canada
| Posted: 2004-10-05 3:53 pm Permalink
At age 10 I was hit by a car while walking my bike through a cross walk, which had a crossing guard and a yellow flashing light. The guy passed someone on the right...I flew 40' through the air, knocked unconcious. He put me in his car and drove me to the hospital, then took off. Not a smart thing to do. After cat scans, stitches on my head, and about 30 stitches on both my legs, all was ok. Was about 1/4 inch from loosing the use of a leg at the knee.
I'm still not too fond of cars, and always look both ways, twice, before crossing the street. I'm not sure if this was a brush with death or not, but it sure scared the crap out of me at the time.
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