Alembic Guitars Club
Connecting => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: BeenDown139 on May 06, 2024, 12:53:29 PM
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So here’s a tale of woe for y’all:
In mid-december we had a wicked snow/ice storm here in the mile-high. I was out walking the dog and slid on some mirror-finish ice and wound up hitting the back of my head on the sidewalk. I definitely got my bell rung and had to put myself on concussion protocol. I slowly recovered, or so I thought. About a month ago I noticed my left leg wouldn’t synch with my right and so I started falling. A lot. Left shoulder wouldn’t let me move up and down the bass neck. Left fingers had no feeling, starting to lose communication with them. Couldn’t remember anything. All this culminated with a fall in the back yard last Wednesday night. Naked and wet, couldn’t get up, took me 2 hours to get back inside. I was frantic, calling for help, raising cain. Finally got back inside to the kitchen chair and fell again, this time landing on my watch and then my head. The watch called 911 and so I’ve been in the neuro ICU until yesterday. They had to put a drain in my skull and pulled out almost half a liter of blood that had been accumulating since the original fall. My brain was pushed up against the left side of my skull. Turns out I was almost dead when I hit the ground last time.
Got discharged from the hospital yesterday and now I’m back. Just worked out with the mighty MK and I’m almost my old self again. My fingertips have to harden up again but I’m in full control. Walking with a cane. Feeling my mental acuity return. Pretty sure I’m lucky to be alive and not confined to a bed or worse. I can live without this crap. It’s what happens when you’re 68 and living alone.
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Your work-out with the MK sounds like just what the doctor ordered. Hope you feel better soon!
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Scary man... and that's what I live with knowing is my own future, every. single. day. Glad ya' didn't mess up yer squash beyond repair. Welcome back.
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Glad to hear you're on the mend. That is seriously scary.
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Glad to hear you're getting better. The older I get, the more close calls get my attention. I rolled my SUV during a blizzard in Northern California on 2/29/24, five weeks prior to my 69th birthday. I luckily walked away with but a few cuts on my hand. Very sobering experience!
Bill, tgo
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So here’s a tale of woe for y’all:
In mid-december we had a wicked snow/ice storm here in the mile-high. I was out walking the dog and slid on some mirror-finish ice and wound up hitting the back of my head on the sidewalk. I definitely got my bell rung and had to put myself on concussion protocol. I slowly recovered, or so I thought. About a month ago I noticed my left leg wouldn’t synch with my right and so I started falling. A lot. Left shoulder wouldn’t let me move up and down the bass neck. Left fingers had no feeling, starting to lose communication with them. Couldn’t remember anything. All this culminated with a fall in the back yard last Wednesday night. Naked and wet, couldn’t get up, took me 2 hours to get back inside. I was frantic, calling for help, raising cain. Finally got back inside to the kitchen chair and fell again, this time landing on my watch and then my head. The watch called 911 and so I’ve been in the neuro ICU until yesterday. They had to put a drain in my skull and pulled out almost half a liter of blood that had been accumulating since the original fall. My brain was pushed up against the left side of my skull. Turns out I was almost dead when I hit the ground last time.
Got discharged from the hospital yesterday and now I’m back. Just worked out with the mighty MK and I’m almost my old self again. My fingertips have to harden up again but I’m in full control. Walking with a cane. Feeling my mental acuity return. Pretty sure I’m lucky to be alive and not confined to a bed or worse. I can live without this crap. It’s what happens when you’re 68 and living alone.
Let's pause a second to reflect on the fact that your watch literally saved your life! Congrats on your recovery.
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Glad to hear you’re getting back to some semblance of normalcy. Just take it slow and as g dude said thank your watch.
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Sounds frightening, glad to hear you are alright. Great to hear you are back playing your bass but remember, slow and steady wins the race.
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Just take it slow and as g dude said thank your watch.
well it took 4 falls for it to trigger finally. i was wondering if it was glitchy just like every other operational aspect of that watch/phone pair. maybe i didn't hit it hard enuff untill the last time. so as much as i don't like having g00gl3 run every aspect of my (online) life, i have to (begrudgingly) give them kudos for this one. there's no doubt it saved my life.
pretty sure my whole body was shutting down as the pressure built in my skull. i had a whole host of problems that were getting worse and worse. even my handwriting shows a marked change before vs. after. it's actually legible now.
just worked my recital set (love - forevever changes) out on the A-bass. that bass was giving me the most problems because it's my only 4-string electric, the neck is so skinny and light it takes real finess to get my intonation and vibrato right and it puts a lot of stress on my left arm. plus it's stereo which seems to magnify any clam way beyond proportion. it wasn't a great recital because i'm still kinda rusty but i didn't walk away feeling like i was on a downward spiral.
this is where i was afraid i was going to shuffle off of this mortal coil. i got a picture of me with a bloody tube coming outta the top of my head but it's pretty graphic so we'll save that for another time. gotta tell ya, an ICU is a pretty depressing place, a lotta people leave there in a box. i was there 5 days and walked out on my own. i got off pretty light. also kudos to the medical staff at UCHealth in aurora. kinda restored my faith in this younger generation.
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Glad you're on the rebound - and glad it was just a tube. When my youngest got his silly self on the wrong end of a bicycle/SUV collision in college, they ended up taking the side of his skull off to relieve the pressure.
Peter
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my watch is mechanical so it won't dial 911, and somehow I doubt my cat would either, so you're lucky...
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So glad to hear you got the care you needed.
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Sounds terrible, glad you are safe and wish for you a speedy recovery!
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Scary indeed. Good to see you back hear, better to hear you are playing your bass(es).
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Ooh, wow, I'm glad you came out of it on the right side! Not your time yet. :)
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My cat would gladly make a meal of me if it happened here. Good you are OK.
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Welcome back!
Sometimes life decides to shake up our calendars and to-do lists; perhaps just to get our attention.
Glad to hear you're making good progress with your recovery.
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thanks for all your support.
i'm just now realizing how screwed up my mental process was getting. i'm finding stuff that i had squrrreled away in odd corners of the house that i have no recollection of doing. my body is a mass of cuts, contusions and bruises from all the falls i took, most of which i can't remember doing. i look like i was in a street fight and took the worst of it. my garage was in total disarray, sure glad i don't drive much, who knows what or who i could've run over and not been aware of. i was thinking that it was starting to pull to the left, but it was me pulling to the left.
my gait and posture were totally off. good thing i've got a trustee overseeing my money and all my bills are on autopay. pretty sure this was driving my massive dope consumption. been off it for a week now (*gasp*), maybe i'll ease back in after i feel more confident in my recovery. but the good news is i'm outta the fog mentally and my body's starting to act like my mind is in control again. i've got some personal relationships to repair because i know i was becoming an angry irratable jerk. to everybody.
i've been in plenty of fights, trained in martial arts since my 30's, been hit in the head a few times. i've read stories about football players, boxers, etc slowly going mad after a lifetime of taking shots to the head. i'm here to tell ya it ain't no joke.
so have fun, freak out and don't bump yer noggin is the takeaway from this adventure.
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a coupla footnotes to this misadventure:
while i was unwell, i gradually lost control of my left hand rendering me unable to play bass. i've been rehabbing in the woodshed since i left the hospital, i still have a little residual numbness in my left pinky and my fingertips haven't completely hardened up yet.
so here's a fragment of a song that i did with my new recording setup using the A-Bass. this song attracted my attention because of the way the bass part is crafted. can't tell if the backing track is actual musicians or all sequenced. i tried learning it when i was unwell but i was unable. that should've been a huge red flag. So here we are, A-bass in stereo mode, mostly in the left channel, mic pointed between the amps, a year-old set of TI flats on it.
1st take, played with fearless abandon. i still can't feel where i am on the neck reliably. i hesitated about posting a fragment but imho you can definitely overdo it with the production, autotune and and studio processing and they sure did it (again, imho) on this song so i gave up at the confounded bridge.
i really like how this bass records and sits in the mix. i'll bet it'd be killer live at high volume :-o
just restrung the SII, maybe i'll get a keeper for a last word on this.
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There’s a valuable message in the lyrics, your words and that video.
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There’s a valuable message in the lyrics, your words and that video.
thanks. i never know when i'm gonna hear something on the radio that flips my switch, bass-wise.
been a little slow around here, must be the summer doldrums, so i figured i'd post up.
i've been rehabbing my hands since my accident, i've pretty much got control of my left shoulder again and i can feel where i'm at on the neck a little better. left pinky feels like it's part of my body again.
so i'm think of putting myself out in the mix again. been working on some new and different music (for me) to gain some confidence in my chops again. part of my rehab process. so i got baked to the gills the other day and took the pretty bass out for a ride thru the new set. got a coupla keepers out of it.
first up is a new song by my favorite british folky richard thompson. this one goes by pretty quick, got the shortest instrumental i've ever played. for those of you into this sort of thing, this is my MKDeluxe freshly strung with new rotosound rounds, bi-amped, miked between the speakers. this bass freaking roars when i bear down on it. i'm mostly in the left channel.
here's another one i heard on the radio and decided i had to have it. i realized after listening to my performance i kinda channeled the ox a little on this one.
got a couple i did with the SII on my channel that i haven't posted here. apparently someone watches my offerings because they're getting views. when i get one i like a little better i'll put it up here, maybe.
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Cool playing, and that bass sounds great! I can hear some Ox in there.