[–] Prepackaged 0 points 5 points 5 points (+5|-0) ago
Every time I find myself behind a driver from New Jersey.
[–] Flaaffy 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
I was given a root canal, and it turns out it was a really shitty job. Within a week, I had an abcessed tooth and was taken to the ER to have it popped and drained.
It also turns out, that the drainage job wasn't done properly, and this anaerobic bacteria decided to start migrating up my nasal cavities.
I thought this brown spot on my face was a bruise, but within the next few days, this 'bruise' continued to migrate up my face until it was just above my nose, but below my eyes.
While talking to my Anatomy instructor, he said, "Oh, that's no bruise. That's a bacterial infection under your skin."
I pointed to it and asked him if it could possibly go to my brain, and he responded, "I sure hope not!"
After class, we had our lab downstairs. It involved tons of dissected sheep hearts on the tables because we were learning to identify the inside parts of the heart. None of that really bothered me, but my whole face turned pale, I began to sweat profusely, and I became so weak I couldn't walk.
Luckily, I had many friends in that class who walked me out to the front of the college and had me get into my boyfriends car (he was in my lab, too). I was driven to the ER.
Once in Triage, I explained to the nurses that I had an anaerobic bacterial infection traveling up my nasal cavities, and if it reaches my eyes and goes into my brain, it will kill me instantly.
It was a busy day in the ER, and they had no rooms available, but they stuck me in a room with a chair and immediately hooked me up to an IV with their strongest antibiotics until a room became available.
The pain was so intense that I was cringing and sweating in pain. I thought I was going to die, and I was readily accepting and awaiting my death.
Then, they got me into a room in the children's hospital (better than nothing!) And they got me placed into a room, and proceeded to give me IV after IV of antibiotics for three days straight. Finally, the 'bruise' was fading, and I was feeling back to normal.
Then, I had all my college books out and proceeded to study immensely for my lab practical I missed. I had tons of nurses and great resources for studying since I was in a hospital too.
I also rejected any kind of pain killer that would make me unable to focus so I could remain coherent and study. A lot of the lead nurses came in and shared their stories in college with me. I would frequently ask the nurses about their schooling experiences too. (I'm in college to become a nurse)
[–] pmme_your_smallboobs 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Carbon monoxide poisoning, christmas eve 2007. My cat literally saved my life. Ever since she has had a life of pure luxury, Even by cat standards. This includes annual checkups with the vet, Even if theres no visible signs if any problems.
[–] Samyaza 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
On mobile so sorry for the format. I got 3 stories. The first one is one my parents tell me. When I was 2 I would try to eat random thing. Well I decided to eat change, for what reason I don't know, but a couple of quarters turned sideways and blocked my air passage. My mom found me unresponsive and started to give me CPR as my dad called the ambulance. I regained consciousness in the ambulance. No idea if I stopped breathing or not. Second time was because of a good allergy I randomly developed. I had been a sickly child allergic the practically everything. But after years of allergy shots I was able to be a normal kid. Well one day me and my family were out eating at a seafood restaurant. I ordered my favorite food which was shellfish, shrimp to be exact. Turns out I randomly developed a shrimp and my throat closed up rather quickly. I passed out a woke up in the hospital. Apparently I stopped breathing for a little bit. Last story. I was in the back of a friends car cruising around at night down some back country roads. We had been getting high and decided it would be nice. Well a deer ran in front of the car. My friend swerved to miss it and as he did so his axle broke. We ended up rolling a good distance a d down a hill into a field. We were beaten and bruised but could still walk around. We looked at where we landed and if we had gone a for more we would have landed on some thick metal posts. Fun times.
[–] Fairle 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Wow, I have a lot of these. Haha. I guess I tell the scariest one.
I don't remember my exact age, but I was small. Probably around 8 or 9. My family used to be big into tubing and we went to a river where a wall had been built with a small opening on the side that tubers could ride down like a small water ride. It spat you out pretty roughly onto the other side (which was pretty deep, maybe 10 feet or so). Nothing about it was particularly dangerous...unless your were tiny and got caught underneath the undertow (that's probably not the correct term, the current coming from the opening was extremely strong and went all the way to the other side of the river).
I had never tubed alone before, always in someone's lap, so I begged my mother to allow me to go by myself. I was given a tube that in hindsight had been to big and too thin to really hold me in, so right as I hit the bottom of the slide I flipped and was pushed to the bottom of the river. I remember hitting my head on rocks and blacking out. When I came to, the undertow had me pinned down and I felt like I was doing somersaults. I tried swimming but that only made me lose my bearing of what was up or down and I kept crashing into rocks on to bottom of the river. I remember my only thoughts being "I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die" like a page of script on a screen. I relaxed and eventually could tell I was floating up. I bumped my head against something soft, then a hand grabbed the back of my suit and hoisted me up. I had come up underneath some random guy and I could hear my mother on the other side screaming and screaming. The guy held onto me until a cousin who had dove in swam up to us, grabbed me and took me to shore.
It must have not phased me all that much since I never tubed in anyone's lap again after that.
[–] Reow [S] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
I tried swimming but that only made me lose my bearing of what was up or down and I kept crashing into rocks on to bottom of the river.
This was one of the things I really remember / relate to, from when I almost drowned in the ocean after being caught in a rip. As I was swimming back to shore, I had waves crash on me and push me under, and I felt like I was in one of those front-load washing machines (being somersaulted repeatedly). When it first happened, I tried to swim to the surface and found I was swimming to the seabed instead. After that when it happened again, I just held my breath, relaxed, and went with it. That also sucked somewhat, because there was an undercurrent and I got dragged out more. I was eventually lucky enough to get a series of clean breaks and learn when to exert effort and when not to.
[–] cstrawfield 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago (edited ago)
Found myself riding shotgun in a speeding '76 Lincoln Continental during a high-speed chase through downtown Wilmington, NC, giant green hood pitching and yawing through the night like the bow of a sea-tossed ship. Out the back I watched a second cop car move in behind the one behind us. Then another. Then another. Within minutes there was a train of them, blue and red-flashing kite tail in whipping wind.
We were done for, clearly, but some kind of ancient mid-brain structure short-circuits rational decision-making. You're an antelope escaping lions. And we were all probably undiagnosed oppositional defiant disorder cases. Jailbird Chuck, in the backseat with his girlfriend, hollered, "Go, TJ! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!"
Breathing burnt oil, tires, brakes as we peeled onto sideroads and slid around corners, hopped curbs, bounced hard over a concrete island -- ludicrous attempts to shake off tails of this tremendous car with trampoline suspension -- it handled like a swimming pool on wheels.
We didn't know the town, and TJ made a bad turn -- wrong way up a one-way two-lane. That was it for me -- it had to end before we killed someone. I hollered, "TJ, stop! Pull over! Pull over!" TJ was a brilliant guy, but a lost soul like the rest of us. Unlike us, though, he was fearless, and no doubt he would've driven that giant car right on into whatever fiery end. But for some reason he'd listen to me. He braked hard and managed to heave the old Lincoln over into a closed service station. A screaming cop car slid in behind us. Then another, another, another, forming a semi-circle to hem us in against the station's brick facade. Then out came the cops, screaming profanities, beaming lights, training pistols on us. This was the early 90's, and Wilmington at the time had become a significant drug-trafficking hub -- no doubt the police took us for part of that scene.
Two cops came forward, two-handing pistols at me and TJ from the left and right rear of the car. Instructions were screamed:
STARBOARD COP: PUT YOUR HANDS OUT THE WINDOW WHERE I CAN SEE 'EM!
PORTSIDE COP: DRIVER, TURN OFF YOUR VEHICLE!
(TJ reaches in for the ignition)
SC: (Hysterically) GET YOUR HANDS OUT WHERE I CAN SEE 'EM!
(TJ puts hand back out the window)
PC: DRIVER! I SAID TURN OFF YOUR VEHICLE!
(TJ reaches in again)
SC: (More hysterically -- really screaming) I SAID GET YOUR HANDS OUT WHERE I CAN SEE 'EM!
PC: DRIVER, TURN OFF YOUR CAR!
I looked back at a constellation of gun-barrels training on us, angry, adrenaline-addled, cop fingers curled tensely over triggers. One wrong move and every gun would've unloaded on us. A miracle we hadn't been shot yet. I told TJ to keep his hands out the window and started talking at the guns and lights.
Smash cut to TJ being chained face-down on the concrete floor of the police locker room, an ankle and a wrist manacled to facing banks of lockers. He'd spend the rest of that night like that. In the mandatory pre-processing interview, he'd taken care to answer all the questions wrong.
INTERVIEWER: Do you plan on harming yourself in our jail tonight?
TJ: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Do you plan on harming anyone else?
TJ: Yes.
Etc.
If you ever get taken downtown (and I hope you never do), don't answer that way.
TL;DR: Chased by cops, pinned down by furious pistol-wielding pursuers who may've been baiting us into behavior warranting deadly force. Should've been killed. Got lucky.
[–] cstrawfield 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Why thanks! Those were some crazy times -- some of the memories make for pretty good stories. I'm going to keep an eye out for opportunities to post another story or two.
[–] cstrawfield ago
Just the one night in jail. The driver got in some pretty serious trouble, but thanks to a good lawyer he managed to avoid doing time.
[–] piratse 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago (edited ago)
I was about 17 and got a major infection. I didn't know it at the time, obviously. I was at my best friends house in the summer (Texas) just chilling and playing video game but I was extremely cold. I thought his mom had the A/C on full blast. So I throw a blanket on and I'm SHAKING. I felt like I was in the snow with just shorts on. I suddenly got tired and laid in his bed while shivering my ass off and sweating. It was about 20 minutes and I decided I was getting worse (it happened so fast), I decided to drive to the local clinic. We lived in a town with about 2k people and we had a clinic and a small hospital. Two of my friends parents were the doctors for these places so I went to the clinic looking for Dr. Q. I went to the receptionist, still sweating and fucking freezing like I was sitting in an ice bath. I asked for a water fountain and went for a drink. I remember leaning over to drink then BAM I black out. The next thing I remember I was in an ambulance heading to the hospital. When I got there they put me in a little waiting room (with one of those tables with the shitty butcher paper on it) and I blacked out THREE more times. Again this was a small hospital with ONE doctor on duty, so I don't blame them, they had a lot going on. The BEST part IMO is this. I kept passing out on this table and waking up confused and sweating. The second time I wake up and I hear this sweet little black lady in the room next to me (they were curtain "rooms" not walled off) literally say "ohhhh I think I shit myself." I was very weak at this point and I let out a "HA" and passed out one more time. I woke up with my friends dad in my face and I was sitting in a wheel chair. They took me to get some xrays and run test. I could barely feel my legs at this point, they didn't feel numb it just felt like they weren't there. They helped me stand for an xray and I vomited stomach acid all over the floor. I was in the hospital for a few weeks trying to recover. I couldn't use my legs for about 2 weeks, I had to be showered by my other friends mom (she was a nurse). And no, it wasn't sexy because I was fucking miserable. I had to piss and shit laying in bed, and it burned like 1000 knives that were on fire, crafted by Satan himself, when I urinated. It was so bad I almost passed out from the pain. I would try to avoid pissing as much as possible. I made a full recovery, but holy shit it was scary. This is an "I almost died" story because the infection was so bad if I had not gone to the Hospital that day I likely would have died (according to my doctor).