Us

Hi, my name is Randy. I am 33 . I live life about the same as most 33 year olds, but 13 years ago my life made a big turn. The vehicle I was in was hit by a drunk driver. April 13, 1995 is a day I will never forget. In case you are wondering, it was not a Friday. Four of my friends and I were going home. We were in Austin and it was about 11 P.M. We were in a BMW on Ben White Blvd. We were turning left onto Montopolis. When the green arrow came on, David, the driver of the car, proceeded to turn left. All of a sudden, a full size Chevy truck came into view. The last thing I shouted was DAV... They had to pry the car open with the jaws of life to get me out. If you would have seen the pictures, you would think it is a miracle that I am here today. After they got me out, I was rushed to Brackenridge Hospital. The next thing I remembered was waking up from a coma. I was knocked out for two months, and I could not walk. So I spent the next five to six months in the hospital. The coma was weird. I felt like I was having the same nightmare every single night, and I could not wake up. The next wave I went through was a bunch of rehabs. The first one was called the Quest and Bridges Day Program. This program lasted about seven hours a day. Then at night, I would go home. This program was enjoyable, as far as rehabs go. The part that I liked the best was called H.I.P.P.O. therapy. In this therapy you ride a horse and when the horse walks, your muscles move the same as if you were walking. The next rehab was Tangram in San Marcos. This was a residential rehab. I lived here for about six to seven months. I hated it. It was like prison. I had to go to bed at 10 and I had to get up at 8. I even had to work for them. One good thing was I made myself start walking there. I was convinced I would break out one night, but I never did. The next rehab was Warm Springs Rehabilitation Hospital. This was July 4, 1997, to be exact. This is where I became a cyborg (part man part computer). I had a small computer surgically implanted in my body.If you are wondering what this computer looks like, it resembles a metal hockey puck. It has a catheter that runs to my back and drips a muscle relaxer onto my spine. I was taking the medication by mouth, but I only got 3% to my brain. Now with the computer, I get 100% of the medication to my brain. If everything continues to work well, I should be able to do things as well as anyone else. My injury caused me to have severe spasticity in my right side. Spasticity causes the muscles to flex up and be tight. The muscle relaxer causes them to be free and lets me do a lot of stuff. Baclofen is the name of that muscle relaxer. The wreck caused me to have what is called a closed head injury. What that means is my head was whacked but not cracked. My brains were not exposed. A closed head injury is one in which the brain does not send the messages to the muscles. So that's the lo-down. I hope I havent bored ya to death LOL I told ya it was a long story.

Our Two Little Cuties

     I guess the moral of my story is, keep a positive attitude. I do and its got me this far. Even though I walk slow and with a cane (I GET ASKED THIS A LOT, YES I DO WALK), things could be a LOT worse, Try to make the best of everyday. Please feel free to e-mail me at wakeupalice@att.net.

On March 16th 2002 my life made a big change. I got married to a beautiful dark redhead named Stephenie, and it has been great. After being told by Dr.'s that we may never be able to have children we were thrilled to learn that after a little over a year of trying our lives were blessed in 2004 with the arrival of our first child, Ashton. We were again blessed when in 2007 our daughter Amelya arrived. Our family is now complete and we could not be more happy!

Before my accident I worked as a mechanic and framed houses, but since I am not able to. I have many other skills, but I CAN NOT get hired due to the fact that I am handicapped and people see me as "high risk".  My wife works full time and I am now a stay-at-home Dad. While rewarding it does not pay the bills, and at times I feel as though I am not contributing as much as I would like to, so we are hoping that we will be able to use this avenue as a way to supplement some missing income.