Corcoran Brothers

So I got surgery today to repair my hand for problems resulting from my fender bender, which limited the flexibility in my hand. My flexion was okay, but not great.

Long story short, if I made a fist, then I couldn’t lower my hand below parallel to my forearm.

It wasn’t even that noticeable in daily use, except when I tried to pick up something huge and couldn’t quite use my hand the way it was intended to be used. Also, there’s that whole ‘firing a pistol’ thing. You know the deal. My extension was pretty good, but the active extension on my two middle fingers (when I tried to move the fingers without touching them) made it look like I was always doing the Beavis and Butthead “Rock On!” thing (sorry about the shadow).

Passively (pushing on the fingers with my other hand) extended them all the way. Also, my shaka was mad weak, so there was a lot of room for improvement there.
So I checked in to Tripler AMC today, changed into one of those ass-exposing hospital smocks, waited a while reading a book, then got called in. They put me on a gurney and started prepping me. The poor E5 who had to give me my IV (since I was going under general) apparently didn’t have much practice, so it took him a bunch of stabs to get it right. It’s all good. Better for him to improve his skill at home station on a relatively healthy person so he can do it right downrange on someone in a bad way on the battlefield.

The anesthesiologist came in, told me who would give me ‘a tiny dose’ of whatever it was they were giving me to ‘make [me] feel funky’ and ‘a little drowsy’. That was it for me, son. I was knocked out on the roll into the OR.

I woke up about 3 hours later and was only groggy for 10 minutes or so, during which time I watched Seinfeld on a little TV on a crane that was attached to my bed. I remember none of it. I don’t know what it is with me and Seinfeld. When Courtney brought me back from Germany, we watched a Seinfeld marathon while we were at Travis, and I have no recollection of it. I remembered watching Seinfeld, but immediately after each episode, I had no idea which episodes they were. Sorry, Jerry.

My girl Jo-Jo (hetero-lifemate D-Nice’s wife) picked me up and drove me home. I have been completely lucid since the end of the Seinfeld episode and (don’t tell anyone) drove myself to KFC at 6:00PM to break my fast.

So what did they do and what are the results? Well, first they sliced along the existing scar and separated the skin from the tendon, which was limiting the amount of travel the tendon could make (adhesion). Next, they cleared out a lot of scar tissue, which was sorta channeling the tendon left and right; again, making it difficult for it to travel as far as it needed to. My doctor also said that he would try to make the scar more cosmetically palatable, since it was a bit lumpy, asymmetrical, and gross (Courtney’s word, not mine):

and

I can’t say how the stitching and scar removal went, since I am swaddled in all manner of padding, tape, and ace bandages, but I can tell you how the mobility is:
Frigging awesome! I can’t get an accurate measure of how far down my flexion goes due to the boxing glove on steroids that envelopes my whole hand, but by sticking it next to my other hand and doing a rough comparison, it is at least 75% (probably more) back to normal. It doesn’t hurt that bad, and they hooked me up with some nice drugs and 2 weeks of convalescent leave, which I plan to use to show up to work in civilian clothes and a beard, rather than spend time at home watching TV and not tossing knuckleballs (remember: boxing glove).

It is strange: I haven’t had the ability to move my hand this way for a year, and it is downright stange to be able to so now. It’s as if I’ve gained some weird new ability. There shouldn’t be any complications or further adhesion because I am able to move my hand around all the time now, which keeps the tendon from bonding to the scar as it heals. The first time I had work on my ECD, it was stuck at a 30 degree upward angle for two months so that it wouldn’t rip apart again, and that was the main reason it got stuck. I am already good at the scar avoidance stuff (I’ve had a year of practice), and, based on the pain I do have, they cleaned out a lot of the jagged scar tissue from the original accident.

Bottom line at the end: I’m smiling like a little bitch all the time now, and messing around by, say, picking up a Coke at an odd angle, just because I can.

UPDATE: I went to a brief meeting with the OT chief at Tripler today, because he wanted to get a program in place as quickly as possible. He took off the boxing glove and I got to see the visible results of the surgery. It was a really happy surprise. First, here are some good pics of my flexion now. You can compare it to the above photos, or for shits and giggles, do the same motion with your own hand to see how mine stacks up:

Note how the fingers no longer fly up in the universal hand-and-arm signal for ‘poofter’.

And here is with a fist, prior to any directed OT. Once those OT sadists get their hands and machinery on it, it will get even better.

Finally, and this is barely gross, here is what is left of the old scar, which will become a miniature new scar:

Some cool things to note:

1. The hand is slightly swollen from the rooting around in there with a scalpel. It was about twice as swollen yesterday, so that is going away quickly.
2. It is a ‘mattress’ stitch job, so there are only 4 stitches visible, which you can barely see. There’s one at the top, one at the bottom, and two you really have to look for. The rest are all hidden underneath the skin, I think. I guess it is a technique that plastic surgeons use to minimize scarring.

3. The big blue lines aren’t stitching, but are marker. I didn’t get to talk to my doc, but I surmise that they use those to line up the areas outside the old scar that are to be joined up. Bear in mind, those areas of skin used to be 4-5 mm away from each other.

All in all, I’m very happy. Mad props to Dr. Ingari and his staff. I hope nobody got grossed out my the wee bit of blood, but frankly, it is less gross than the old scar, no?

Note it’s been just over a year since Da Kine almost got himself killed. Sure we should have posted about it on the 12th, ya know, when it the anniversary, but we all assumed the another brother was going to take care of it. Anyway, yay, Shane’s not dead. He is going in for more hand surgery this week though, apparently choking the chicken is still only at 92% of full functionality, and he needs that last 8% to feel fully better. (Amazing how they can measure those things…)

I guess in his head injured, not as much a prick, I love my brothers but could never get so fucked up as to tell them kind of way, he is grateful for the support I gave him during his period of healing. (That support being making fun of him and calling him gimpy.) Rather than saying thanks, or expressing any emotion, he did something way cooler. He made me these:

That’s right kids, genuine handmade Da Kine original Mala Beads, made from hemp rope and koa wood beads. The beads themselves are about 12 mm and shimmer in light. I had a a set before, but the string between the beads stretched out to the point they are useless for rotating. Da kine states the hemp rope will not stretch, so that’s covered. Putting the know between each bead makes it much more flexible and fun to play with. I’m totally diggin on them.

Our very first VODKA (Virtual Online Da Kine Award) Has been awarded. We were much bemused that it was neither virtual nor online.

Jake received the award in the category of “Most supportive having never met Da Kine” Hell, Jake gets it for being most supportive period. On the thread, Jake made 15 well-wishing comments, on his own blogs he posted about this at least 6 times.

It was with great honor, Jake was presented the first VODKA.

UPDATE - I apologize to the IE users on behalf of Microsoft, who refuses to follow CSS standards. If you had to scroll way down to see the picture, or posts, I have corrected the issue, obviously. And for fooks sake, get Firefox!

Da Kine has emptied his Tivo and watched all his bootleg DVD’s. He was so bored he talked to Kin-Mom on the phone for over an hour. What’s a gimp to do?

He cancelled his trip home to keep going with his therapy, and it is working very well. But that did not fill enough of his day, so our boy is back at work. Office work, nothing too taxing, and he leaves for his appointments. But it does show promise that once done in the army he’ll be able to hold down a job bagging groceries or making sandwiches for a living. No ditch-digging though.

NOTE - I am still waiting for submissions for categories and nominations for the VODKA’s. Add them in the comments or email me directly.

I’ve been going through a bunch of physical and occupational therapy and watching a lot of NYPD Blue and have been remiss in updating the peeps about my status. That will change now. I am going to break it down into categories by body part:

Leg: My knee/leg/displaced kneecap therapy is going great. I have gotten rid of my crutches and brace and walk with a slight limp. My ability to bend my knee so my foot goes toward my butt is back to fully normal. My ability to straighten my leg is still slightly restricted (hence the limp), but has improved over the past 3 weeks, so I can now make a straight line out of my leg, but am unable to get my lower leg to go higher than my upper leg, which all of you can do. My quad is weak on one side (inboard), but mad strong on the other side (outboard) due to the leg presses I take part in during physical therapy. Now that I am off my crutches, that will improve dramatically. The only pain I experience is in my knee after some serious exercise, but that used to happen after football practice, so it is nothing to be concerned about. There are wee scars where they drilled the screws in, so nothing to brag on. Grade: A-

Hand: The specific injury that messed up my hand was a severing of the extensor communis digitorum (common extender of the fingers, for the UnLatinized), which was reconnected. Soon after the surgery, I had to start flexing my fingers once an hour while wearing the splint to help keep the tendon from shortening too much. I wasn’t able to move my wrist for over a month because it might rip ye olde tendon apart again. After a month, I was able to take the splint off once an hour and flex my wrist up and done once an hour for the same reason. Accordingly, my ability to make a fist (and pitch a knuckleball, as kinsean would put it) has returned to almost normal. My ability to move my wrist upward (extension, or making a stop signal) is almost back to normal. My ability to move my wrist downward (flexion, or making a gay gesture) is coming back more slowly. After 2 weeks of exercising my wrist, it was at negative 5 degrees, meaning I couldn’t even get it even with my forearm. 2 weeks later, following some excellent occupational therapy, it is at 20 degrees. 80 to 85 degrees is normal. With some heating and prior stretching, I can actually get it to 40 degrees. My goal for the next 1-2 months that was set in conjunction with the occupational therapist was for me to be able to golf again. That’s a pretty good sign of progress when the LTC in charge of a clinic sees it as realistic that I’ll be hitting the links during the summer. There’s no pain there and maybe some slight aching after the NCO who helps me with assisted bending and stretching uses her body weight to push my hand down over the edge of a table while we rap about the time she spent in Iraq. I lucked into a nice 6-inch scar along the back of my hand that I can use to scare my future daughters’ boyfriends, by serving as a catalyst for me to talk about my time in the Army and the combat I saw, preferably while cleaning a weapon and staring into his eyes. Grade: B

Head: Any brain whooping and skull fracturing I took seems hypothetical to me at this point. For the first few weeks after I got home, if I sneezed or something my head would hurt. Now, nothing. I get slightly dizzy sometimes when I’m laying down and look sharply left or up, but that is pretty normal for a little while after the sort of injuries I got. My neuropsychology results were all positive, and the slight deficiencies I had were in verbal memory and visual recognition, although they were still well within normal for someone of my intelligence. After talking to the doc, he told me that the fact I maxed out all the other tests (scoring above most people who didn’t whack their noggin on the pavement) and didn’t do as well on the last two tests I took probably had to do with the fact I took the tests so soon after the injury and was still drugged up, meaning I had a lowered attention span. I do remember being bored off my ass during the 3 hours of testing. I have slight scarring where hair is supposed to be which D-Nice’s wife Lady J said looked like the mange. I also have a pretty nice one going down the right side of my forehead and into my eyebrow (a la Spike from Buffy/Angel) which is disappointingly light in hue. Score: A.

Shoulder: The physical therapy for my shoulder has had amazing results. Two weeks after starting the exercises, I went from not being able to raise my arm above parallel to the ground to being 75% of normal. Courtney noted that I shouldn’t test my shoulder in public because while I can’t call a field goal good yet, I can sure seem like I’m heiling Hitler. I actually sleep on my left shoulder some nights and can lift heavy stuff with my left hand. As I move into weight training and such, the improvements should continue. Grade: A-.

Ribs: Broken ribs again seem hypothetical. I have some soreness getting up in the morning or getting out of the car, but it seems more like I just ran 2 miles than broken bones. I won’t be able to box or wrestle for a couple more months and I had to cancel my tryout with the Pats for their special teams, but that’s aight. Score: A.

Pelvis: I think they messed up the test on this one. For my first few weeks of physical therapy, I couldn’t lay on my stomach because it seemed like my hip was bothering me, but that went away quickly. Also, I heard from some soldiers that fractured pelvises can cause erectile dysfunction (thanks, Chief) and that has sure as hell not been an issue. Seriously, I don’t feel any effect from this one so it must have healed quickly. Grade: A.

So, the state of Da Kine is good. I have a positive attitude and have nothing but praise for the professionals at Tripler, who always have good advice and the ability to keep their patients(?) motivated. I’d like to give a tardy shout out to Chris and Emily at The Red Seat, who sent me two t-shirts celebrating our beloved Red Sox along with a nice note of good wishes. I’ve been meaning to write them an honest-to-shit thanks via snail mail for weeks but haven’t done it yet. If there was ever a chance of me getting bummed out from the accident (despite the presence of Courtney, Bones, and Sipowicz), the outpouring of support from people I know and don’t know would have nipped that in the arse. Here are two people who don’t know me from Adam but take the time to let me know there are people thinking about me. Besides that, their site is great and they sell some pissah gear!

It took me a full 20 minutes to figure our how to log on to write this, and another 5 to remember my login and password. Whatever. To prove I am not truly half-retarded, check out my wonderful sports blog that I have been frequently updating for the past several weeks.

The most clever article I’ve written ever, including picture, was produced yesterday. Here it is in exact replica from the original:

Despite my disappointment with the results of the last game against the Phillies, I was excited to see the batting practice/alternate/vintage jerseys, i.e. the crimson ones with DC on the chest. I had to make a mad dash to the MLB site and order one for the biggest Nats fan in the world: my spouse.

Since she loves the whole roster the same, she didn’t want to offend them by getting a Wilkerson, Castilla, or Loaiza shirt, so I got her one with a classic military nickname for someone with her maiden name and her Airborne School roster number.

The cleverness involved in that proves I’m mentally sharp.

I had a followup today with the doctor (a full-bird colonel) who oversaw both my surgeries and the evaluation of my remaining injuries. Mostly it involved him asking me to move my broken places (knee, arm, shoulder) in different ways, then measuring how well I did compared to expectation. Exact quote (I ensured I memorized it): “Wow. This is amazing. I wouldn’t expect this level of recovery and health out of someone who wasn’t three months post-op. I can’t believe we only did the surgery four weeks ago.” I shit you not. He really said that. I tried to tell Courtney that this proved what I had said earlier when I was drugged up: mainly, that if you want to ruin a member of the Irish race physically (i.e., kill him), you’d better give him two shots to the head, because flipping him over 3 times in a Mitsubishi mini-van and ejecting him onto the highway at 60+ MPH just won’t cut it.

Ed. Note - Da Kine’s Computer held on to the cookie from when I posted from it, so this post was under my name. I have changed it to reflect his authorship. - kinshay

When we visited Shane in Hawaii, there was much discussion of how he would spend his life as a gimp. He has spoken of and is now giving serious thought to opening a Quizno’s. While Mom warded off a heart attack at the thought of it, we talked about franchises and location, etc.. His dream spot is right outside Kenmore Square, with amazing foot traffic for both Sox games and college bastards. He pontificated for hours about how good a spot it is.

He must have been right.

I had the distinct honor and pleasure of calling Shane to let him know that someone else had beaten him to the punch. About two blocks down from Boston Beer Works (heading away from the square) sits a shiny new Quizno’s, grand opening sign and all. He cried for a while, then sucked it up and thought about where else to start his empire.

Good Shit Alert!

Shane has cut his lunch making time from 30 minutes to 5 minutes (adaptive techniques) and started some more intense PT. He can bend his bad knee up to his arse, and almost but not quite straighten it all the way. His gimpy shoulder he is now able to raise at least 90 degrees. Combine the gross motor recovery on that side with the cast removed and down to a splint on the other hand, he is pretty well setup.

Gross Shit Alert!

To help keep the scar on his right hand from being to bad, da kine has some special sort of mat he places on it. Keeps the tissue nice and moist or some such. He noticed a bump of some sort towards the tail end of the scar, and figured it was scar tissue. Then he looked closer, played with it, and pulled out from betwix his sutures a nice hunk of auto safety glass. I’m guessing it doesn’t show up on xray.

Shane is getting settled in to healing mode. He made his own lunch the other day, it only took a half an hour. Given how screwed up his arms are, I was really impressed. His PT calls for him to attempt normal behaviour, so he does it without bitching. He has managed to talk the wife into a lazy boy chair, which will hopefully keep him from laying about all the time.

As Jake noted, Da Kine has posted a couple of comments, but word is he is typing one finger, rather painfully slow, so don’t expect too much volume from him.

The pictures from the trip can be found at dakinenotdead.sw696.com.

They are in reverse-date order (newest first) so the pics of Kin-Girl and Bri are them modeling the dresses I got them, then some of Pearl Harbor, the beach, Da Kine’s house, etc…

I have decided to keep updating this one post instead of creating new ones, so people coming in on links from other sites can better follow the situation and the comments (a da kine meme as it were.) Clicking on an “Update” link directly below will bring you to the newest section of the post. This post will remain at the top of the front page.

Update Below
2005-03-15 - Update Below
2005-03-15 - Update 2 Below
2005-03-16 - Update Below *Must Read
2005-03-16 - Update 2 Below
2005-03-17 - Update Below
2005-03-18 - Update Below
2005-03-20 - Update Below
2005-03-21 - Update Below
2005-03-25 - Update Below
2005-03-28 - Update Below
2005-03-30 - Update Below
2005-04-02 - Update Below

Da Kine as you all know went from Afghanistan to Kuwait. His job was to make sure supplies and equipment destined for the Stan did not get diverted, and that things went smoothly. One big project he was finishing up was moving some extremely heavy equipment from Kuwait. He oversaw the unloading of the equipment, loading it onto a train, shipping it to the airport, and finally loading it onto a C-117 for air shipment. Friday night he was at the airport doing just that. Whilst waiting for the next plane to come in, he called and spoke to Kin Yah Brutha for about 25 minutes.

Saturday morning Mom got a call for Courtney. While driving back to his base from the airport, the van Shane was driving had a tire blow. The van rolled.

Shane was taken to Ibn Sina Hospital, a civilian hospital that is the best in the region for nuerology. His condition was bad enough they did not want to fly him to Germany right away. His injuries are extensive and severe.

Shane has a fractured skull, hip or pelvic fracture, a rib punctured his lung, and has a possible hematoma. When brought in, they decided against doing a craniomoty, drilling holes in the skull to relieve pressure. This is a good sign per Queen Colleen. He required more than one blood transfusion. He was conscious (again a good sign) and semi-coherent. He responded to commands to move all four of his extremities, and was able to move them.

His lung was re-inflated and a breathing tube put in. They are not really treating his hip/pelvis yet. The major concern is brain damage.

He is not alone, his passenger, and friend, Master Sergeant Brassa was in the van. He suffered some light injuries, and called in for help. He is visiting Shane in the hospital. There is also a Navy Petty Officer from a nearby hospital who checks in on him.

Courtney has been in contact with Captain Rivera, a medical officer in Kuwait, as well an as army casuality assistance officer local to her in Hawaii. Information is coming out slowly, times zones really hamper things as well.

Shane will be kept under observation for the next 48 hours. When they are capable of moving him, he will be sent to The Landstuhl Medical Center in Germany. From there he will be assesed, and the best place for treatment decided. He may be sent back to Hawaii, or Walter Reed in D.C. Wherever he goes, the Army will send Courtney to be by his side. If he winds up staying in Germany for a while, we’ll all try to make the trip over.

Right now this is a wait and see game. Just waiting around is the most excrutiating thing, but there is nothing anyone can do. If I thought it would do any good, I’d hop on a plane to Kuwait right now. But it would not do anything. If Courtney or my Mom need anything, I will let you know.

UPDATE - Courtney has spoken again to the doctors. Shane has 3 fractures to his skull, two left temporal and one base. He has dural and sub-dural hematomas. His left lung has been re-inflated, and there was some other issue with his right lung we don’t know about (minor). Two pelvic fractures on the left side, they will require surgery in the long haul.

He is in a drug-induced coma, and will stay that way until the breathing tube is removed on Wednesday or Thursday. He will be assesed then and most likely sent to Germany. The thought is he will be in Germany for two to three weeks, then brought stateside to Walter Reed or Bethesda Naval. As active duty military, Courtney might be going to Kuwait to be with him. Family is not allowed. The military will most likely send two family members to Germany when he goes there though. Mind you, everything in this paragraph is subject to change, this is the current line of thought.

2005-03-15 UPDATE - Good news, Shane has been taken off of his respirator early. He is still out of it but starting to come around. They will assess him and he may be going to Germany in 24 - 36 hours. This is a very positive sign. Looks like everyone’s prayers are working.

2005-03-15 Second UPDATE - I spoke with Bill Stebbins, NYC Doc. He was extremely exicted about the new development. He stated he would not be extubated (sp?) unless Shane could absolutely breath on his own. He thinks this is an indicator that the swelling being fought by dehydretics (sp?) has been controlled. Shane has been on some heavy drugs, and not being “with it” is to be expected. Now, Bill like all of us have limited information, but going by the standard protocols of medicine, this is a really good sign.

2005-03-16 UPDATE - Courtney just called, she just spoke with CPT Rivera, the military laison to the civilian hospital. Shane is awake and speaking. We are not sure what he is saying, but his nurses described him as a “feisty young man.” CPT R is on his way to the hospital now to visit Shane. More updates to follow…

2005-03-16 Second UPDATE - Mom called Kin-Girl this morning. Master Sergeant Brassa has been with Shane, and called Courtney, then put Shane on the phone! He was still a little confused (insisting Courtney not go to Germany, as the Army was sending him to Japan, keep in mind Germany and Japan were allies in WWII, and he has been sent to Japan previously for duty.) Courtney will most likely be going to Germany tonight, and may beat Shane there.

You may see in the comments below Jake asking about the Folks at The Red Seat. They emailed him from Soxaholic asking for information so they could send Shane some shirts. I am very touched by this gesture, and will email them back this morning.

2005-03-17 UPDATE - I spoke with Courtney last night, she is on her way to Germany. The poor thing left last night (Wednesday) local Hawaii time, and will land German time Friday morning around 6 am. Shane should be getting there around the same time. While they are both in transit, we will not hear any more updates, though Courtney promised to call in a field report as soon as feasible. She has spoken to Shane again, I asked her to get a portable transcriptionist a la Chappelle Show so we know everything said. She said while is is still a little out of it, most likely from the drugs for his pain, he is the same person he was, the same type of humor, etc. I’ll update as I get them, but it may be a while.

2005-03-18 UPDATE - Kin-Mom has spoken with Da Kine! Shane is now settling in to his new German accomodations. One of the medical personnel over there Shane knows from Hawaii, and was kind enough to place a call for Shane to Mom. She said his voice sounded good (better than hers is currently) that he was speakly clearly. He is still being stubborn, insisting he was in a minor accident, and not going into detail about his injuries, other than cursory - stitches in his head, on his arm, etc. He does not remember the accident at all. Courtney is being set up in a room in the same facility, so she will be close by. Mom just kept saying, he sounds good.

2005-03-20 UPDATE - Yesterday I spoke with Shane. I had yet to cancel my ATT Callvantage service, which made it very easy for me to call internationally at 5 cents a minute from work and home. He kept asking about everyone, and would not complain about his injuries at all. I think he is embarressed over all the attention, and really does not like causing all the worry. He was rather intrigued at the thought of soxaholic strip though…

Today I tried calling to get a status on him, and he was not there. He is currently in air on his way to DC! Courtney is with him, on the same plane. He should be settled in some time tonight.

Now I know everyone wants to cruise on down to see him, but let’s be reasonable. I think I will drive down right away (maybe taking Mom and Sheila with me) for a couple of days. After we come back, Kin Yah will go down. Shannon may be able to go over the weekend. We’ll work out the logistics. If you wanted to see him, please check with Sean or me first. We don’t want to overwhelm Shane, and the hospital has rules about X many visitors at a time, etc. Also, we are not sure how long Shane will be in DC, he may be sent back for rehab in Hawaii, or he could be there for a while.

As always, I’ll post any updates when I get them. Hopefully we’ll have a mailing address soon as well.

2005-03-21 UPDATE - Sweet and Sour - Shane and Courtney landed in Dc about 5:30 last night EST, but didn’t get settled in to the hospital until 8 or so. I spoke to Courtney at 8:30, the sweet is Shane really does seem well enough to move. The sour is the fuckers have already shipped him out again. He is currently in air en route to California. Apparently since he is “capable” of being moved, and Walter Reed is rather full, they decided to send him back to his home unit in Hawaii.

Plan is to get to California tonight some time, as the plane they are on travels at half the speed of smell, where he may stay for a day or two, then back to Hawaii. The hospital he will be in is about 20 minutes from his house. I am waiting to talk to him again before I make plans to go out. I did speak to him last night for about two minutes, when he told me he was leaving. I wanted to jump in the car and head down, but he insisted even if I did make it in time, the prep work to get him moved and all would just prevent me from seeing him. He then called me douchie.

2005-03-25 UPDATE - Shane and Courtney are back home in Hawaii. They arrived Wednesday night/Thursday morning at 3 am local. Courtney slept on a stretcher in Shane’s room, then made it home in the afternoon.

Shane suffered much pain doing a shitload of xrays, and the chest tube being removed, but bitched not a single word. As of this writing (10:30 PM EST) Shane is currently in surgery. Injury list:

Three left side skull fractures
One Right side Skull Fracture
Subdural Hematoma’s (Now gone)
Epidural Hematoma (There but getting better)
Right side brain contusion
Pelvis fractured twice
Fractured shoulder
Collapsed lung (not yet fully inflated, put on O2)
Broken ribs
Fractured tibia
Kneecap knocked out of alignment
Tendons and severe lacerations of right hand

The surgery Shane is undergoing right now is for the hand and knee/leg. While he is out, kill to birds with one stone.

The bigger question I have is how the fuck is he alive? I know the answer too. G-d owed us one. We cashed in a few chips the family had, and Shane is still ours.

Kin Yah Brutha, Kin-Mom and myself are going to be flown out Hawaii by the Army. While we were all pissed about the way he was shuffled back there on a medivac chain, once he got there, wow. He has a whole team of doctors, literally a different one for each body part. I have no doubt he is receiving top shelf care. Soon I will be able to report exactly how he is, as he will be in front of me.

Beyond the medical, Courtney’s obligation to the army is up in December of this year. Shane has filled his obligation and they are currently planning to come to Boston afterwards.

I’ll have an address for sending cards and such shortly.

Oh, I asked Shane if he had anything to say to everyone. He thought about it for a good 30 seconds, and came back with:

GO SOX!

2005-03-28 UPDATE - Da Kine had no problems with his surgery, they did all they hoped to without having to do the stuff they didn’t want to do. He also walked a good 30 feet or so using crutches. Mom, Kin Yah Brutha, and I are heading out there tomorrow. I’ll update as soon as I can when we get there. Maybe a pic or two.

2005-03-30 UPDATE - We made it to Hawaii. Kin Yah slept for 3 or 4 hours, Mom took “mother’s little helper” _atavan and slept for about 95% of travel time. It made it much easier for her and for us. I slept for about 1 hour. Courtney and a woman named Vicki picked us up at the airport. Shane looks good. He has a big ole brace on his right knee, and his right hand is all bandaged up. He has some scabs/road rash looking stuff on his left hand and forehead., and is missing some patches (tiny) of hair were they put in stitches on his melon. He did stay on the couch all night, til bedtime. He can still speak Romainian (we think, we don’t speak it) and remembered things he could not remember when he was in Germany. It was painful watching him go up the stairs, but he went slowly and did not seem in too much pain.

Point of correction - Da Kine was not driving the van. The full story from SGT Brassa is that 4 persons were driving back in a *argh* minivan. A specialist (the term specialist refers to a rank, I think the same level as corporal) was driving. Da Kine was riding shotgun. The specialist was going the speed limit, was passed by some krazy kuwaiti, and slowed down even further. Then the left rear tire blew out. The ensuing swerving to maintain control of the vehicle caused at least two other tires to blow, then the flipping started. Also, when brought in to the ER, Shane was not combative, he was extremely combative. He kept getting up and trying to leave, it took multiple men to hold him down. Given the extent of his injuries, that’s hard core. Finally, Shane’s shoulder is not broken, but is severely sprained.

2005-04-02 UPDATE - Shane is doing well. He had his first PT yesterday. It really wore him out, but he bitched not a bit. Oh yeah, I kinda forgot to mention that Shane is at home. He wanted to get home, and the docs let him go. He goes in to Tripler when he has appointments, and otherwise pretty much stays on the couch. Nothing like having Tivo and Bones to help heal. His pain is being managed well by meds, he has the most trouble with his shoulder. He wants to take us to the North Shore today, and we’ll do some shopping etc. We hope to find some good impact weapons made of wood and bone.

I am closing this thread out now. Shane is hurt, but healing. Any further updates will be their own posts, or can be followed in this new category - Da Kine watch.

Thank you all for your love and support. You are all invited to attend the Corcoran Brothers’ VODKA (Virtual Online Da Kine Award Show and Roast) date to be announced. Please email your jokes and suggestions for categories, along with nominations.

Click on picture for larger view