My wife Jennifer and I were heading out of town to vacation at Lake Erie to meet up with Jen's family who had our kids for a few weeks in Pittsburgh.  We were heading north on I-65 in Gardendale, AL at around 5:30 PM on Friday May 29th, when I got blind sided by a huge piece of cast iron brake drum from a tractor trailer.  We were in the fast lane at rush hour driving about 75 miles an hour.  The piece had to have come off of a south bound truck and skipped the median.  It is too heavy for a car to kick up off of the road.  The chunk is 9" long, 6" wide, 3/4" think, and weighs at least 10 pounds.  We have the piece of cast iron brake drum mounted on our mantle at home.  When you hold it (with two hands, it's THAT big) you realize that I am lucky and blessed to be alive.  In a split second, it came straight through my windshield, hit me, and continued on into the back seat where normally one of my kids would have been sitting.  It crushed the left side of my face, destroying my left eye socket, left side of my nose, left cheek bone, fractured my upper and lower jaw bones as well.  Somehow I was able to stay conscious and get my truck pulled safely onto the median.  I spent 10 days in the hospital, 2 major surgeries (1 to reconstruct the left side of my face and one to rebuild my sinus structure and repair a spinal fluid leak), 5 plates in my face, and 29 staples across the top of my head.

We are home now, and recovering.  It is still going to be a long road to recovery, but I feel like I am getting better everyday.  I will have several more surgeries in the future to repair my nose and eye socket with bone from the top of my skull, as well as surgery to repair my left eye and one to fix my jaw.  As of right now I do not have use of my left eye, but we are hopeful that the eye team will be able to repair the damage and restore movement of my eye.  I have left/ right movement and there is still vision there, but the eye does not move up and down right now and the pupil is fully dilated and non-responsive.  The teams of surgeons and nurses from UAB that have been working with us have been amazing, and we are hoping for a full recovery some time down the road. 

Ya'll be safe out there, and watch out for those tractor trailers...

Jeffro

a Bacardi and coke, but never both at the same time!!!!

Well, consider this my first blog!!!!  Just a bit about myself to kick things off.  I'm old enough to know better, but young enough to try it anyway.  I absolutely love motorcycles.  I love riding in the woods, I love going to track days, street riding, and mostly roadracing.  I am proud to say that I am currently an instructor with the California Superbike School.  I don't think there is a better school out there.  I belong to the Floribama Riders which is the best group of friends that anyone can ask for.  I don't have any hopes of becoming the next AMA or MotoGP superstar, my day has come and gone.  I am competing in the sport that I love because I can't get enough of the adrenalin, excitement, and thrill that roadracing provides.  I always try to do the best I can, but my motto now is "Just Finish".