How smart are you?

[LetsGoDuke301]

Have never read this before @LetsGoDuke301. My cousin had a very similar injury while mountain biking. Also has no memory. And now a commercial airline pilot.

It is a weird thing. What you forget and what you remember. I would say that I got the majority of my memory back. Sometimes it would happen like deja vu and then it was like it never went away. One of the strangest parts of recovery was I forgot a lot of English words but didn't seem to lose any Spanish words. This was all a matter of months though. I don't want to make it out to be like I had to relearn my entire vocabulary or anything. It was basically a matter of reading a lot. Then it clicked like, I have been here before.

The biggest loss was my job at the time. I worked as an intern for free for 18 months just to get my foot in the door as an investigator for the D.A. and it was a job that had a pretty high ceiling with opportunities to make good money. The biggest gain was the settlement helped out with my wife's medical bills (the blessing in disguise). A couple of years before that, she had a cyst that was originally diagnosed as cancerous. After having a full ovary and 2/3 of another removed along with the cyst, it was determined not to be cancerous. So yeah, 2006 through 2009 was not good times. But without the settlement from my accident, I don't know where we'd be today. Count your blessings, I guess.

 

[jace46555]

Have never read this before @LetsGoDuke301. My cousin had a very similar injury while mountain biking. Also has no memory. And now a commercial airline pilot.

It is a weird thing. What you forget and what you remember. I would say that I got the majority of my memory back. Sometimes it would happen like deja vu and then it was like it never went away. One of the strangest parts of recovery was I forgot a lot of English words but didn't seem to lose any Spanish words. This was all a matter of months though. I don't want to make it out to be like I had to relearn my entire vocabulary or anything. It was basically a matter of reading a lot. Then it clicked like, I have been here before.

The biggest loss was my job at the time. I worked as an intern for free for 18 months just to get my foot in the door as an investigator for the D.A. and it was a job that had a pretty high ceiling with opportunities to make good money. The biggest gain was the settlement helped out with my wife's medical bills (the blessing in disguise). A couple of years before that, she had a cyst that was originally diagnosed as cancerous. After having a full ovary and 2/3 of another removed along with the cyst, it was determined not to be cancerous. So yeah, 2006 through 2009 was not good times. But without the settlement from my accident, I don't know where we'd be today. Count your blessings, I guess.

That's great that your family made it through to the other end! People don't realize that unless you've got well into the millions as a backup option...getting hurt will devastate a family's finances. Before my accident I was making close to 200k and had been really smart saving and investing. However, after 6 months of not collecting a paycheck I had burned through every bit we had saved and was on food stamps. Most depressing day of my life was the 1st time I had to use food stamps.

Fortunately, we've been able to figure out a way to live as modest as possible, but if I have to miss work again.....not sure we'll be able to make it next time. So I completely understand what your saying and a huge amount of respect for both you and your wife for sticking it out. Because people who think regular marriage issues are hard need to try having these issues!

 

[ExitFlagger]

That's great that your family made it through to the other end! People don't realize that unless you've got well into the millions as a backup option...getting hurt will devastate a family's finances. Before my accident I was making close to 200k and had been really smart saving and investing. However, after 6 months of not collecting a paycheck I had burned through every bit we had saved and was on food stamps. Most depressing day of my life was the 1st time I had to use food stamps.

Fortunately, we've been able to figure out a way to live as modest as possible, but if I have to miss work again.....not sure we'll be able to make it next time. So I completely understand what your saying and a huge amount of respect for both you and your wife for sticking it out. Because people who think regular marriage issues are hard need to try having these issues!

How much did you burn through in those 6 months? Just out of curiosity.