when trucking, I came home for the weekend; woke up Saturday and felt like someone was sitting on my chest. Thought I might be having a heart attack or something, and told the wife I think I need to go to the ER ; 4am, and she jumped out of bed - because I never go to the doctor so she knew it was serious.

no heat attack; they took a picture of my chest (CT scan or whatever it's called) but noticed an odd thing at the bottom of the pic; so they took another one lower in my gut area. Found my gall bladder was YUGE........and, at that picture, they noticed 3 big blood clots in my lungs.

they said that it was a blessing the gall bladder caused me to go to the ER because the clots were in the danger zone...not good.

Got the gall bladder yanked out, thought they didn't want to do surgery right away becaues they put me on some super potent blood thinner for the clots. after a nearly a week in the PCU, they took me off the thinner for long enough to yank out the gall bladder and put in an IVC filter, then another few days in the PCU.

i guess I have a genetic mutation in my genes that makes me prone to clotting; so trucking was over, and blood thinners the rest of my life. good times.


the other two close calls were motorcycle wrecks; 1st, just a cracked rib and broken bone in my hand; 2nd time was just road rash but no broken bones. Helmet was on both times. 1st time, abotu a quarter sized chunk was missing from the back of the helmet. 2nd time, the back of the helmet was caved in /cracked. Would've been dead both times had it not been for the helmet, I'm sure of it.

No kidding.

Truth. Thanks gents and ladies

The closest to Death? We shared a row on a plane once. Fortunately someone got assigned the middle seat between us. No idea how he got that scythe through security and I wasn't going to ask

Imagine being that poor bastard in the middle seat though...

I risked my life way more times than I should have between ages 18-25. Probably more than 100. Most were going into areas of the world I had no business being in as an American and or not native.

That doesn't count working on an oil rig in the late 70's-early 80's that had a 50% injury rate within a year. Sharks swimming below the rigs. Had a rig blow out not too far from us. People died. Could hear their screams of help and death. Got off the rig in the morning and never worked out there again.

I'll give you one.... In Jersalem there is an "Arab Quarter", not the tourist one but where they have actually lived for centuries. No non-Muslims is allowed into that area. Traditionally the only non-Muslims allowed in this living area is conquering armies.

I wanted to go but the Israeli army patrols the area to keep the tourists from wandering into this area, I went up into Davids tower and watched their patrols and figured out how to get past them into that area.

Worked. Got in tool my pictures, got yelled at and killer death stares but people left me alone until I took the pic of the old man below. He was old school and through a translator telling me what he is shouting that I've stole his soul. Now there is a crowd. I know I'm in trouble. I apologize and push through the crowd back towards the tourist area. He's following me with his donkey yelling at me. I have to make a turn and in the street are 6-7 young men wearing kifahs. They wernt carrying weapons that I could see so I figured I could take out a couple and make a run for the last 100 yards to the tourist area.

I took out 2-3 but then I took a bat or something like that to the stomach that I never saw coming. Perforated my stomach and I went to the ground. They started kicking me from all directions on the ground. Couple of broken ribs, bruised kidney, 2 stitch's in the corner of my mouth, 6 loosen teeth. I thought what a dumbshit to go out like this and then I hear automatic gunfire burst, 2-3 rounds.

It was the Israelis and the Arabs ran away. The Israelis picked me up and helped me back to the tourist part. Called an Ambulance. Embassy visited me in the hospital and said the Israelis won't be charging me that I'd already been taught a lesson on why its off limits to tourists.

My first job was at Worlds of Fun. Coming back from working grad night at 3am on I-435, I fell asleep in my car while not wearing a seatbelt. At 60 mph, still asleep, I managed to swerve between the bridge over Winner road and a highway sign supported by steel girders. It's probably instant death if I hit either of those.

I woke up with my car bouncing in the grass on the side of the highway. I saw a fence coming and was sure I was going through it. But somehow my car came to a very quick stop just short of the fence. It turned I had hit and dragged a 6' square concrete sewer drain cover a good 10-20 feet off of the drain it was covering. Beyond the fence it went almost straight down to Winner Rd. I might have survived but it wouldn't have been pretty.

Everybody Wants to Rule the World was playing on the radio. I still hate that song.

I was walking in downtown KC one time with ear buds in, just minding my own business strolling around at lunch time. I got to a street corner and almost walked right in front of a bus. I was right at the edge of the curb and the bus was literally a few inches from my face but I had the earbuds in so I couldn't really hear any street noise to know the bus was coming.

I've never walked around on the street with both ear buds in since that day. I have to hear the street noise otherwise I zone out and am oblivious to the world around me.

Severe peanut allergy. Guy never stood a chance.

Damn - there are a few...but probably the A Shau Valley, ROV 1969. First time shot at. I heard the crack as the bullet went by my head and saw a red flash. I figure about an inch or two at most from coming home in a bag.

And yes, I DID crap my pants that day.

Fell backwards into a 2nd story window as a kid.....the bamboo shades and my friend grabbing me was the only thing keeping me from dying that day.

in my mid-twenties, I had 3 jobs working 80+ hours a week......one of them involved lots of driving......fell asleep at the wheel on 435 a few miles from Arrowhead, woke up driving down an on-ramp.

Had to be some divine intervention that day.

I think I've told this before....

Was in my late 20's. Filled in at goalie for my indoor soccer team. About mid field a player is chasing the ball, but not gaining on it at all. I figured with a good angle, I could beat him to the ball. I was mostly correct.

I get to the ball about a second before he would have. He sees that there is going to be an impact and cringes/ducks down toward his right. His head smacks me right in the face. We both go down. I immediately felt my sinuses fill with blood so I thought my nose was broken again. Nope...

Broke my face. A trilateral break driving my cheekbone into my sinuses, and breaking my eye socket orbital. I ended up with Teflon felt under my eye, three titanium plates and 12 screws. Dr. said another half inch would have killed me.

When I was 18, I had car trouble. Parked my POS car at the local grocery store parking lot and began to walk home. I was walking on the top part of Braes Bayou, which runs parallel to a main street in the neighborhood. My buddy, who was riding a dirt bike illegally on the bayou (everyone did it) saw me and offered me a ride home. I got on back and about 2 minutes in, this cop car came on of nowhere from the bayou access road, and was right behind us sirens blasting. Another cop car was coming at us from the front. We couldn't go down into the bayou because the water was high due to recent rains. We were 18, we ran - thought it would be fun. We went into the street and cop followed jumping the curb. We were weaving in and out of traffic, trying to reach the woods, and then "IT" happened. I have no memory of exactly what happened. I'm told a car pulled out in front of us and I was thrown off the bike. I woke up in the hospital later that evening with a headache and blurred vision, but otherwise fine. My friend died at the scene.

My actual stories are boring. I got a stomach bacteria in college that I think would've killed me if not for five days in the hospital getting my stomach pumped.

In more recent years, I had a terrifying event for a few minutes. It was a weird fluke. I was in bed and rolled over and for some reason threw up a little, which had never happened before. Since I was lying down, it blocked my airway. I had about 20 seconds where I was sure I was going to die and then 90 seconds where I could just barely get enough air to not pass out. It was a glorious feeling to finally get a breath above the oxygen debt level. I never want to experience that again.

Boring maybe, but NO JOKE. Those freak stomach deals can make you wish for death. YIKES!