canes

bobs1066 · September 18, 2001, 06:56 AM

Have any TFL'ers traveled by air carrying your canes since last week? I'm wondering if the new "safety" regs will prohibit toting lumber....

Erich · September 18, 2001, 09:23 AM

I'm traveling next week, but I got a doctor's note when I got my cane (I have a bum hip - can't stand in one place for more than about a minute w/o the thing) so I hope that takes care of it.

Otherwise, they're going to have to wheel me to my seat.

KSFreeman · September 18, 2001, 12:01 PM

Erich, that cane of yours isn't one of your AoW canes, is it??? Oh, sure, they'll let the cane through, but not the belts of .223 ammo.

What's wrong with the hip? Tackled by a prosecutor? Mauled by a cougar? Wounded by grizzly bare while taking out the trash?

Erich · September 18, 2001, 03:53 PM

Hey, I was a prosecutor! (I only do the defense stuff at the appellate level.) And we only have black bears (giant raccoons) down here. And cougars.

No, I was in a car accident when I was 16 - the intersection of SR 26 and Jackson Highway used to be two 55-mph highways crossing with no stop sign. Ten people were killed there the year I had my accident. I was driving in to my after-school job at Dairy Queen and a man coming home from work slammed into me. (Or me into him, it's hard to say. I certainly have no recollection of anything past getting in the car that day.)

Anyway, I was driving a little VW squareback with the engine in the rear. The other fellow had a big American car with the engine in the smart place, the front. My car folded up around me - the stick shift went through my femur, my head went through the steering wheel and the windshield, and the seatbelt broke my hip. But it kept me in the car. The other fellow, may he rest in peace, didn't have his seatbelt on . . . he flew out his driver's side window and died.

They rebuilt the femur using a technique that was created by Nazi doctors (cut a slit in the thigh, clean out all the bone fragments, drill a hole in the top of the femur, put in a steel rod, carve bone off the opposite side of the pelvis, wire it around the steel rod, sew patient up, remove steel rod a year later), and taught me to walk again. The coup/contra-coup injuries from the head-through-the-steering-wheel made me wake up with a new personality (no kidding; freaked my parents out) and a whole lot less self control for a while. (And THEN I took the SATs and became a National Merit Scholar . . . .)

I vaguely recall that they may have told me that I needed a hip replacement by the time I was 30 because of the hip-break. Frankly, I never worried much about the hip, because of the severity of the damage to my femur. I jogged on it for years before a bout of osteoarthritis last year put me off my feet for two weeks. The doc told me that I had to have my hip replaced. I did the exercises he prescribed and I'm trying real hard to see that it needs to be replaced when I'm in my 50s instead of in my 30s.

So, that's a very long version of why I have a cane. I pretty much only need it for standing still for long periods of time and for walking (I'm no longer allowed to run) downhill. Other than that (and the fact that one leg's an inch shorter than the other) you wouldn't know there's anything wrong with me (except for the residual head injury stuff that surfaces periodically

).

Now that I'm a lawyer, I'm absolutely appalled that no one sued the State for allowing that intersection to operate that way. (Right after my accident, the 4-way stop signs went up.)

September 18, 2001, 06:56 AM	#1
bobs1066 Senior Member Join Date: February 12, 2001 Location: Eastern Kansas Posts: 222	canes Have any TFL'ers traveled by air carrying your canes since last week? I'm wondering if the new "safety" regs will prohibit toting lumber....

September 18, 2001, 09:23 AM	#2
Erich Senior Member Join Date: January 8, 1999 Location: Albuquerque, NM, USA Posts: 2,543	Sure hope not. I'm traveling next week, but I got a doctor's note when I got my cane (I have a bum hip - can't stand in one place for more than about a minute w/o the thing) so I hope that takes care of it. Otherwise, they're going to have to wheel me to my seat.

September 18, 2001, 03:53 PM	#4
Erich Senior Member Join Date: January 8, 1999 Location: Albuquerque, NM, USA Posts: 2,543	Too many pork tenderloins! Hey, I was a prosecutor! (I only do the defense stuff at the appellate level.) And we only have black bears (giant raccoons) down here. And cougars. No, I was in a car accident when I was 16 - the intersection of SR 26 and Jackson Highway used to be two 55-mph highways crossing with no stop sign. Ten people were killed there the year I had my accident. I was driving in to my after-school job at Dairy Queen and a man coming home from work slammed into me. (Or me into him, it's hard to say. I certainly have no recollection of anything past getting in the car that day.) Anyway, I was driving a little VW squareback with the engine in the rear. The other fellow had a big American car with the engine in the smart place, the front. My car folded up around me - the stick shift went through my femur, my head went through the steering wheel and the windshield, and the seatbelt broke my hip. But it kept me in the car. The other fellow, may he rest in peace, didn't have his seatbelt on . . . he flew out his driver's side window and died. They rebuilt the femur using a technique that was created by Nazi doctors (cut a slit in the thigh, clean out all the bone fragments, drill a hole in the top of the femur, put in a steel rod, carve bone off the opposite side of the pelvis, wire it around the steel rod, sew patient up, remove steel rod a year later), and taught me to walk again. The coup/contra-coup injuries from the head-through-the-steering-wheel made me wake up with a new personality (no kidding; freaked my parents out) and a whole lot less self control for a while. (And THEN I took the SATs and became a National Merit Scholar . . . .) I vaguely recall that they may have told me that I needed a hip replacement by the time I was 30 because of the hip-break. Frankly, I never worried much about the hip, because of the severity of the damage to my femur. I jogged on it for years before a bout of osteoarthritis last year put me off my feet for two weeks. The doc told me that I had to have my hip replaced. I did the exercises he prescribed and I'm trying real hard to see that it needs to be replaced when I'm in my 50s instead of in my 30s. So, that's a very long version of why I have a cane. I pretty much only need it for standing still for long periods of time and for walking (I'm no longer allowed to run) downhill. Other than that (and the fact that one leg's an inch shorter than the other) you wouldn't know there's anything wrong with me (except for the residual head injury stuff that surfaces periodically ). Now that I'm a lawyer, I'm absolutely appalled that no one sued the State for allowing that intersection to operate that way. (Right after my accident, the 4-way stop signs went up.)

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September 18, 2001, 12:01 PM	#3
KSFreeman Senior Member Join Date: June 9, 2001 Location: Lafayette, Indiana--American-occupied America Posts: 5,418	Erich, that cane of yours isn't one of your AoW canes, is it??? Oh, sure, they'll let the cane through, but not the belts of .223 ammo. What's wrong with the hip? Tackled by a prosecutor? Mauled by a cougar? Wounded by grizzly bare while taking out the trash?