Long-ago medical news

I remember very distinctly one of my doctors telling me, a few months after my accident, that "speech is a very complex phenomenon ... and in your case, just about everything that CAN go wrong HAS gone wrong." I remember thinking, wryly, "Gee, thanks, Doc!" But surely he was right.

Giving blood

I gave blood successfully again this past week, on July 6 (for my 89th time), as I did also and mentioned in a post on April 26. Still marching steadily along toward my lofty goal of 30 gallons lifetime ... I am now begun on my 12th gallon, which I should complete late in 2008, I believe.

Robert Loyle Borton - Century Day

My Dad was born on July 4, 1907, and would thus be 100 years old today. My own theory is that, due to the patriotic connotations of the holiday, his parents decided to give him the middle name of Loyal. But, being relatively uneducated farmers, they misspelled it. I never got to inquire about this, though. Grandpa Allen (my namesake) died over 20 years before my birth (1872-1934). And although I can remember sitting on the lap of Grandma Libbie (1873-1966) as a young boy, and reading to her, I was hardly asking genealogical questions at the time!

Running in Dad's honor today, I did another 5K, the Tortoise and Hare race through downtown Ann Arbor. On the flat, fast course, under cloudy, humid skies, I was trying for a good time, and was happy to finish in a PR (personal record) of 34:52. (Previously, I had done one last August in 35:15.) Before my accident, I could have run 5K in under 25 minutes ... but it's a whole new world now!

Life Day

Recently (June 30) I was pleased to find in our home an item that I thought we had lost long ago ... the picture, from the Jackson (MI) newspaper, of my car from the edition of May 23, 1993 ... the day after my accident. Witnesses have deposed that another driver forced me off the highway, and when my car hit the shoulder, it tumbled, throwing me out the window and onto my head. It's kind of an eerie feeling to see my flipped Geo Metro and know that in a flash, my entire life changed then ... and also to see me being loaded onto the stretcher in the background, since I have no memories whatsoever from a few hours before the accident until I emerged from coma in late July. Since the doctor told my wife (but then fiancee) Michelle that I would not live the night, we now observe each May 22 as "Life Day," in glee at his incorrect prognosis!