1985 -1991 Served in the United States Marine Corps stationed in Iwakuni Japan,Yuma Az and El Toro Ca. Veteran of Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm at Sheikh Isa airbase In Bahrain
1991-1992 Member of USMC individual ready reserve
1992-2001 Joined the Texas Army National Guard 386th engineer bn. Baytown,Tx during 1997 transfered to United States Naval Reserve as a Seabee then in 1998 transfered Back to TXARNG and served until 2001 when I was paralyzed in an accident.
My Paralysis
In 2001 I fell out of a tree and crushed my L1 vertebra and fractured t-12 causing nerve damage that left me a parapalegic.I was taken to Memorial Herman hospital in Houston Texas where surgery was performed to re assemble my spine using grafted bone pieces that were taken form my hip. It was determined that I would be left an Asia A parapalegic at the t-12 level with neurogenic sacral damage and would be confined to a wheelchair. I spent a month at Hermann just recovering from the surgery. In the second week at hermann i regained the ability to make one of the muscles in my right leg twitch, it wasnt much but it was a start, After leaving Hermann I was transfered to T.I.R.R. in houston where I began minor therapy, simple things like sitting up without passing out from the blood going to my legs and not getting back up would cause me to pass out. All the while I would be constantly twitching that one muscle in my leg that did work to try to build up its strength, I ended up with two bloodclots in each thigh that halted my therapy for fear that they would break loose and kill me. I spent the rest of my month there laying on my back unable to do anything for myself. After my time at T.I.R.R. i was transfered to the Houston VA Medical center where I once again began therapy, My therapist was great, their goal is to teach you how to become independent but when I showed her the little bit of movement I had we began to build on it as well as working on my ability to become independent.By the time I left the VA in dec 2001 my right leg was strong enough to lock my knee and i could feel it down to the knee,and was beginning to get movement in my left leg.I was now able to do things like dress myself,bathe myself and other things that I needed to to be able to live independently.
After release from hospital I stayed with my Dad until I was able to afford my own apartment and transportation which was about 8 months. I got my own apt. in aug 2002, one year after my accident I had accomplished primary goal of independence.I had gotten back my social life and for a while had a job with TXU energy. I bought a sports car that i had wanted.
March 2005
I had not been feeling well for days and could tell that I had a temp. I was found by my girlfriend unconscience on the couch and she called 911 and i was transported to the local hospital where it was determined that i had a staph infection in my right buttt cheek that had begun to tunnel down my right leg. It was treated and I spent 1 week in the hospital then was released.
Oct.2005 I was admitted to VA houston medical center after being transferred from civillian hospital, the staph infection had returned It had become a decubitus ulcer on my butt cheek and had infected my bone marrow and blood. I was near death had I not gotten treated when I did. I was put on the antibiotic Vancomyacin intraveinously to fight the bacteria. I was pretty much out of it from the high fevers, I really dont remember the first few days here.After I started regaining my senses i was told that I would be in the hospital for several months, soon after someone from the recreation therapy department stopped by to offer me some model cars and ships to assemble, so this became my new hobby, but I had no paint to paint the models with so i asked the rec therapist if they had any paints. When he returned he brought me a box of paints that were not model paint but were tubes of acrylic paints with brushes and everything,they did not work well on the models so I set them aside.Thay laid on a shelf about a month. One morning I was flipping through the channels and came across this guy on PBS who was painting away and I couldnt stop watching,After the show was over I remembered the paints that I had been given and I wanted to paint but I had nothing to paint on so I called the nurse and asked for some copier paper. And I was off to the races ,When I had finished I realized that it looked like something a 6 yr old would paint to hang on the fridge, I started to throw it away but I decided I could do better.This painting had no depth to it at all,the colors were horrible but I decided to keep it anyway and use it as a stepping stone for improvement. I ended up doing somewhere around 30 paintings on paper before one of the nurses brought me some canvas.
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