Remember the time you almost/could've died?

I was 10 when I was at my grandfather's place for Easter. He was grading his lane (taking gravel and spreading it along the road). My brother and I were riding in the bucket, as we always did. The problem was we were screwing around too much. My hand was on the hydraulic pipe, keeping my balance, and my brother gave me a shove. My hand slipped and down I went.

The front-end loader hit me in the back and went over me. I did a couple of somersaults underneath, and the large rear wheel apparently scraped my arm as it passed me (I don't remember that much of it clearly). I was on my back behind it, and I was thinking to myself "I have to get out of the way in case it comes back" but I couldn't move beyond rolling back and forth.

My grandfather loaded me in the bucket, got me to their car, and drove me to the hospital. I wasn't actually feeling that much pain at the time, until the car hit a bump on the road, and then it was agony. They X-rayed me at the hospital and came to the conclusion that I had a badly bruised back out of the incident. For three days I was in the hospital, while they had me sitting in a wheelchair, and were trying to get my legs to work again. They would hold me by my arms, my legs would slowly lower due to gravity, but then when they touched the ground, they would reflexively jerk back up and I would cry out in absolute pain. I don't think I've ever felt anything that hurt more in my life then that.

They sent the X-rays to another hospital, since they couldn't figure out what was wrong, and were immediately answered by "immobilize him completely, his back is broken." I spent 3 and a half months in the hospital in a body cast, and the summer in a plastic brace. They told me I would never run or jump again, let alone walk without problems. If it had been 1 vertebrae higher or lower, it would have snapped the spinal cord, and I wouldn't be doing anything from the waist down. As it was, the spinal cord was bent back on itself in an "S" curve, and they had straightened it out and strengthened it with pins.

Lucky for me, I was young when it happened, and my body healed up completely. Not only can I walk normally, I can still run and jump with 0 side effects. The doctors were as confounded as I other than, I healed better than they ever thought would happen. I know I took my brace off in August myself, to feel what it would be like...it was the wierdest feeling walking without that thing, like my back was made of rubber. Now though, I'm all good.

Jam it back in, in the dark.