There are times in your life when you just have to say “Well it could have been worse”.
Ive had a few such moments in my life and this is one of those.
I wanted to move my shop out of the house in Flagler Beach Fl and managed to find a small building right across from the ocean. I could sit at my desk and look right across A1A right out over the ocean. The shop was connected to a larger building that was housing the Department of motor vehicles. Part of my handshake rental agreement was keeping a friendly eye on the ladies at the DMV. Just in case they needed any help, I would go over and fix the small stuff, Light bulbs, air conditioning stuff etc…
My 15yr old Golden Retriever, Sarah, was a regular over there, the ladies loved her. We would visit most every day just to check up on things and for Sarah to give her dog love.
When you live in Florida during Hurricane season there are many a hurricane that never reach shore but instead pass a few hundred miles to the east. The weather would be beautiful and sunny even as it passed by but about a week after one passes the waves from the storm surge would arrive. Big long curling break would bring out the surfing community. Me on the other hand, I loved to body surf and would go out almost every day after work if the waves were decent. On this particular day the waves had finally arrived from a storm, Cat 3, that had passed a few hundred miles off shore days earlier. The waves were awesome. All day I was looking out from my desk seeing these beautiful breaks rolling one after the other. I couldn’t wait. It was the end of the day and all the seamstresses were out the door. Just me and Ramsey, the kid who was my cutter. I was just pondering weather I should go for a ride when the phone rang. A woman I had never met was calling for a woman friend of hers, Jean, who I had just briefly met at a boogie I was organizing at in Venezuela earlier that month. She was calling to tell me that her friend wanted me to know that she had been diagnosed with Bone cancer and was about to go in for a bone marrow transplant. Jean just wanted me to know. I thanked her friend for the call and said I would send healing energy Jeans way and to hang in there, things were going to work out. As I hung up the phone I had one of those “Live life while you can” thoughts and decided to go ride a wave or two. I told Ramsey I was going out and don’t worry about locking up if I didn’t get back before he left. Since the waves were so perfect I decided “today I’m going to take the boogie board” just to really milk every ride for what it was worth.
I crossed A1A and headed down over the dune to the beach and laid out my towel with my shoes and Tee shirt. I Grabbed my fins and board and walked to the edge. Looking in both directions down the beach, there wasn’t a soul to be seen. With waves this perfect I expected to see somebody out on their board down at pier at least. Nobody. “More waves for me” I thought as I slipped on the fins and walked out backwards into the shore break. In just 20 feet out I was already up to my neck and in another 10 I was back up to my ankles. So there seems to be a new sandbar here. The oceans push in toward shore was super strong and even with the water only to my knees, I was having a hell of a time getting anywhere. Finally waist deep I had to get on the boogie board and start swimming out. It was one foot forward and two feet back. I was getting nowhere. “So this is why nobody is out here” I thought. After about 10 min of this I gave up on being on top of the boogie board and decided to just swim solo and with the board still connected to me by the leash around my wrist. This really wasn’t much better as the waves would grab the board and drag me back with it. I’m Thinking “OK, now I’m getting pretty tired and I haven’t ridden one wave in the half hour I’ve been out here”. I know that if I can get past the break I can rest for a few minutes and then catch at least one wave and call it a day. So climbing half on the board and half off I start to really go for it, kicking my fins and arms really digging in. Lots of splashing and commotion but I was making progress. The next wave was going to break before I got to it so I ducked it and as I came up on the other side it happened. Right into my face was another face. I don’t remember thinking anything but my body reacted in a “protect your face” manner. My left elbow came up as I jerked my head away. It didn’t register right way. I had been hit by a shark. His foot wide face, dropping back into the water. My fight or flight instincts went into fight mode, I leaned back getting my fins in front of me. Both fists ready to start whaling on what ever was about to come back at me. The water was so murky from the pounding surf that I couldn’t even see my yellow fins at the end of my legs. But now that murk was blood. Totally surrounded in blood. Almost immediately I knew it was over, I wasn’t what he thought I was as he came biting up into me thrashing around in the water. So I rolled up onto the boogie board and I was off toward shore. I didn’t have to do anything ,the waves and current pushing me in. That’s when My brain caught up with me and I said to myself “I just got bit by a fucking shark”. I started to take inventory of my body. I looked over to my left elbow and it was tore open. Bone, Muscle and tendens hanging on. I got my thumb on the artery next to my left bicep and cranked down hard on it. My one ride that day was a nice long one and that voice in my head just kept saying “Just keep moving” I thought “This is a big deal” as I held my left hand up,wiggling all my fingers. The voice in my head calmly saying “Not that big”. Skidding into shore I got up on my knees to evaluate where things were. There were two holes on the inside of my bicep that were shooting blood out across my chest. I took the lanyard off the my wrist and wrapped it around my arm and made a tourniquet pushing two fingers into the holes to stop those streams. I pulled the board up along my elbow to hold the big flap of meat against my arm. I slipped off my fins and headed back toward the shop. The surf flow had dragged me about a 1000 yards to the south . Looking in both directions, I was still the only one on the beach. What are the chances of that? Every block along A1A there are some stairs that give access thru the dunes to the beach. My intuitive self kept talking to me the whole time. “Don’t stop, just keep moving” If you start to get dizzy get up the stairs so in case you pass out someone will find you”. The next thought that came to me was out of my dark humor I guess. Right across the street from the next set of stairs was a restaurant called Martins. A new voice came to me saying” This is a freebie. Its legal for you to go up there and smear yourself across the window shouting” IVE BEEN BITTEN BY A SHARK” and then fall bloody to the sidewalk” This thought got me laughing and I shook my head, the other voice of reason “no just keep moving”. I reached my towel and was just grabbing up my stuff thinking “ I’m going to have to go to the DMV ladies to get them to call an ambulance.” Looking down the front of me I was covered in blood. “If I walk in looking like this I’m going to give somebody a heart attack” I thought. So I ran down to water’s edge and washed some of the blood off. Then back up the beach, over the dune, looked across A1A and everybody was gone, Except Ramsey. I made it to the shop door,threw it open and yelled to Ramsey “Call 911 I have a shark bite out here” With all that done I laid down on my back put my feet up on the wall,so I wouldn’t go into shock, and told myself “OK tha’ts the best you can do” The rumbling crash of Ramsey blasting around the shop trying to find the phone, then him calmly telling 911 what was up. Almost immediately the sound of an ambulances siren that just happened to be parked at the pier just a mile north grew louder as they approached. The ambulance crew were calm as they knelt down to see what the damage was. The local volunteer cop had traffic stopped in both directions mostly because he could. This was a big day for him. The EMT wrapped my arm up in some kind of cardboard splint protecting the wound. Ramsey was doing good but was a bit freaked out,still lots of blood. I said “Ramsey I need you to call Mag and have her meet us at the Hospital” “Dude, here’s exactly how I want you to tell her” “Mag, Mikes OK, he has been bitten by a shark. They are taking him to the hospital’’.
I hate it when you receive a phone call from someone who is going to tell you about an accident and all the bad stuff comes out first before you find out that everybody’s fine. So helping me up into the ambulance and we are off to the hospital during which they are pushing lots of fluids into me since I have lost a ton of blood. They wheeled me in to the ER where the on-call surgeon just happens to be right there . He looks at my arm torn open and there were a lot of white fibers visible. He asked if I could wiggle my fingers and determined that it was the fascia of the torn muscle and not tendon damage. He started barking out orders to the nurses.
“Clean the wound, give him something for the pain (still no pain but I wasn’t going to say anything) get him to X-ray to see if there were any teeth left behind (there weren’t). She shot something into my IV and I asked her how long it would take. She said” You should feel it now” and boy did I . I said “Oh WOW, now I see why folks abuse this.” A big heavy set Nurse pulled up a chair next to my left side and with a sponge holding the meat of my arm back commenced to splash saline solution into the open wound and then scrub with a sponge. In kind of in a panicked voice I say “Good god” She stopped,with a concerned look on her face said “Can you feel that?” I said “No but it’s just gotta hurt!”
She just shook her head and kept on scrubbing and splashing, I turned away. The rest of the evening was a blur of pain meds and operations. I do remember them rolling me into the operating room and putting me on a table that looked alot like the table I’ve seen on TV that they use putting people to death. Three hours cauterizing surgery and 52 staples later, I was in a private room for the night and back home the next day. While waiting to get released the next morning things had finally slowed down to where I could look over the last 12 hrs and ponder how fast things can change in your life in a matter of moments even when you haven’t really done anything wrong. Even after all was said and done the thought at the end of it was Well it could have been worse, at least I don’t have bone cancer.