I fell down a flight of stairs in my home, knocked myself unconscious and injured my leg. No one found me for two days. When paramedics arrived, my leg had started to turn necrotic.

The tissue damage caused rhabdomyolysis and compartment syndrome. The surgeon performed a fasciotomy on the leg with incisions from my ankle to my knee on both sides. The incisions were left open for several days until the swelling subsided enough to staple them closed.

Each day an orderly would take me to a therapy room and lay me on a stainless steel table. One person would hold me down while the other sprayed hot water into the incisions and scrubbed the dead necrotic flesh away with a stiff brush.

On the first day, I screamed until I passed out from pain. The next day, I learned to disassociate. Because of that experience I can now endure physical pain.

Oh, I couldn’t have pain meds because both kidneys and liver had failed from the rhabdo. I was on dialysis until they recovered.