Blog On Excavator Accident With Head Injury & Natural Healing

Below are notes on my injury, presented as encouragement in case my account could inspire another injured person to heal naturally . (As i did not use so-called conventional medical means to cure myself. In fact i found "instant relief" by "simpler" natural means. I wished that information sources on the web could have provided me this story to inspire these simpler methods of healing. It would have saved me lots of money. A large sum of money which in fact was wasted to pay for hospital costs, just to get prescription pain killer-- I soon stopped using the pain killer anyway).

Healing is described below. Click hear to skip preamble.

  First: How the accident happened is explained.

Two accidents: While digging deeper in a construction site (picture center, above), I foolishly managed to get hit in the head by the 25 ton excavator as it dug the well. I had to realize it was my own fault for misreading the movements of my friend's excavator at work. Perhaps we raced too fast to make up for time lost on the first accident. (Make up for the bad weather of that especially rainy and wet season)....

In the first accident, my friend had straddled the deep ditch to distribute a little gravel at the ditch bottom.  His risky straddling caved in the ditch,(picture above), but my friend was not hurt . The next day i helped him rig up a woods skidder. With the bull dozer side-leveraging the excavator with it's arm raised, we managed to get the machine out of the caved in ditch. (My friend driving on one track only). We also had to pry one very heavy tread back onto it's rollers as the fall derailed it. Later that afternoon, i made my great mistake of getting in the way, this time my fault, getting hit in the head.  Haste made waste.  

I went back to work, on the same site, about 6 weeks after my accident. With my excavator friend away at that moment, i decided to rent a CAT 312 excavator and continue the project by myself. I love earth moving work like this and originally would have done all this digging except that we wanted to speed the progress up. That proved difficult, but inevitable risk is required by progress. One takes the risk or does without the potentials. It was a good way to tune up my brain motor skills after such a severe injury. I was hit in the back of my head by the excavator bucket. (Here is a link which describes my job: A preliminary effort to build a house with zero energy cost HVAC).

Blog About My Head Injury & Natural Cure

I was knocked out cold by the excavator accident but was told later that i sleep-walked around, or staggered, talked briefly and washed my face before actually recovering my own consciousness. The pain was very severe. After 4 days at home with pain increasing daily, i was persuaded to ride into a local  hospital and i hoped to try a little hospital pain killer relief. To my disappointment pain killers were promised only after some X-ray scans (CT angiography). This took many hours to wade through. After finally trying a bit of pain killer i decided hospitals and medical protocol were clearly wrong for me. I wanted to escape from the gloomy, institutional mind set. Only drugs were offered if one could pay the multiple protocol costs. Sure, charge anything to my name, very funny. Hide the price tags. Little hospital signs encouraged comers like me not to worry about payment. Ha, they would have crippled my life, had i depended on them. (Later on, a self employed friend of mine admitted that he has had endless monthly payments for a past, job related injury). I was driven home and suffered badly for another day or two, (before recovering my rationality). This head ache heavily burdened rationality. One pays royally for this or discovers better alternatives.

It took a couple of days to realize that i should not be lying down at all! Powerful skull damage challenges good reasoning. So i determined to sit up continuously and even sleep in a sitting position. I was startled to find my long term head ache completely vanish in about 9-18 hours of sitting upright, even though i had stopped using any sort of pain remedy. Reasonable protocol should advise upright posture for severe head injury. I had to think of all this on my own, despite constant, severe head pain. This simple advice was absent from hospital protocol. My scholarly brother later verified the protocol fact. How can such poor protocol come from science? After curing my week long headache through my own remedy, it felt truly miraculous. Other severe issues persisted: Severe dizziness, ear popping, imbalance and my vision was still completely skewed since the accident. My eyes were totally out of alignment except from one corner (viewing to the side only). I wondered if i was literally finished. I wore an eye patch to remedy the "cross-eyed"condition. Searching the www for information about all this seemed to suggest that my condition was incurable according to western-medicine. I stopped driving for 2 months. People with all my symptoms tended not to heal. Surprisingly however, each of my conditions did slowly improved over a period of a month and were almost essentially healed in about 2-3 months.

To summarize quickly, my CT Angio scan results revealed a skull fracture, blood on the brain but fortunately no aneurysms. It seems logical that "blood on the brain" would cause severe head-ache pain, due to normal blood pressure. (When the the head is gravitationally level with the brain, that is. Sitting up reduces the blood pressure on the blood brain barrier.) However, it is illogical that a modern science would hide the most simple remedy from head-trauma victims, (in favor of masquerading remedies-- Ha, masking the pain instead of relieving the high pressure on the blood-brain-barrier).  I largely attribute my healing to intensive nutrition along with self styled mental and spiritual discipline.  I have always respected high-quality dietary protocols and "dietary supplements". Especially when i don't have time to shop around for better ranking food, nor time for proper preparation. I was especially appreciative to find specific protocols put together by Gary Null.

My Favorable Experience WIth Supplements

Gary's tablet formulation called "Supreme Health Formula" contains many super nutrients, which are very helpful to brain health and brain recovery. To my understanding, Gary generally uses and favors organic plant based sources instead of chemically-synthesized or animal-tissue-materials. It is a little like getting super nutrients when you can't spend time shopping around. If all common foods had all the nutrients or enough of them, supplements would not interest me. I'm very glad that i had been using Gary's formulation prior to the injury. I believe my stamina was helpfully strengthened by use of scientifically proven supplements. By contrast, modern medicine has for too long focused on disease-cosmetics, instead of health boosting nutrition. Modern medicine has for too long preferred to mask the symptoms with drugs and neglect unhealthy side effects. Worse yet is the absence of repair which good nutrition offers.  The body better achieves repair with nutrition. Pain-masks proved to cost astronomically more than does carefully chosen nutrition. I splurged my money and bought many selective nutrients (as compiled by Gary), which i feel played a vital roll in my head- recovery. In fact, Gary has compiled a specific, detailed protocol for nutrition of the brain, which felt like a godsend for my head injury. I trust Gary because for decades, he has followed many scientific research journals and has himself done mainstream dietary research as a qualified scientist. Moreover, Gary seems to put his profits back into his publicly spirited mission. He even, reportedly provides certified nutritionists to provide free services in NYC, amazing. I have no reluctance to support a business like that.

We should pay much more attention to restorative nutrition and resist monopolistic blinders. Unfortunately, the pharmaceutical industry repeatedly tries to outlaw marketed supplements through greedy political tactics. I feel sorry for all those who suffer needlessly from medical iatrogenics. I believe the CT Angio scans were not worth the cash in my case. No restorative benefit was received from them. Only arrays of X-ray radiation-exposures were received.     So...  In less than one day after entering the hospital, i left, (My wife driving). I instead found relief at no cost and could begin restoring my health with free market nutrition. I avoided further involvement with medical services, as i did achieve weekly health gains naturally, on my own. I gradually began "working again", at home within days of clearing the head ache (and before regaining full vision or full ambulatory balance). Slowly but surely, my eyes, my strength and balance-sense improved. Progress seemed very slow, but it was steady and far better than hospitals have reported for severe head trauma. From what i understand, modern pharma has achieved little success with permanent head-trauma cures. I'm so thankful to say i have been well for months, thank God. I attribute my natural healing to what a westerner might call spiritually-based-will-power, better informed nutrition and self discipline (get back on the horse sense).

I have tried to stay informed on health subjects from a variety of sources, throughout my life. Earned knowledge has empowered me while medical-insurance would have weakened my spirit, by depriving me of this self-empowering experience, (of natural self healing). Health insurance includes an invisible mental commitment to yield up some measure of self reliance. Insurance can diminish self reliance of an individual. Self reliance can promote health. Yet for dealing with sudden injury, decisions must be made quickly, without time for study or contemplation. Still i see little or no advantage to a hospital protocol that actually postures severely injured heads downward, (where blood pressure increases on the brain, due simply to physical gravity). Why should hospital protocol ignore the importance of gravitational effects on the blood-brain barrier (after severe injury)? How can hospital-protocols remain so drastically quite about this, i ask you? Head trauma? Sit up and stay sitting up, sleep upright! Don't allow the sufferer of head trauma to lie flat! I found that my head ache could reach full force within a few hours of lying down and that it subsided after more than a few hours of remaining upright. After a day and night of remaining in an upright posture, the head ache completely vanished, permanently. I avoided lying down for maybe 2 months! Finally all the blood-pressure-leaks into my skull could heal! Many natural foods clean the body internally, remove waste material and remove toxic accumulations. Organically grown nutrients are intentionally freed from pesticides and are very effective cleansing agents. By contrast, overly commercialized food grown on depleted farm soils will lack important nutrients and instead dump toxic pesticides into our body. I believe this is especially relevant for clean up and repair of severe injury including severe head trauma. This nutritional approach to health has long been suppressed for fear of weakening vast pharmacological monopolies. Presently there is an attempt to take over the word "organic"and dumb down legal definitions of that word. Consumers are slowly coming to appreciate the organic food advantages. Sadly, the big players treat it as a branding war instead of scientifically proven product options. Powerful entities fear loosing market share. Their market share has for decades been dependent on uninformed consumers.

Furthermore, authentically spiritual approaches to health are discouraged by the extreme materialism. However, instances of healing have been found through authenticity spiritual approaches. A spiritual attitude helps guide a healthy mind in sorting out material paradoxes. Much of life is perplexing. Why should things that taste good prove bad for us? Why should things that taste bad prove good for us? What works for the greater good or greater depravity? Generic spiritual attitude helps to resolve exhausting paradoxes. Now let me get back to the materialistic side, (where modernity defines and confines health).

There are a large number of helpful nutrients to consider, so i advise life-long study. For a start, removal of nutrients as in "refined white flour" or in processed food deprives us badly. Whole grains provide critical nutrients. Food processing largely deprives us of nutrients and instead, harmful substances are installed, (such as pesticides and assorted food cosmetics). The pesticides and cosmetics simply overload the natural mechanisms of toxin removal. There are many sources of natural-health information, pro and con (this issue or that issue). Unfortunately, the majority choose to remain conned through mainstream indifference. Indifference to achieving a high standard of health. The fact is that some people have found nutritional and other non orthodox health solutions. This has progressively occurred through countless generations.  Strict dietary protocol has healed a variety of common ailments. Orthodox medicine has broadly ridiculed self empowered natural healing. Some limited, initial acceptance of dietary protocols started gaining mainstream popularity from about the 1970s, continuing to the present. I have followed much of this for nearly 4 decades now, while medical- orthodoxy dragged it's feet in the nutritional approach. Dietary approaches to health were often discourage by cultural leaders. A populist notion has been spread widely which foments distrust of scientific dietary information, because it is difficult to follow scientific progress, (which is continuously updating).  As one example, scientific research into cholesterol and fat consumption has significantly changed and even reversed in some aspects. Reversed because big pharma had earlier wanted to sell it's ill conceived "pills and potions". People dislike spending time to study the numerous details and the struggling history of dietary science. The populist question arises, how can you trust a science that burdens you with changing and with confusing facts? Progressive, developing facts should not upset us. If we accept where higher truths may leads us. If we stopped being a figment of monopolistic imagination. Dietary facts would be more reliable if the studies themselves were not monopolistically manipulated.

Honest scientific comparison of orthodox medicine with specific dietary protocols would reveal some superior performances of dietary science over monopolistic orthodoxy. That is why such comparisons through double blind studies are prevented by authoritarians. Orthodoxy refuses to test superior methods, fearing a loss of market share. A lame excuse is offered to the effect that comprehensive comparisons would cost too much. Rather it would clearly demonstrate that dietary protocols would win completions in the health care market. Furthermore, orthodox medical cheerleaders, claim that they have increased the human life span as compared with historical records. I have long questioned this notion saying that technologies, such as the poly-phase electrical power distribution and rural electrification are more responsible for increased life spans. The poly phase system, (three phase power and long distance power distribution) invented by Nikola Tesla and implemented by Westinghouse Corporation, made possible widespread refrigeration of perishable necessities like food. Improved water supplies and sewage treatment arrested ravaging disease. Improved transportation increased food supplies, while better preserving food at the same time. Social consciousness teamed with enlightened business, gave the masses education. These items and others increased the average life span of our times. Medical orthodoxy does not deserve all the credit which is selfishly claimed. How dare they claim all the credit?

My preferred format for lengthy information has always been the spoken work in place of text (which requires my reading of lengthy texts). Gary Null offers extensive dietary information through audio broadcasts and podcasts. (Gary is also a prodigious writer for those who prefer reading.) I subscribe to many free audio sources, thanks to Apple for jump starting this progressive media! Podcasts let my mind absorb information while i do my work. Even major universities are also now pod casting valuable educational material, for free! I love this wide ranging free cultural service. To be fair, there are many other sources of good information on natural healing associated with nutrition. I will point to a few i have noted lately.

I am cautious with orthodox medical sources of information, because for decades, these dominant sources have hidden issues like iatrogenics and seem to have opposed nutritional awareness. At the same time pharmaceutical lobbyists try to outlaw supplemental nutrition through legislative suppression like Codex Alimentarius. One should be free to find a source which fits them. Many of my educated friends believe that nutrition should be addressed only through plain food and proper cooking. This is great if you are appropriately situated, but not practical for overtime workers. I think a good source on this sort of "food-only" approach is Dr Mercola, who also offers exhaustive information with a chat group over the internet.  Dr Weil offers convenient information as do many others who largely align themselves with meat diets. "The Warrior Diet" seems to include some unusual dietary ideas which i like, especially the night-time big-meal preference. I believe that hard struggling cultures simply had no opportunity during the daytime to prepare food. By nightfall, they could make a fire, warm up and eat the big meal. This basic pattern also fit my lifestyle, of focusing on work accomplishment during the daytime. Then by nighttime, i could wash up, relax and make a good meal. I happened to "convert" myself to a largely vegetarian diet many years ago. It lent me hope that planet earth is sustainable. That my giving up meat unburdens the world from my small corner. It is not evident that the world can support 6 billion meat eaters! I respond to the problem by demonstrating health and sustainability on a nearly vegetarian diet.  (My wife won my support to raise poultry and very occasionally eat fish for the omega fatty acids.). After many years, of being perhaps 90% vegetarian, i am healthier now than when i was a full omnivore. My wealthy nation has individuals who can demonstrate that sustainable, full vegetarian living is indeed good. Modern technology can serve sustainable living practices. I have devoted my life to living in a sustainable manner that does not unduly burden the world.

Full veganism is a bit hard for me to manage but scientific research on what is possible with plant-based sources greatly moves me. I observe that full veganism has promoted comprehensive health without need for orthodox medical intervention. If food market prices tend towards accelerated price inflation, we may do well to adapt to a sustainable diet, (an affordable and fully nutritional diet, not a silly fad). Also, an information source on muscular stress can inform the aging laborer or exerciser. Science increasingly reveals that the human species can not stay healthy in a sedentary mode. I prefer hand-labor instead of athletics and there are things to learn about physical stressing, about nutrition, (individually and together combined). Muscular exertion like exercise or labor demands nutrient-cleaners, foods that clean out the body. (All normal pollutants should be removed or reduced, when possible). On this point, simple green vegetables and fruits do a great service for us, much better than gold-plated medical emergencies-- After the body was stuffed and clogged with careless and mindless diets. However, it is equally risky to assume that a market label like the word "organic" will solve all of one's nutritional needs. Rather. it is refrains like "nothing added, nothing removed" which should better guide food selections. Organic food is especially prone to unintentional contamination because food laws neglect contaminants that inadvertently creep into the food chain. Nature has provided that internal cleansing processes depend on unburdened foods. Purely unburdened foods (like uncontaminated green vegetables), provide sort of a "cargo space", which catch unwanted pollutants. It is better that the body avail itself of this resource. Rather than having this resourceful "cargo space" be loaded up before marketing. (Loaded up with pesticides and other contaminants). Inadvertent contaminants do load up this naturally available "cargo space". Load up this "cargo space" so that toxins in our body cannot be "loaded up" for removal. Thereby, the body can become deprived of  this constant cleansing of harmful things. Hence, the toxins gradually accumulate to a point that the body is overwhelmed. Many ills can be healed naturally through this vegetable cleansing system, (instead of masking symptoms as ignorant practices do).

However it can be difficult to find or afford wholesome food. It is labor-intensive to grow considerable amounts of wholesome foods in one's own garden. In that this would typically be a second job in addition to an occupation. Difficult also in the sense of fully devoting one's life style to developing labor habits and proper storage. Habits must be developed for weeding and tending vegetables or live stock, etc..  (Here is my latest visualization for a satisfying garden system). Vigilance over all that is chosen can be very disappointing as wholesome supplies do cost more than inferior supplies. (Monopolies will not encourage better products and thereby monopolies cultivate inferiority). The urge to go out and work in a service economy instead, can distract attention from wholesome lifestyle alternatives.  With better income, one can simply buy the more expensive but more wholesome foods. One can still gain some sense of satisfaction by supporting "local sustainable producers". I've savored many options between these various contrasting approaches. It is easy enough for me to grow health inducing vegetables for 5 months a year, but the remaining 7 months demands more breakthroughs (in a cool climate). Raising sprouts will easily provide some important "cleanser nutrients" while saving money. Greenhouse gardening certainly can extend growing seasons, but are also fraught with pest issues and "climate control issues". Foregoing meat in my diet saves me considerable money. Setting up good "culturing" processes like making tempeh and sour kraut still defeat my effort, but would be priorities, if i manage to "drop out" from the job economy again. While purchasing these is easier and while income can cover it, let me recommend super-star favorite substitutes. Instead of producing equivalent dry-staples myself, two products made popular by Gary Null are of special interest. So called "Red Stuff" is an assortment of super nutrient fruit residues. "Green Stuff" likewise is dried green nutrients. These two organic products provide excellent "internal-repair"  and "internal-cleaning", for over-time workers, (the work style which i tend to follow). Easy to use in shakes or even as added seasoning. I don't know how other brands similar to Gary's rate, but the concept seems vital to me and actually restores alertness and energy levels. In the old days, when i browsed through nutrition books, similar "wholesome food" claims were evident, but products were not so immediately available. Today, getting a comprehensive product "instantly", sure makes the test easy. I still like occasional coffee but it is a harsher jolt of "energy" in many ways (largely due to side effects). The subtler energy boost and restoration of Green Stuff and Red stuff lasts longer, despite the absence of a coffee jolt. I always space-out consumption of coffee and nutrition, because coffee tends to leach out everything nearby in the digestive tract, (as coffee is a known diuretic). The addictive nature of coffee is hard to control, unless very little is consumed.  Yet the burden of pesticides in most coffee products should give us incentive to severely limit it's use to the point of indifference, (the point of non-addiction).

Yes, i may seem a bit compromised by exposing my lost job and medical experience. Instead i feel stronger since i learned how to actually heal my head injury without over-priced methods. Natural self healing is real power. Consider the power of honest self evaluation and compare all available protocols. Consider this page a protest against larger system problems that politicians can't fix. They simply can't fix personal-choice problems. Sadly, politicians refuse to favor science over unreasonable monopolies. (Monopolies which finance political careers and political power). Separating monopolistic giants and State should be key. Yet a worse consequence of system collapses may ultimately result from incompetent monopolies.  

Write me to discuss these issues further-- boa1@pivot.net

Bo Atkinson 07/08