things you experienced that still make you cringe

[eviljeff]

After a month of scuba, ziplines, and casados, Jason and I are ending our stay in Costa Rica on the class 4 rapids of the Rio Pacuare. The rafting company is called Locos. They live up to their name. The all-Tico crew has spent the morning launching the raft off rock formations and dumping us into the churning froth at their pleasure. We're loving it.

As the sun curves upward toward midday, we beach the raft for lunch. Battling the great salty beast has taxed me, so I discard my plastic weapon with the strength of a geriatric pitching his 9th inning. Before I can fully stretch out on my newly claimed beach, Manuel's shadow hovers over me. "Hike," he says.

The monkeys and birds gossip around us as we wade through streams, heading up into the forest toward Manuel's surprise. Finally we arrive at the top of an ampitheater of boulders. Without warning, Manuel jumps into the pool below. Jason and I wait for his unmangled body to bob to the surface before taking the 15-foot fall ourselves.

Manuel swims over to a crevice in the boulder formation and we follow. The narrow opening deeply penetrates the stacked rock formation and permits us uncomfortable entry. We maneuver into her belly, balancing on submerged rocks and stabilizing ourselves with our palms on her smooth walls. After about 15 feet Manuel stops, looks back at us gives us a quick command that is drowned out by the echoing sound of rushing water. He makes a quick swooping motion with his arm and dives into darkness. I give an incredulous look to Tom. "I think he said 'abajo' which means 'under'," he says. I look past Tom to our entry point, then at the ripples that Manuel left behind, then back at Tom. I take a breath, duck my head, and push myself forward.

My senses are deprived instantly. Sight and sound are gone. I feel only the cool water soothing my scorched skin. I take two more big strokes forward and decide to surface for air.

My head hits rock before surface. I immediately realize that there is no surface. My hands thrust upward, willing there to be an escape. Atlas, give me your strength. In panic, I expel the rest of my precious oxygen. I turn and try to propel myself to my origin. My movement in the water, once graceful, has now become a desperate thrashing dance. My lungs are a vacuum, sadistically commanding me to fill them with the poison that surrounds me. Rock. Rock. Rock. My hands find nothing but jagged punishment. I am an animal, futily clawing at the bars of my cage. I spin myself around in the water, observing my tomb. Light! I see light! My arms are fins. No man of woman born could beat me to this patch of hope. The light amplifies as I approach, like the cheers of a crowd at the finish line. One last push and I thrust my head upward into precious freedom. My Olympian strength vanishes as my frail body convulses for air. Manuel gives me a concerned look and then exclaims, "pura vida!"

[XXXNoahXXX]

When I was in high school, I was on the top of the Eiffel tower with my European History AP class on a school trip. Some of the kids in the class decided to be as American and annoying as possible and amidst all of these couples whispering romantically, they decide to strip off their t-shirts and pose for a picture. There they stood bare chested and flexing, all eight of them. They had each handed their cameras to another, so they held this pose for 30 seconds while each camera flashed. They then began chanting "USA! USA!".

I even cringed now, just writing this.

Then, just moments later, I walk over to the other side and try to take a picture of the beautiful city we are overlooking. I look straight down and see crowds of thousands walking below, small as ants. The bars are fairly close together, and it is making it difficult for me to get off a good shot, so I reach my arm through the bars to snap off a picture. As I line up my shot and press the button, the camera shifts in the wind, and falls from my right hand. I immediately ducked down while simultaneously thrusting my left hand out at full speed. My left hand shoots perfectly through the bars and I grasp the top half of the camera and pull it in before it falls into the crowd many stories below.

Thinking about what would have happened if the camera fell still makes me cringe.

[guids]

oh man, that usa one is horrible. Mine is similar

out at a nice bar with a bunch of friends, one of which is a a little slow, drunk, and its his birthday. We get some champagne, he pulls a farva, and shakes it up, sprays it in the middle of the bar, it was v cringe-worthy.

[pokerbobo]

After breaking my femur near the hip in a baseball game, I laid there in pain. My loose fitting uniform was soon skin tight on my right leg. I tried to get up once but the pain was intense. After several minutes the paramedics arrived. They assured me my leg was not broken, because I would really be in pain if it was. They proceeded with the assumption I was having a muscle cramp and placed a traction splint on my leg. They wrapped a velcro strap around my ankle and turned a crank to strech my leg out. This was almost unbearable. I was put into the ambu unit and taken to the hospital. X Rays confirmed what I already knew. I was scheduled for surgery the next morning, but each time I fell asleep that first nite I would relive the event in my dream. My broken leg would jerk into the air and crash back down to the bed. It happened more than a dozen times that nite, and I woke up screaming in pain each time. My roommate in the hospital must have loved me.

Surgery the next morning was an event. The procedure was to cut both sides of my knee, and insert stainless steel rods thru my femur to hold the bone together. (the other option was a full body cast for 6 months, due to the high location of the break) While in surgery, I remember waking up several times while I was supposed to be under. I felt like I was in a auto repair shop as I listened to the drills, and the hammer pounding the rods thru my bone. I felt no pain at the time so that was good.

Surgery ends and the spinal aneastetic would not wear off, so I could not pee (I was numb from the waist down) My bladder got bigger and bigger and I could now feel that pain above my waist. A cath was inserted and I pissed almost two liters. they had to leave some in for fear of my bladder collapsing(for those of you who might not think this is much...try filling a one liter bottle, you wont get half way most times)

The dreams continued for several years but were spaced out much further as time went on. I broke my leg in 1986 less than a week after getting my drivers license. The last dream of the event I remember having was around 1994...but after healing, at least I didnt wake up in pain anymore.

[Hollywade]

[ QUOTE ]
After breaking my femur near the hip in a baseball game

[/ QUOTE ]

Bobo,

How did you do this?

[whoomp]

A couple of years ago I was going to a friends birthday in my car. I was driving along a curvy road down the valley doing around 55 mph, then at a bend where you can't see around the corner a car suddenly appears on my lane driving head on towards me. He's overtaking another guy around a corner he couldn't see around, damn idiot. So I swerved into the gravel beside the road and we were 3 cars parallel to each other at once so we barely missed each other, whew. Then my car went out of control when I got back to the road and I swerved once to the opposite lane trying to control it, then the car went to the other side of the road and I went off the road down a bit of a hill and rolled my car. I was wearing my seatbelt and got off without a scratch. So when I think back at that I cringe as I could've been killed in a head on collision.

[xxThe_Lebowskixx]

I was backpacking through a villiage in rural Laos that didnt even have electricity when I fell in love with a girl selling mangos on the side of the road. she barely spoke any english, but i spoke a little bit laos. it was love at first site and we spent a week together, and on the last day before i was to leave i took her to my hotel room and we had unprotected sex. after we finished she went to the bathroom and came back with a bottle of listerine. She poured it on my penis and I said "What the heck are you doing?" She said, "Me have AIDS. Must clean fast".

I dont want to scare you guys, I am still healthy. Woooow.

[pokerbobo]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
After breaking my femur near the hip in a baseball game

[/ QUOTE ]

Bobo,

How did you do this?

[/ QUOTE ]

With Vengeance in my heart and malicious intent in my mind....I slid way too late trying to pound the other teams second baseman to break up a double play. My shin hit parallel with the base but I had so much force behind me, my body momentum snapped my femur. (It was either that or I would have dislocated my hip, or possibly broke the ball off inside the hipjoint) [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

[loose passive]

One night last year I am sitting at a stop light when I see a car turn and go the opposite direction I was heading. What I saw though I will never be able to get out of my head. The driver had appearantly shut the leash for a dog in the door. A small dog attached to the leash was furiously running but was not going to be able to keep with car as it was accelerating. The last thing I saw was the the car and dog in my miror speeding off into the distance.

[XXXNoahXXX]

[ QUOTE ]
One night last year I am sitting at a stop light when I see a car turn and go the opposite direction I was heading. What I saw though I will never be able to get out of my head. The driver had appearantly shut the leash for a dog in the door. A small dog attached to the leash was furiously running but was not going to be able to keep with car as it was accelerating. The last thing I saw was the the car and dog in my miror speeding off into the distance.

[/ QUOTE ]

this is awful. i woulda felt compelled to pull a u-turn and try and get the guy to slow down, but it probably woulda been too late. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]