A Word of Warning About Water Intoxication
The following is a story of a near fatal mistake I made. Hopefully you will read this and not do the same thing.
When I was seventeen, for reasons I would rather not go into here, I had the privilege of
living on the streets for around five months. I ate whatever I could, including food from a dumpster. I slept
wherever I could, including parks, the beach, and some friend’s homes until
their parents got sick of me. To this day I cannot throw away food unless it is
rancid.
Here’s
something else that happened that was loads of fun. When I was nineteen I was living in Duarte, which is an area known
for it's street gangs. We were having a party at our apartment, and there was another
across the way. Some guys came over and stole our radio. In my drunken
arrogance, I went over and challenged all of them. I ended up getting jumped by
the whole group, but was able to fight them off long enough to fall back in the
front door in a pool of blood. I looked really lovely after that –think “The Elephant
Man”.
I
could go on and on, but I think you get the gist of it.
I believe that my younger life has led me to become involved in law enforcement and survival activities. This includes my Second Degree Black Belt in Hapkido and other martial arts, volunteering for the San Bernardino County Probation Youth Board, part time PI and undercover security work, USAF Civil Air Patrol Search and Rescue, wilderness survival courses and Bail Enforcement training. After all, it's been said that the best cops are former criminals! Please click Here for my resume and a complete list of my training.
On to the main event.
In case you are not familiar with water intoxication, I will
give you a brief description. Water intoxication is a condition where your
brain swells up from drinking too much water.
You have a seizure, your kidneys shut down, and most of your bodily functions stop working. Some people have died from it. Recently a girl up in Northern California died from drinking too much water in a radio contest. Keep in mind that this is A LOT
of water, and not an amount you would normally drink.
I spent five days in a coma, and the doctors said I may not wake up. Even if I did, they said I may be brain damaged. They ran quite a few tests on me to determine if this was true, but I leave it up to the reader to draw their own conclusions on that one. However, I was able to pull out of it. This was in part due to my friends from Couples for Christ who with my wife formed a prayer circle around me, and to my sister who never left my side and continued to read to me even as others had given up hope. Even the nurses were in shock when I woke up after five days and asked for a pen to write down what I wanted. You see, it is kind of hard to talk when there are tubes stuck down your throat.