You know that 'tingly' feeling that you get when your hand/foot "falls asleep"?
Well, one night, my left hand had that feeling, and after shaking the hell out of it for a few hours...and that "tingly" feeling not going away...I got nervous/worried enough to go to a local ER and get it looked at.
"Luckily", it was only a "minor" blood-clot, requiring only "an extremely simple & routine" repair surgery.
Long (and painful) story short...
I woke-up/came-to almost 2 weeks later and 'noticed' that I seemed to be missing my left hand & wrist and that I was constantly experiencing blinding & incapacitating pain.
The "story" (which, I had to be told by my family as I was in a coma almost the entire time) was that, somehow, through a surgeon's negligence & incompetence...he 'botched' the simple, blood-clot reapair surgery.
*Yes*, I sued...and *Yes* I won the suit*
Apparently, after not only botching the surgery, there was too much (or maybe the *wrong*) anesthesia used.
This is what had me, literally, Comatose for all of that time.
While in the coma, they "re-assured" my family that there was no hope of me ever coming-back (out of the coma).
So, family members from across the country all flew-in to say their "last goodbye's" to me, a priest gave me the 'Last Rites'...and (thanks to my family's decision to ignore the doctors insistence that they just "save" everyone involved the time, money, and sorrow) and turn-off the machines that were keeping me alive - amazingly...surprisingly...obviously...and not inexpensively (for the hospital/surgeons)...I woke up.
Fast-forward over about 6 months of major depression, hopelessness, *extremely* painful physical therapy/Rehab...and, for the 1st time since the surgery, I tried to play a game (...which I was absolutely certain that I'd nevber be able to do again).
The game was Oblivion (on the PS3)...and god damnit if I wasn't able to do everything that there was possible to do in the game; one-handed.
This (along w/ meeting/dating - also an initially awkward experience after losing a limb- some nice women on-line) helped *Immensely*.
The combination of finding out that I was still capable of playing my favorite genres of games (turn-based rpg's & SRPG's ), some strong-ass pain pills, the love & support of my family, the warmth & companionship of my dog, and the realization (and re-building of my self-esteem) when I found out that it wouldn't affect/*END* my romantic, dating, and/or sex life...I slowly started coming back to life & getting into gaming again.
I'll also consider this my "INTRO" post, 'cause I'm not re-typing all of this again!