It was just after dark, my wife and I were headed to town for dinner, celebrating what felt like our imminent success. With a lifetime of research, my website Rapid Uptake Book dot com up and running (now shut down after the #headrestexplosion), interest from a major publicist and a writer at Forbes, with a documentary in the works, life was thrilling. Investor meetings, high-profile attorneys, developing a team—it was all coming together, even a backup holding a 98.8 GPA in cyber security course work. The dream of getting off Social Security Disability, despite my congenital spinal stenosis, seemed within reach.
I was licensed to work with any legal medical cannabis dispensary in Arizona, having helped bring MMJ legislation to the state as a former AZ State Deputy Director of NORML. My wife had already hopped into our Jeep Patriot's passenger seat, laughing at something I was saying mid-sentence. When I got in, leaning back, pulling the door shut, BOOM! The headrest exploded from close proximity, sending my head catapulting, my chin bouncing off my left chest. Concussion, TBI, 3-level neck fusion, speech therapy followed. The kicker? In that moment, I thought someone was hiding in the back seat, and going to kill us.