Cofounder Bio - Jon McHann

Jon's Journey

I was born and raised in Northern California and had what most would say was a very active and normal childhood. Following high school, I moved with my family to Western Canada, where I pursued a degree in Commercial Food Processing and worked primarily in the commercial baking and flour milling industries. My career took a different turn when I found I could make more money in the transportation and distribution of all types of food products across Western Canada. My career was always a very physical one, with endless hours of driving throughout northwestern Canada in all conditions. Lifting hundreds of pounds a day was common. Where I lived and worked, I was also very acquainted with snow shovel operations. This lasted over 25 years and it was great.

About 5 years ago (2003), I returned to the United States and started driving tractor trailer. This is when I started having trouble. While adjusting my tandem axles in California, the handle I was pulling on broke off and I fell backwards against a stack of pallets. I got up and shook it off, although I was in great pain. Being hard headed, I got in my truck and headed east without mentioning to my team mate (my wife), that I was injured. By the time we got to Tennessee, I couldn't walk and was having bladder issues. We went to a local E.R. and was then sent to a large hospital in Chattanooga for emergency surgery. Five days later, following a multi-level disectomy/laminectomy, I went to my father-in-law's, in Seattle, to recover. A week later, in extreme pain, there was another emergency surgery. YEP…. major infection: the entire surgery had to be repeated in order to crush the infection.

Two months later, I was back at work. I loved trucking. The bigger, the heavier, the better....I loved it all. Made it a whole year without major spine issues. Then one cold morning in December, I slipped on a trailer. I shook it off, and took off making it from Seattle, WA to Bozeman, MT when I couldn't stand the pain anymore. In the Emergency Room again, I experienced my first epidural steroid injection (ESI). Rested for about a week and, yep, you guessed it ... back to work. Things went pretty well for about a week then I started a very slow decline. My left foot was a little numb, my right leg had pain, yet I kept on working. One night my right leg stepped through the deck of a trailer. I fell, doing a split with my left leg out, my right leg through the floor of the trailer! OUCH!

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