Car accidents suck

Sorry I haven’t been posting lately but I was in a gawd awful accident on my way to work almost three weeks ago; happened on May 30, 2017.

I was approximately 1.5 miles away from work – about a mile from the exit I needed to take in order to get to work – I was going approximately 70 to 72 miles an hour. I looked in the rear view mirror and saw someone behind me plowing towards me. I tried speeding up a little but that did nothing since someone was in front of me and I couldn’t go into the right lane (it’s a 4 lane highway; 2 lanes in both directions separated by a grassy median). The driver lost control of his car, went into the median, bounced back onto the road, hitting me. The impact was so hard that I had to fight to stay in my lane but I ended up in the grassy median.

I tried getting out of my car but I had to slam my body into the door to get it open and took a few tries to get it open but it eventually happened. I tried to see if I could help the other driver but he was alive but NOT really responsive. I went back to my car to call my brother aka my boss to let him know but he didn’t answer. I eventually texted him to check his voicemail and he did. He told me to get to the hospital ASAP. A witness came up to me to see if I was ok. I told him that I was in shock but I thought I was ok; he said that the other driver had to be going 80 to 90 miles an hour. Cops were called and they arrived not too much longer.

The ambulance came but ended up taking the other driver first. That had to put him on a back brace and a neck brace before he was put on a stretcher. A second one was called and brought me to the hospital as well. The hospital took X-rays and told me that the x-rays were fine but to go home, take Tylenol and Aleve and use heating pads. I was a little pissed at that.

My family came to pick me up and take me home. As soon as I got home, I showered and called the car insurance company to start a claim so that the ER visit would be covered by my insurance. They took care of everything.

The very next night I was coughing up blood, had stabbing pain in my abdomen and my neck. My step dad took me to our local hospital to get checked out. Once admitted to the ER, they set me up with an IV that contained saline solution to keep me hydrated, Morphine and Toradol for the pain and something else for my stomach. Not much longer, I coughed up a little more blood. The nurse took my blood and a urine sample. Eventually I was brought down for an MRI. That was read and they found “blunt force trauma” to my abdomen where the lap part of the seatbelt caught me and an old break of my tail bone. The ER doctor prescribed something for my stomach and Percocet for the pain.

I was discharged 6 hrs later and we went home. Once home, I passed out cold for a few hours. My step dad brought me to the pharmacy so I could drop off my prescriptions and then he dropped me off to so I could pick up a rental car. It took some time to get the paper work since I was spacing out from being tired. I stopped at the pharmacy to pick up my meds and then went home. I ended up taking both meds.

The following Monday – June 5, 2017 – I returned to work but only a part day and Tuesday was also a part day. The rest of the week, I was back on full work days. Friday June 9^th, I went to my primary doctor before work. He said that the reason why my back was still in so much pain was because my L2 (my second lumbar vertebrae) was compressed and the muscles around it were all knotted up. He prescribed another medication for my stomach and prescribed a muscle relaxant. On my way to work, I went to go pick them up. After a long week, I couldn’t wait to leave that night and go home.

As soon as I got home, I showered, got water for my night stand and took a muscle relaxant. Within 30 minutes, I was out cold until 2 pm. I was slow in getting up, showering, and slowly making my way downstairs. My mom and step dad didn’t want me to do any heavy lifting. After eating, I did some dusting and went to bed and slept until dinner. After dinner, I went back to bed. I slept most of Sunday as well.

Monday I returned to work and worked a full week. Friday night – last night – I went to the local chain drug store to grab a few things for my vacation in a week from Father’s Day and ran into my brother’s orthopedic surgeon. He knew something was off right away. He gave me his office number and told me to call first thing in the morning to make an appointment for Tuesday. I spoke with the answering service. Within 20 minutes, I received a call back. The receptionist told me that the surgeon told her to call me right away so I can come in. She was very pleasant to me and very respectful but at the same time it sounded like she had this tone in her voice like: “Who the heck is she to get special/preferential treatment from one of the top orthopedic surgeons in the state?” Little did she know that the surgeon considers both my brother and I as family.

The surgeon is a well respected man who takes his time with each of his patients, has a great bedside manner, makes sure each of his patients is heard and respected, and can put any of his patients back in one piece.