Sunday, January 27, 2013

My Fun Adventure

For those of you with questions and want to know the whole story, yesterday’s accident was quite an adventure. Maybe not a “fun adventure” as Kaiden put it, but an adventure nonetheless. I was heading to a Holucaust Educator seminar in Lakewood, which was to start at 9:00am. At about 8:15 I was southbound on 287 when I approached Baseline Road in Lafayette. I had the green so I didn’t slow for the intersection… and unfortunately neither did the guy with the red light coming from my right on Baseline. He was probably moving at the posted speed when he struck the right side of my car, and I didn’t even know he was blowing through the red until he was just a few feet away from me. It sounds cliche', but it happened so fast.

After the impact I couldn’t see anything because all the air bags deployed, I had the wind knocked out of me really bad, and there was smoke filling the car from the air bags. I had no control of the car as it slid left across several lanes into oncoming traffic.  The horn went off with the airbag deployment, and it wouldn't go off, which added to the chaotic feel of the event. My visibility was no good, so I don’t know if anyone was northbound as I was crossing those lanes, but no one else hit me, which feels like athe first of many miracles.
My first thought was that I was probably very seriously injured. My right side hurt terribly and it was hard fo me to breathe, so I assumed I had broken ribs, maybe a punctured lung?, hopefully not a flail chest injury, hopefully no internal bleeding or liver damage… I looked for my phone and called 9-1-1 to request an ambulance to the intersection. Many people had pulled over to help.

The first person to my car said, “I’m here to help. I’m an EMT, and [pointing to the woman next to him] this woman is a nurse.”  Seriously?! An EMT and a nurse are the firt at the scene?! The nurse was actually wearing medical scrubs and a stethoscope around her neck! I replied, “Oh good! I’m an EMT, too.” We all knew what to do. I stayed still. I got back on the phone to call Amy. It hurt to talk and breathe, but I was able to tell her I was going to be taken by ambulance to the hospital for an evaluation, and asked her to meet me there. Then I added, “I’m at Baseline and 287, and I can practically see Christina’s house from where my car stopped. Can you let her know?” Christina is one of my closest friends and favorite people, so it felt natural to let her know. While on the phone with Amy she could hear the sirens approaching.
The ambulance was there in no time, and the off-duty nurse and EMT who had come to my aid didn’t leave me until the ambulance arrived. When the paramedics go there I was put into an immobilizer collar while I sat still in my driver’s seat. I asked a couple times if anyone could find the glasses I had been wearing. No one could find them. They put me on a spineboard and loaded me onto a gurney then into the ambulance. They were thoughtful enough to ask what I’d like from the car, and they grabbed my purse and computer backpack.

My friend Christina was first to arrive at the E.R. – a most welcome face to see. She joked that if I had wanted a new car I didn’t have to smash up the old one quite so bad. She assured me that my car had done an incredible job saving my life, as she had seen the wreckage on her way to the hospital and couldn’t believe it. Soon Amy was by my side in the ER, too. She also saw the wreckage on the way, and it had her pretty shook up. When she gripped my hand she couldn’t contain her tears of relief. Kaiden was busy checking out the Emergency Room and all its interesting beeps, lights, and people in scrubs with masks and cool machines. Amy said that when they had gone through the accident intersection Kaiden saw “Little Blue” (our Honda Civic) and looked very sad as he said, “Little Blue is all broken?” Amy reassured him that it’s okay. She said I was okay, we’d get a new car to replace Little Blue, and he could even help us pick it out. His grief over our beloved “Little Blue” disappeared pretty instantly with that sentence.
Christina continued to be an amazing friend as she took Kaiden home with her to play with her son Jameson while Amy and I remained at the hospital, then she even offered to provide me with a pair of her pants to wear home, in liu of the ones I was wearing that had been drenched by a brand new 32 ounce cup of iced tea from Qdoba that had splashed into my seat during impact. Only a true friend will give you their pants.

The police officer from the accident scene came into my ER room and handed me my prescription sun glasses. “Are these yours?” Indeed they were! I asked if she found them in the car. She said, “No, they were some distance north of your car, in the intersection, close to the point of impact.” It turns out my glasses flew off my face and out of the side of the car where the windows had been smashed out. I have a scratch on my nose from that – maybe from the air bag knocking them off my face? I'll never know, but it was certainly a hard collision.
After lots of tests, IV pain killers and a CT scan, we were told there was nothing life-threatening for us to worry about – just bruises and sprains on my right side and ribs – and we were told I could go home. I opened my purse to find my regular glasses. They had been in my purse in a rigid glasses case in the passenger floorboard, and they were broken. Had anyone been in the passenger seat – or in Kaiden’s child seat in the backseat – there is no doubt in my mind they would have been killed. The whole event helped us realize how incredibly lucky we are to have one another in this family.

As for the man that hit me. I never did meet him. He was up and out of his car, which was also un-drivable after the collision. He sustained no injuries. When the officer came to my room in the ER she described him as “an older gentleman.” She said he reported that he thought he had the green, but several witnesses affirmed that he did not. He was cited for running a red light. The officer said there were no skid marks or reports from bystanders that he had tried to break or swerve before the accident. The impact was completely unrestrained.
Amy and I headed home with a prescription for Oxycodone. Christina kept Kaiden for a few hours while Amy was getting me situated at home and picking up prescriptions. Within minutes of arriving home I received a call from our family doctor and dear friend Mary. We weren't about to bother her with this story because she was leaving town for a nice weekend in the mountains. But the ER had called her office, and the office then called her – on a Saturday morning. She called me to get the details of what happened. She wasn’t satisfied that they had just prescribed Oxycodone, so she called Amy to keep her from picking that up until she had also called in Valium for muscle relaxation. Then she called the pharmacy to order the prescription, then called Amy again, and then called me to let me know it was all taken care of. All that on her “day off” while she was in a car headed out of town for vacation.

Once at home, Kaiden came into my room to give me a big hug. “No no no no no, Kaiden. You can’t hug me like that. I’m really sore.”
He replied, “Why are you sore?”
I said, “You know how you saw “Little Blue” all smashed up this morning?”
“Uh huh.” 

“Well, I was in Little Blue when it got smashed up.”
He gasped, then said, “What happened?” 

“Well, I was driving, another car hit me really hard, the ambulance came and took me to the hospital, I had lots of tests done to make sure I was okay…”
He said with bright eyes, “Wasn’t it a fun adventure?!”
That boy is the best. He’s so quick to smile and see things from a positive perspective. If I wasn’t so sore I’d have hugged him harder than ever.
So I posted his comment on Facebook and DOZENS of friends and family from all over the country - over 3 dozen and counting, in fact - sent kind thoughts, prayers and offers to help. John Rostykus even offered some fresh green chile stew, which appeared on our front porch within the hour! Thanks, John!!

It was quite a day. We are feeling remarkably blessed, and so fortunate that a) I lived; b) my injuries were minor; c) the strangers who pulled over at the scene were so capable and kind; d) “Little Blue’s” safety features all worked perfectly to save my life; e) we are able to call some really fantastic people our friends! And if that wasn’t enough to be grateful for, I also got a pair of socks with little rubber traction nubbies on the bottom at the ER, and I got John's fantastic green chile stew when I got home!! My gratitude is boundless.

Thank you to everyone who jumped to our assistance, to those who conveyed support online or in text messages and phone calls. And for those praying for speedy healing. It seems to be working, as I awoke this morning with far less pain than I was anticipating. We are exceedingly blessed, and exceedingly grateful. J Love you all!!