The Day My Life Turned Upside Down……….
As the last post I wrote states, I was emerging from a deep depression and learning to live life again. I was finally able to leave the house without having panic attacks. I got in my car for the first time since I moved back home and was going to run a few errands for my mom and also bring my laptop, blackberry and cell phone that had been issued to me at my old job to UPS to mail it back when my life took a drastic turn.
I threw on my cut-off yoga pants, a t-shirt, Reef flip-flops and headed out the door around 10am. I ran the few errands I had to run for mom. My next stop was to go to UPS. I was heading down a feeder road and as I approached the underpass of the highway, a lady in a Ford Focus was turning around under the underpass and was supposed to stop at the stop sign before heading onto the feeder road. Instead she came barrelling through the stop sign at about 50mph. It felt like slow motion. I saw her coming and there was nothing I could do but scream “No, No, Please, NOOO!” We collided and my car was thrown in a ditch and hers was pushed down the feeder road. My car hit a huge sign, rolled down the side of the ditch – over the concrete dividers, nose-dived into the ditch, popped back up and slammed into the embankment.
At first I thought I was dead. I sat there touching my face, screaming “Am I okay?! Am I okay?!” I crawled out of my seat-belt and couldn’t see anything because my glasses had flew off somewhere. I turned to my left and a boy was standing across the ditch from me screaming, “Lady, get out! Your car is on fire!!” My door was stuck and I pushed with all my might to get out and finally it snapped open. I crawled out the door and and he was sliding down the side of the ditch trying to get to me. I was crawling and moving the best I could but I was dragging my right foot and couldn’t get it to move. When the boy saw that I couldn’t move, he grabbed me and with every ounce of adrenaline in his body he yanked me up and got me away from my car and on the side of the ditch. He was this little high-school kid, who happen to have a flat-tire on his truck and had stopped to change it with his buddy. He was all of 115lbs and he had pulled me from the ditch. Amazing.
All of the sudden another boy and two men came over and were screaming at me to lay down and wait for an ambulence. Some more people were starting to gather around. I kept saying I was okay and begging them to please call my mom and dad. I was yelling their cell phone numbers out and work numbers out to anyone with a cell phone. I got up and started walking away from the ditch. I could tell my foot was hurt. My big toe was completely turned in.
The noise of ambulances and police started and was over-powering. I glanced over to see who I had hit and as I looked over they were removing kids from the other car. I started hyperventilating and asking if the kids were okay. Everyone around me was trying to calm me down and assure me that everyone in the other car was hurt but okay.
My parents arrived and I’ve never been more happy to see them. I was breathing and okay so I told the ambulance people that I would just have my parents take me to the hospital. Five witnesses were willing to give statements that the other driver failed to stop and the highway patrol gave her the citation. Her license was also suspended and he told me that as soon as she left the ER she would be arrested. There were 4 kids in the back seat of the Ford Focus, one only 2 months old. To add more drama to the situation, her insurance had became effective the day before this happened. Can you imagine?
After all the information was taken, my dad took me to the ER. We waited 10 hours in the ER and after all the x-rays and tests, they said I had major bruising, concussions, and a broken foot.
The days that followed were horrible. I would lay in bed screaming because the pain in my leg and foot hurt so bad. I went to a foot doctor in town and a foot specialist in Houston. The bone that broke split so bad that it tore tendons and ligaments too. They can’t operate on it anytime soon until the muscle heals around it. The bone broke so bad that it will never fuse back together. The bone pieces landed too far apart. In the future I will probably be facing surgery – a tendon graft. To add insult to injury the toe was completely out of joint, so the doctor in Houston had to give me four Novocaine shots and physically move the bone back in the joint. I would rather give birth to a porcupine than go through that again. Otherwise I was completely bruised from head to toe. I was burned everywhere from the substance in the airbags and sore all over. I also dislocated my shoulder and some joints in my fingers from griping the steering wheel.
Just in the past few days have I been able to walk without needing crutches, a walker or a wheelchair. It has been quite a few weeks. This has put my life on hold. I’m praying and hoping the foot heals and I don’t need surgery. The DPS trooper said he couldn’t believe I made it out alive.
My car? That’s a whole other story. They are currently deciding whether to total it or not. I bought it June 28th and when I got home from the ER that night there was a message on my cell phone that my plates were in at Mike Smith. I had not even gotten to enjoy my new car. The pictures make me sick. My brand-new 2006 Honda Accord – my dream car – wrecked. Complete sadness.
After the whole situation with my job, I sat around bitter, mad and not willing to let everything go. I questioned God’s will for my life. I will no longer question it. I guess I’m here for a reason.
Pictorial evidence – Click here.
