So I have had quite the week so far...
Started By
Yeah, totally bad week. o.O First things first, I'll have photos interspersed through this bit, so bear with me. WARNING: These photos depict a crushed up and absolutely totaled Blazer, and one of my arm with the stitches. If you are queasy or feel like you can't handle something like this visually, then don't click the links.
I was on my way to work for my usual 11:00AM to 7:00PM shift, wherein I'd then wait an hour after work in the lobby for Matt to get off. I had my cell phone set to play some music, and after getting it all hooked up to play everything I had and set it on repeat continuously and shuffle as it moved from song to song, I set it in the center console and left it there. No texting, talking on the phone, or anything of that sort occured while I was driving. I had the music part set up while I was still in the driveway. I also had done my makeup in the driveway before even backing out, so that was not what caused the wreck too.
Instead of going along Highway 19 through Gaar Corner and past Pickett, I go the other route, heading north towards Asher and turning right at the 4-way stop heading towards Ada. Everyone kept calling it Highway 59-A when I retold it to my coworkers and such. Anywho, the shoulders along there, until it merges into the larger highway (it's just before the 3-W Highway Auto Sales lot), are really small, and the edge is quite rough. I have no idea how I went off onto that edge, I must have not paid any heed to how the Blazer eased that way. Regardless, once I hit the edge I swerved to the left to get back on the road, and then swerved to the right to correct myself, then back to the left, and started rolling after that.
The passenger side got crunched far more than the driver's side.
This happened approximately at 10:35AM to 10:40AM. I'm presuming that I rolled somewhere between two to four times, counter-clockwise. The Blazer came to rest upside down, in the opposite lane. I'd been wearing my seatbelt at the time of the crash, so once I stopped rolling, my first instinct thought was "Get out, NOW." I unbuckled myself and crawled out, losing my right work shoe (it was later recovered). Several people had stopped, but as I had lost my glasses in the rolling, I couldn't make out definite detail, just general shapes of vehicles. I cried out for help and that I needed a phone and some cloth, as I could feel the blood dripping down my left arm.
Two people got on their cell phones and called 911, so as I asked the nearby people for a phone, it was to call my grandmother and let her know that she needed to get to where I was and fast. Amazingly, my phone was intact, having suffered minor scratches on the backside from skidding across the ground. I called Grandma at 10:45AM and alerted her of what had happened, then called my workplace and though I felt bad that they had three other people call in before me, I knew that Matthew couldn't go to work in such a frantic panic like he was in, and it was obvious I was in no condition.
While waiting for the EMT to arrive, the people who'd stopped walked through the ditch and gathered the belongings that were flung from the Blazer. Most of it was stuff Dad, Jared, and myself had loaded from Grandma's old house up in Wichita, and a good portion of those items were glass or ceramic. Luckily, only a soup bowl set was busted up, everything else of that fragile caliber was unharmed.
The kind people who gathered my things brought my shoes, which I had taken with me up to Kansas during Mother's Day weekend but never got out of the car after Matt and I returned home. Having lost my right sneaker, I decided to put on a really tall wedge, claiming that I'd rather walk funny from the slight height difference in the shoes, than walk on the glass that was all over the place. Someone brought me some napkins for my arm, which I gingerly placed over the wound. I knew I'd need stitches and it would scar really badly, but at the time, adrenaline was coursing through me and I couldn't feel any precise pain, just a general ache, like I'd had an all-over body cramp or something.
Finally, the EMT's from Valley View Hospital in Ada arrived. They got out some gold distilled water and rinsed off my arm a bit, then tenderly wrapped it to keep anything else from getting in. They initially thought I'd hurt my leg badly because I was limping, from the shoes being slightly different in height. I explained that to them, and they agreed to my reasoning. They asked me questions like who I was, how old I was and when was my birthday, my address, the date at the time. I believe they were doing that to check to see if I had gotten a concussion from the incident. I was talking normally as if it hadn't even happened to me.
Shortly after the EMT's arrived, Grandma arrived in her truck. Since the EMT ambulance was behind my Blazer, Grandma and Matt saw the overturned car before they saw me. Matt got out and rushed around, finally seeing me and nearly breaking down in tears of relief. I knew he wanted to hold me close, but since I was tender, I held up my hand to stop him and remind him that I needed to be handled gently for a while. He later told me that he felt white when he saw the blood on the road that came from my arm.
After gathering up the pile of stuff the kind people had gathered and putting them in the truck, Matt got me situated in the truck to get me out of the sun and heat. He poked around the Blazer, and lo and behold! He found my glasses on the passenger side, completely unscathed! I was very surprised, but I was not going to complain.
After receiving a citation for driving under conditions not reasonable and proper by the Highway Patrol officer, and signing off on the EMT's little laptop thing that I didn't want to go to the hospital in Ada, we finished up there and headed out. Matt got to see the tow-truck flip the Blazer back over, but I didn't want to see it then, having been through that ordeal, I didn't want to see how badly I'd come close to dying that morning.
We went back to the schoolhouse and unloaded some of the stuff from the bed of the truck into the brown garage, so that there was room for Grandpa's dialysis things after we picked him up, and we were running late on that. We picked him up, and went over to the hospital in Pauls Valley, since I'd heard from some people that the hospitals in Ada aren't all that great, and I knew that Pauls Valley would be much better. Besides, I'd told the Highway Patrol officer I'd be going there instead of Valley View in Ada.
The window I'd crawled out after unbuckling the belt that saved my life
The parking lot by the ER doors was near empty, so we nabbed a spot close to the doors. Matt went in and got me a wheelchair, and got me inside. The Highway Patrol said he would call in to the hospital to let them know of my arrival. They got me into a room really fast. First things first, they got me out of my shredded work pants (thankfully they weren't one of the two better pairs that Grandma had bought from a garage sale and fit me much more comfortably, but the still fairly new Rider's brand from Wal-Mart), tank top, and bra, and into a hospital gown, and covered me up with a sheet since I was shivering a bit.
The doctor ordered X-rays of my elbow, shoulder, knee, and lower leg, all on my left side. He also ordered an X-ray of my right shoulder to use as comparison to assess the damage. No broken bones at all, no torn muscles, tendons, or ligaments, though my left calf muscles are a bit swollen from the impact, we presumed, but it should go down, they said. The worst I had as far as internal damage was an AC separation on the shoulder. For those who aren't med-nerds (AHEM! MOM! ;]), my collarbone had moved out of position with my shoulder and it was going to require an orthopedic surgeon to assess that damage.
In the meantime, the ER doctor stuck my arm up with some lidocaine and got to work on stitching it up. He had to cut a piece of tissue out to make it a bit easier to pull close. He did a really good job on it. I was told by the nurse I got lucky to get the good doctor to patch me up. They gave me a sling to put my arm in to keep its weight off my shoulder a bit, but suggested that I use my arm as much as I could tolerate. That night, I couldn't use it much at all, but gradually over the next two days I could use it a bit more.
I took my doctor's note saying that I could return to work until I had been released from the orthopedic surgeon, and took it in on Tuesday when we took Matt to work. Lacey simply said to tell her when I was able to return to work and made a copy of the note so I could have one as well. I see the orthopedic doctor on Friday hopefully. If I don't get a call from Dr. Allee's office tomorrow I will be calling them to inquire about the appointment they needed to make for me to see one of the guys who came from Norman.
Better comparison of the Blazer and how the driver's side wasn't as crunched as the passenger's side.
I also asked for a mild painkiller to help me out, and the other doctor, Dr. Deana Andrews, prescribed me Tramadol, 50mg. It makes me a bit queasy if I don't take it with some food, either a full one or a light snack, but it does help a lot.
Today we went to the tow-truck's lot to get the remaining stuff from the car, which wasn't much. I found my cell phone case in the driver's side door, intact. The lotion I had in there for when I needed it was intact, though covered in grime. Grandma cut herself twice on the glass, though she tried not to. I didn't get any more cuts from the glass, though there was a pool of stagnant water somewhere nearby, and the mosquitos thought I smelled so tasty and delicious, so I've a few bites that itch, and it sucks because some of them I can't reach, because it hurts to move my left arm that much.
Today I am able to rest my left arm on the table and type normally and quickly without much pain, save for a twinge in my shoulder every so often. I have to clean the stitches twice daily, and I clean them when I first wake up in the morning and in the evening around 9:00PM.
I have a lot of pictures and three videos of the Blazer I took after we had gotten the remainder of the stuff that was in it. What I couldn't stand to look at on Monday, I looked at today with awe and the feeling I had experienced a literal miracle Monday morning on that road, as well as some photos of the stitches in my arm and photots of my neck where the seatbelt gave it a serious friction burn, something I'm honestly proud to feel since that seatbelt saved me from flying through the window partially and being crunched with the Blazer.
All in all, the whole ordeal has had a surreal feeling to it. Like, I KNOW it happened and I know how it happened, but it hadn't quite dawned on me until today when we were standing there looking at it. My Grandma signed the title of the Blazer to the wreckers, and tomorrow she's taking it to them, so they can scrap it and get it off our hands.
Whoo, stitches in my arm! Gonna be a wicked cool scar when it's all said and done and healed up.
Just wanted to tell my story, if it's very inappropriate, mods and admins, feel free to delete it and lemme know and it'll be okay. :)
I was on my way to work for my usual 11:00AM to 7:00PM shift, wherein I'd then wait an hour after work in the lobby for Matt to get off. I had my cell phone set to play some music, and after getting it all hooked up to play everything I had and set it on repeat continuously and shuffle as it moved from song to song, I set it in the center console and left it there. No texting, talking on the phone, or anything of that sort occured while I was driving. I had the music part set up while I was still in the driveway. I also had done my makeup in the driveway before even backing out, so that was not what caused the wreck too.
Instead of going along Highway 19 through Gaar Corner and past Pickett, I go the other route, heading north towards Asher and turning right at the 4-way stop heading towards Ada. Everyone kept calling it Highway 59-A when I retold it to my coworkers and such. Anywho, the shoulders along there, until it merges into the larger highway (it's just before the 3-W Highway Auto Sales lot), are really small, and the edge is quite rough. I have no idea how I went off onto that edge, I must have not paid any heed to how the Blazer eased that way. Regardless, once I hit the edge I swerved to the left to get back on the road, and then swerved to the right to correct myself, then back to the left, and started rolling after that.
The passenger side got crunched far more than the driver's side.
This happened approximately at 10:35AM to 10:40AM. I'm presuming that I rolled somewhere between two to four times, counter-clockwise. The Blazer came to rest upside down, in the opposite lane. I'd been wearing my seatbelt at the time of the crash, so once I stopped rolling, my first instinct thought was "Get out, NOW." I unbuckled myself and crawled out, losing my right work shoe (it was later recovered). Several people had stopped, but as I had lost my glasses in the rolling, I couldn't make out definite detail, just general shapes of vehicles. I cried out for help and that I needed a phone and some cloth, as I could feel the blood dripping down my left arm.
Two people got on their cell phones and called 911, so as I asked the nearby people for a phone, it was to call my grandmother and let her know that she needed to get to where I was and fast. Amazingly, my phone was intact, having suffered minor scratches on the backside from skidding across the ground. I called Grandma at 10:45AM and alerted her of what had happened, then called my workplace and though I felt bad that they had three other people call in before me, I knew that Matthew couldn't go to work in such a frantic panic like he was in, and it was obvious I was in no condition.
While waiting for the EMT to arrive, the people who'd stopped walked through the ditch and gathered the belongings that were flung from the Blazer. Most of it was stuff Dad, Jared, and myself had loaded from Grandma's old house up in Wichita, and a good portion of those items were glass or ceramic. Luckily, only a soup bowl set was busted up, everything else of that fragile caliber was unharmed.
The kind people who gathered my things brought my shoes, which I had taken with me up to Kansas during Mother's Day weekend but never got out of the car after Matt and I returned home. Having lost my right sneaker, I decided to put on a really tall wedge, claiming that I'd rather walk funny from the slight height difference in the shoes, than walk on the glass that was all over the place. Someone brought me some napkins for my arm, which I gingerly placed over the wound. I knew I'd need stitches and it would scar really badly, but at the time, adrenaline was coursing through me and I couldn't feel any precise pain, just a general ache, like I'd had an all-over body cramp or something.
Finally, the EMT's from Valley View Hospital in Ada arrived. They got out some gold distilled water and rinsed off my arm a bit, then tenderly wrapped it to keep anything else from getting in. They initially thought I'd hurt my leg badly because I was limping, from the shoes being slightly different in height. I explained that to them, and they agreed to my reasoning. They asked me questions like who I was, how old I was and when was my birthday, my address, the date at the time. I believe they were doing that to check to see if I had gotten a concussion from the incident. I was talking normally as if it hadn't even happened to me.
Shortly after the EMT's arrived, Grandma arrived in her truck. Since the EMT ambulance was behind my Blazer, Grandma and Matt saw the overturned car before they saw me. Matt got out and rushed around, finally seeing me and nearly breaking down in tears of relief. I knew he wanted to hold me close, but since I was tender, I held up my hand to stop him and remind him that I needed to be handled gently for a while. He later told me that he felt white when he saw the blood on the road that came from my arm.
After gathering up the pile of stuff the kind people had gathered and putting them in the truck, Matt got me situated in the truck to get me out of the sun and heat. He poked around the Blazer, and lo and behold! He found my glasses on the passenger side, completely unscathed! I was very surprised, but I was not going to complain.
After receiving a citation for driving under conditions not reasonable and proper by the Highway Patrol officer, and signing off on the EMT's little laptop thing that I didn't want to go to the hospital in Ada, we finished up there and headed out. Matt got to see the tow-truck flip the Blazer back over, but I didn't want to see it then, having been through that ordeal, I didn't want to see how badly I'd come close to dying that morning.
We went back to the schoolhouse and unloaded some of the stuff from the bed of the truck into the brown garage, so that there was room for Grandpa's dialysis things after we picked him up, and we were running late on that. We picked him up, and went over to the hospital in Pauls Valley, since I'd heard from some people that the hospitals in Ada aren't all that great, and I knew that Pauls Valley would be much better. Besides, I'd told the Highway Patrol officer I'd be going there instead of Valley View in Ada.
The window I'd crawled out after unbuckling the belt that saved my life
The parking lot by the ER doors was near empty, so we nabbed a spot close to the doors. Matt went in and got me a wheelchair, and got me inside. The Highway Patrol said he would call in to the hospital to let them know of my arrival. They got me into a room really fast. First things first, they got me out of my shredded work pants (thankfully they weren't one of the two better pairs that Grandma had bought from a garage sale and fit me much more comfortably, but the still fairly new Rider's brand from Wal-Mart), tank top, and bra, and into a hospital gown, and covered me up with a sheet since I was shivering a bit.
The doctor ordered X-rays of my elbow, shoulder, knee, and lower leg, all on my left side. He also ordered an X-ray of my right shoulder to use as comparison to assess the damage. No broken bones at all, no torn muscles, tendons, or ligaments, though my left calf muscles are a bit swollen from the impact, we presumed, but it should go down, they said. The worst I had as far as internal damage was an AC separation on the shoulder. For those who aren't med-nerds (AHEM! MOM! ;]), my collarbone had moved out of position with my shoulder and it was going to require an orthopedic surgeon to assess that damage.
In the meantime, the ER doctor stuck my arm up with some lidocaine and got to work on stitching it up. He had to cut a piece of tissue out to make it a bit easier to pull close. He did a really good job on it. I was told by the nurse I got lucky to get the good doctor to patch me up. They gave me a sling to put my arm in to keep its weight off my shoulder a bit, but suggested that I use my arm as much as I could tolerate. That night, I couldn't use it much at all, but gradually over the next two days I could use it a bit more.
I took my doctor's note saying that I could return to work until I had been released from the orthopedic surgeon, and took it in on Tuesday when we took Matt to work. Lacey simply said to tell her when I was able to return to work and made a copy of the note so I could have one as well. I see the orthopedic doctor on Friday hopefully. If I don't get a call from Dr. Allee's office tomorrow I will be calling them to inquire about the appointment they needed to make for me to see one of the guys who came from Norman.
Better comparison of the Blazer and how the driver's side wasn't as crunched as the passenger's side.
I also asked for a mild painkiller to help me out, and the other doctor, Dr. Deana Andrews, prescribed me Tramadol, 50mg. It makes me a bit queasy if I don't take it with some food, either a full one or a light snack, but it does help a lot.
Today we went to the tow-truck's lot to get the remaining stuff from the car, which wasn't much. I found my cell phone case in the driver's side door, intact. The lotion I had in there for when I needed it was intact, though covered in grime. Grandma cut herself twice on the glass, though she tried not to. I didn't get any more cuts from the glass, though there was a pool of stagnant water somewhere nearby, and the mosquitos thought I smelled so tasty and delicious, so I've a few bites that itch, and it sucks because some of them I can't reach, because it hurts to move my left arm that much.
Today I am able to rest my left arm on the table and type normally and quickly without much pain, save for a twinge in my shoulder every so often. I have to clean the stitches twice daily, and I clean them when I first wake up in the morning and in the evening around 9:00PM.
I have a lot of pictures and three videos of the Blazer I took after we had gotten the remainder of the stuff that was in it. What I couldn't stand to look at on Monday, I looked at today with awe and the feeling I had experienced a literal miracle Monday morning on that road, as well as some photos of the stitches in my arm and photots of my neck where the seatbelt gave it a serious friction burn, something I'm honestly proud to feel since that seatbelt saved me from flying through the window partially and being crunched with the Blazer.
All in all, the whole ordeal has had a surreal feeling to it. Like, I KNOW it happened and I know how it happened, but it hadn't quite dawned on me until today when we were standing there looking at it. My Grandma signed the title of the Blazer to the wreckers, and tomorrow she's taking it to them, so they can scrap it and get it off our hands.
Whoo, stitches in my arm! Gonna be a wicked cool scar when it's all said and done and healed up.
Just wanted to tell my story, if it's very inappropriate, mods and admins, feel free to delete it and lemme know and it'll be okay. :)