As if the first wedding
horror story wasn't enough...
When we arrived back in Atlanta after our honeymoon,
we went straight to my place to drop off the luggage,
grabbed a quick bite to eat, and then headed off to
Cheryl's where I was planning on helping her mow &
weed-kill her lawn, as well as pack up some of her
things and start moving her into my place.
Well...that didn't work out.
Less than 2 miles from my place, and less than 3 hours
after arriving back in Atlanta, I was stopped beside a
school bus (4-lane road), just behind the buses
retractable stop sign when SCREEEEEEACH...WHAM!
I was rear-ended...hard. But that's not the bad
part. We pulled our cars out of the traffic
lane, into the center turn lane, and then while I was
outside of the car, dealing with that accident, and
calling 911 on my cell phone, someone who was too
impatient top merge to the right with everyone else,
decided to zip past the accident (way too fast, and
apparently not looking forward (maybe looking at the
smashed cars?) hit me. Yes, hit me, as in my
body. I went flying about 10 feet. She was
moving fast -- far to fast for passing an accident
scene, and far to carelessly. She didn't appear
to have even hit her breaks before hitting me (in fact
Cheryl thinks she was accelerating), nor did she slam
on her breaks after hitting me! We wonder if she
even realized she had hit a person! She pulled
stopped about 50-60 feet later, just past the next
side-street. (I can only thank God that grazed
me with the side of her car and didn't hit me
head-on.)
So,
that left me with a wrenched back (though not too
bad), painfully bruised ribs (later found to include
one fractured rib) and a severely sprained
(quite torn up -- hugely swollen) ankle and foot...plus some
comparatively minor abrasions to my shin, knee and elbow.
As of writing this, it's been 2-1/2 weeks, and I'm
still unable to work (can't go long without laying
down and elevating my leg & icing it, plus my ribs
hurt terribly when using crutches and/or hopping, and
it's a long walk in from the parking lot at
work...plus I really don't know yet that I can drive
safely between the pain killers and the giant "Air
Cast" ski-boot-like thing on my left foot). The
swelling has not gone down much yet, and the doctor
thinks it will be 4-5 weeks from the accident before I
can put weight on it enough to walk across the room,
and a good 3 months before it's back to normal --
barring any unforeseen complications arising.
Again, poor Cheryl! I'm sure she wasn't thinking
the "in sickness and in health" clause would be
kicking in the moment our honeymoon ended.
Instead of a helpful, fun husband who takes her out,
she's stuck being a nurse, taking care of me. I
must say, however, that she is wonderful. She is
sweet, helpful, and she's yet to complain, even though
my inability to sleep (pain) is killing her sleep as
well. I feel terrible that I couldn't start off
the marriage being a great husband back to her.
I can't help her move her stuff here. I can't
help her cook, clean, etc. We're going to miss
the best time of the year for hiking (which we both
love), as well as other springtime festivals around
the city. She's stuck with being my nurse,
housekeeper, cook, and pretty much only companion
until I can get out of the house. All I have to
say is that I definitely married the right woman (not
that I ever had any doubts). I just hope I
recover quickly and without any complications or
long-term affects. Cheryl deserves the guy she
walked down the aisle with, not an injured guy!
Update as of 5/6/04 - I'm finally back to work.
I returned part-time on 5/3 after being out for 5
weeks. I should be back full-time by next week
if things don't worsen. I also started physical
therapy, which the doctor and PT expect to be required
for at least 3 times/week for a month, potentially
longer. Quoting the PT, "Wow, that foot is a
mess!" She also said to expect some swelling to
last up to a year! Still, it seems to be much
better than just a week ago. The more painful
thing at this point is my fractured rib...painful and
a pain in the butt because I can only lay comfortably
on my back to sleep, which just aggravates my
messed-up back, is keeping me (and consequently
Cheryl) from getting a good night's sleep (I never
could sleep well on my back), and is preventing
treatment for the back because I can't lay on my
stomach...as well as preventing other activities.
The
ER's X-Ray on the day of the accident had to be taken
from a bad (reverse) angle because I couldn't stand w/
my ankle injury, and they couldn't lay me on my
stomach in case there was a break. That X-Ray
didn't show the fracture, but I was told that it
wasn't 100% positive due to the angle of the picture,
but was probably just bruised. It had gotten
better over about 4 weeks, so I was thinking it was
just bruised...then doing nothing but simply bending
over, it popped...and did it again a few days later
when bending to wash below my knees in the shower (I
can't lift my right left up b/c I can't stand just on
my left leg in the shower). That was very
painful, so I went to my doctor and had them
re-X-Rayed and found that the 6th rib was indeed
fractured. There's really nothing you can do for
ribs, but I have to take it easy for another 8
weeks, which, if either or both of our homes sell
during that time, means having to hire not only
movers, but packers too, because of my doctor's orders
to no exert myself in any way. Bummer!
So...generally good news on the foot & ankle front,
not so great news on the rib front....but overall, I
suppose I'm in good shape considering that I could
have ended up dead or paralyzed if she had hit me
head-on. Tip of the
day: Don't get hit by a car.
Update as of 11/15/2004 - I'm not sure when I last
saw the doctor (around September), but I was just
about finished with my "formal" P.T. (still more to do
at home), and the orthopedic doctor said if I wasn't
near 100% by the end of the year to come see him
again. Well my ankle has definitely been
improving much more rapidly, but my darn rib is still
an issue, particularly when lying down -- I really
haven't gotten a good night's sleep since March 26th
(the accident). I went to my regular doctor a
couple weeks ago for my annual physical and he wanted
the ribs re-X-rayed again. Well, the fracture
was still present. Not that there was anything I
could do (other than continue to be careful), but at
least it explained why I still had the pain. The
ankle isn't bad unless I'm on it a lot, and then it's
okay again if I give it an hour's rest, but the ribs
are really being a pain! (Pun intended).
The other thing that started really bothering me about
a month ago (had started longer ago, but about a month
ago became an issue) is my opposite (right) knee and
hip, especially the hip. The doctor thinks it's
a result of having favored my left leg (ankle) so much
that my right joints are paying the price.
Hopefully it will improve and I won't need treatment
for it.
Update as of Christmas, 2004. - In the past 6
weeks, my ribs have finally improved significantly.
Just within the past few days I've finally been
sleeping good again. I hope that improves my
mood and efficiency at work. It should. My
ankle is almost a non-issue now. It still pops
sometimes, and will swell up a little from time to
time, but I'm so happy my ribs are almost all better
that I can't complain about the ankle. My right
hip is still an issue -- no worse, but no
better....but since it stopped getting worse, I'm
hoping I'm over the hump and it will start to improve
without having to go get more PT for that!
Update as of 3/26/2005 - It's been exactly one
year since the accident. Every once in a while
there's some tenderness in the ribs, but I bet the
bones are healed and there's just some bruising around
them that will be better in no time. They aren't
affecting my sleep at all anymore at all. (Knock
on wood!) Cheryl and I went for a pretty long
walk last night around the neighborhood, and another
today out in the woods, and my ankle held up fine.
Every once in a while if I stepped on a root the wrong
way it would jab a little, but nothing that lasted
more than an instant. After we walked and I had
been off of it, it stiffened up some, but moving it
around a little loosened it back up quickly.....Oh,
and it still pops from time to time. I'm not
quite back to 100% after a year, but I think I'm close
enough that I won't have to go back to the
doctor...UNLESS, of course, my right hip doesn't start
improving soon. The knee does hurt some if I
walk a long distance, or even driving for a long
period of time, but the hip (which overall is the
bigger inconvenience) doesn't really hurt in most
cases -- I just can't flex it certain ways. I
can't cross my right leg, or sit "Indian Style", etc.
without a lot of pain. It's
probably (hopefully) just muscular as a result of
over-use while favoring the injury....time will tell.
Since I'm at the 1 year mark, I think this will be my
last web entry about this, so long as my hip doesn't
lead to anything serious.
