Candid Pictures of My Disaster

 If I can pull another excuse out of the bag as to why I haven’t been here lately, I’ll take my best shot.  Here are some quick pics of what I’ve been up to lately

 I was driving home a few weeks ago, and I was no more than 1/2 mile away armed with a few  movie rentals to enjoy with my wife in front of the fire on a night without children.  It had started snowing about an hour before, but only about 10 minute prior, it started coming down really hard.  There was maybe 1/2 inch to a full inch of fresh snow on the roads, but from what I felt in my Pathfinder, it was still smoothe sailing.

I vaguely remember thinking how glad I was that my car was so “safe”, with the slip protection control, the automatic 4×4, the really-good-anti-lock breaks, the fact that it’s big, etc.  It completely slipped my mind that other people may not have that same luxury. 

The road I was on was straight, flat, and otherwise, completely safe.  There were a few side roads with stop signs, and I know the road like the back of my hand.  I noticed the car to my right, ahead of me, pulling up to the stop sign, but by the time I noticed that they weren’t stopping, the car was only about 15 feet in front of me, and I was going 30-40 mph on snow —BOOM.  I had just enough time to cut the wheel hard to the left, which at least kept me from smashing her driver-side door; I hit more of the front-end, which I would imagine saved her a LOT of pain.

After impact, I apparently spun across 4 lanes, 2 oncoming, and luckily no one hit me.  I don’t remember that, and I don’t remember the airbag or anything up to getting out of the car and calling for help.  I remember calling my wife and saying “I got into an accident, don’t worry, I’ll call you with details”.  I knew I was bleeding like crazy from my head and would be going to the ER, but I figured if I got into a wreck, I certainly don’t want her driving out here to come see me.

Since I was only 1 minute from home, she decided to come check on me and help me. Based on how she perceived the situation and the clarity of my voice when I called her, she was a little shocked to see me on a stretcher, tied down, in neck and leg restraints with blood completely covering my face.

Here I am in the ER.  I took this picture of myself after I got stictches in my hairline and after the blood was cleaned up.  You can still see some smeared across my forehead and on the bed, but most of the carnage was gone at this point…  about 6 hours after we were admitted :-/.

Here’s my  Pathfinder.  ~$16,000 in estimated repairs at this point.  Looking to get it back at the end of Jan (40 days total).  I sure hope they do a good job, I don’t want to have keep taking it in for more repairs :-/

Here’s my leg.  I remember in the ER saying that my legs “kinda” hurt.  I had no idea how bad they were until the next day.  This bruise ended up taking over my entire left leg at one point.   The knot was about the size of a baseball.  It’s still there.

Just at the time that I was able to start winding down the painkillers and muscle relaxers and start moving around a bit, I got the flu.  Just in time for the holidays.  On top of all that, apparenly I had some sort of post-concussion syndrome or whatever that was causing me to be lathargic, depressed, nausious, weak, dizzy, and all that good stuff.  I’m surprised at this point that I don’t have bedsores from all the time I spend just laying down or sitting. 

You always think “I can take care of myself”, at least I always do, and you probably can take care of yourself, but it’s times like this that really make you feel thankful for your friends and family, and especially your spouse if you have one.  I’ve never really been in a bad accident before; there’s just a lot of stuff you don’t think about that needs to be taken care of.  Getting things out of your car, talking to the police, driving you around, getting medicine, getting a rental car, talking to the insurance companies, etc. 

Thank God for my wife or I might still be on the side of the road.