I am very blessed to be alive!! Most of you know I was in a car accident last week, and that I'm very sore & bruised.... but what you don't know is how amazing it is that my grandma & I weren't more seriously hurt. We could have been. If I had taken my little cappuccino colored Honda Accord that day, I do believe we would have been toast. Very seriously injured toast.
Fortunately, out of the kindess of my sister's heart ( and God's grace) I took Angie's nice, sturdy Toyota RAV to town to take Gram to her doctor's appointment.
I almost feel too traumatized to go into a lot of details about the accident, but I guess it might be rather therapeutic, so here goes...........
It all started with a SUV stopping suddenly in front of me, just off the freeway on a rather busy road through town. This is often where back-ups occur & you better be on your feet and look out for brake lights in front of you, or else! Well, I did see brake lights that day, and much to my great relief, I was able came to a full stop behind the stopped car. I didn't even have time to be grateful that I did, because only seconds after.... I heard the sound of a car racing up very fast behind me. Within seconds I felt & heard a tremendous crash, as a half ton pick-up truck slammed into the back of us. I know he didn't even brake before he hit, because I never heard the squeal of tires if he had tried to stop.
I can honestly say that I have no idea what happened after that. I was in such a daze. All I know is that it seemed like we were getting hit over & over, and I thought it would never end. I was sobbing, and wondering what to do. I found out later, that we had been pushed into the next 2 cars in front of us, causing more impacts. The force of the first, initial impact knocked off my shoes, sunglasses and most of the hairpins out of my head.
Almost immediately, I felt severe burning in my chest, and neck pain. Later I found out that the burning feeling was caused by the seatbelt pulling on me. Our airbags didn't deploy, for whatever reason. This could be a blessing or a curse, depending on how you look at it. I've heard the stories of air bag injuries.......
I'm not going to bore you with too much more, but I can tell you that it was very surreal hearing the approaching ambulance, knowing they were coming for me & grandma. You know how you always see or hear them, and wonder about who was hurt, well.... this time it was for me!
Getting strapped onto the back board was a blur for me. The sun was so bright that I could barely keep my eyes open as the paramedics worked on me. In my mind's eye, I can still see their concerned faces staring down at me as I lay on the board. If it hadn't been such a scary experience, I could have enjoyed having all those cute medics around me..........
At the hospital,they had to cut my shirt off to examine me. It was one of my favorite shirts, too. Sniff, sniff!! I was at the ER for almost 4 hours, and halfway into that time, it dawned on my tired & dazed brain that my family hadn't yet come. Evidently no one had thought to call them!
After all the ex-rays and the CAT scan were through, they found nothing other than a whiplash, and some severe bruising on my thighs, legs and chest. Thank God!! My grandma also had a whiplash & bruises, but she seems to be doing amazingly well in spite of it all. I give all praise and glory to God for keeping us from worse injuries!!
I still can't look at the pictures of Angie's wrecked car. They say the impact pushed the back of the car nearly into the back seat, and the front is also very damaged. Needless to say, it's a total loss! I'm so sorry for my sister! She loved her beautful car & misses it greatly.
I'm believing God has a reason for all that happened, and will in some way, bring good out it!
In the meantime......I'M IN PAIN!!!! :-(
