posted
In October, I had an emergency appendectomy and exploratory surgery that almost left me without reproductive organs. Last week, I had a tonsilectomy to correct two months of recurrent tonsilitis and obstructive sleep apnea.
And then yesterday, I was in a car accident.
My boyfriend and I had gone to a wedding on Saturday where we met up with some college friends and enjoyed a great celebration (boyfriend caught the garter). Then we decided to drive to my hometown just outside of Houston to hang out with my oldest friend who I have not seen since my family moved up to Louisiana four years ago. It was an amazing weekend! The best I've had in a LONG time.
I hadn't been driving all week due to my surgery and the resulting amounts of medications I was taking. But since I had finished the last of my meds a few days before and had been eating well and feeling great, I decided to drive the six hours home while my boyfriend relaxed and read Harry Potter. It had been raining for the past few days but living in Louisiana, I have plenty of experience with driving in much worse conditions on a regular basis. I know how to handle my car.
But apparently, other drivers don't.
Just after passing an 18-wheeler, we were hit by a wall of hard and heavy rain. I was trying to speed up to move back into the right lane without having to cut right in front of the truck when the car behind me decided I wasn't moving fast enough for his liking. Attempting what I've heard call the "ninja cut," he gunned his accelerator and then lost control of his car as he passed me. He hydroplaned, fishtailed, hitting the front of my car and pushing us off the road.
Even after discussing the events with the other driver, we're not quite sure what happened. I remember the initial impact and going off the road. I remember hitting the brakes as our car slid down the hill and trying my best to keep it straight so we wouldn't spin out of control or flip. I remember my boyfriend telling me it was going to be okay. We hit the standing water in the ditch in the median and spun, mowing down a sign as some point though we have no idea when or which direction we were going.
Thankfully, neither of us or the other driver was injured. My boyfriend called 911 while I, feeling like my job was done, proceeded to cry and angrily not talk the other driver who came over to check on me. The police arrived fairly quickly and called in an ambulance and tow-truck. Luckily, we have close family friends who lived only twenty minutes away and were able to come and pick us up and give us a place to sleep. One of them was even a federal judge and former police officer meaning he was able to help me make sure I understood everything I was being told and given.
Once the adrenaline wore down and I stopped freaking out about my parents (who hadn't wanted me driving this weekend) and the damage to my car, I realized how lucky we were. The accident itself was terrible, but the result was nothing short of a miracle. If the accident had occurred a few miles down the road where the median wasn't such a big ditch, we likely would have shot clear threw and been struck by oncoming traffic. If it hadn't been raining for a few days, we wouldn't have had the mud and water to slow us down. If we had been in the right lane, we would have hit some huge trees. If we hadn't gone off the road and instead spun in our lanes, we would have been hit by the 18-wheeler behind us. If I hadn't adjusted my seat-belt only twenty minutes before because it was rubbing on my neck, I would have tramautized my neck and opened my surgery scars or hemorrhagged. If my boyfriend hadn't stopped reading and uprighted his seat, he could have been injured from the lack of proper restraint. If the other driver had spun out a second earlier, he would have plowed nose first into the side of my car and seriously injured my boyfriend.
So many If-scenarios and we avoided the worst case of all of them. We were so incredible lucky. Especially to have help available so close. We're so lucky we weren't knocked unconscious because nobody stopped to help us or check on us. My car is pretty damaged but the bumpers can be replaced and hopefully the engine didn't suffer too much water damage. I'm just so happy that the two of us are okay. I don't know what I would do if he had been hurt.
To top things off, my dad injured his back yesterday and my brother's first girlfriend broke his heart. It wasn't a good 24 hours for our family.
But we're alive. Thank goodness for that.
The two of us are seriously spooked. My mother came and got us and drove us the two hours home. Since it was still raining, I spent most of the drive with my eyes close. Everytime I opened them, someone was pulling the same stunt that caused our accident. I'm okay with my car possibly being in the shop for a few weeks because I don't want to drive for awhile.
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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I've worked with auto insurance for 5 years now, if you have any questions from an insurance stand point let me know.
Posts: 3134 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
{{{{Shanna and family}}}} Wow. Just.... wow. I'm so hapy to hear that everyone is okay. Things can be replaced. People can't.
Posts: 4515 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
Yikes. I'm sorry to hear about your tonsils as well, but glad to hear that you still have your reproductive organs.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Glad you're all right. You certainly have a right to feel stressed out after that.
I witnessed a car accident yesterday. Watched the whole thing happen from just feet away, and I'm still feeling a little jittery. I was completing a right turn onto a side road when a minivan attempted a left turn from the side road onto the main road. The driver couldn't see around the cars in the oncoming right lane (which had slowed) and pulled out a little into the oncoming left lane. The driver coming in the left lane jammed on his brakes and slammed into the front left of the minivan, spinning him around. Neither drivers were hurt, luckily, but if the minivan had pulled out a tad more, both of them probably would be in the hospital.
The driver who hit the minivan was a coworker of mine. That biases me, of course, but it wasn't his fault. I couldn't give a statement to the police because of my bias, but there was another eyewitness who didn't know either driver. I just remember thinking "Oh, crap..." when I saw the minivan sneaking out onto the road, then hearing the tires squeal and seeing the impact. I honestly thought the minivan was a goner as soon as I saw her start moving.
Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
Yikes. I am so glad you are okay. Some friends from our former congregation rolled their car on the way home from vacation two days ago and the dad may be paralized. The daughter suffered a severe laceration to her stomach that actually ended up lacerating her liver.
I don't want to drive anywhere now!
Posts: 1132 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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