I had a long night before and was debating whether or not I was going to get up and actually go to ballet this morning. My body was sore, my knee was killing me from spring break, and I was just planning on staying home.
I convinced my self to go anyway, got ready, poured myself a bowl of cereal, ate half of it, and realized I was going to be late so I hurried to my car.
I got in my car and started to drive.
I had the impression to change lanes but I thought to my self
"Why would I change lanes, there is no one in from of me, and there are so many cars in that lane."
I looked to the left to see if I could change lanes, looked down and then when I looked back up [all of this happening within 3 seconds]
the car I was coming up on was stopped.
I slammed on my breaks with all my might, straight leg, straight arms, I was going to make this car stop, I had enough space. But for some terrifying reason it wasn't. My breaks weren't working, not like they should have been. I skidded for 39 feet with my body completely stiff, until I realized my car wasn't stopping I took my foot off of the break curled into a ball and waited for the impact.
When I knew it was coming I closed my eyes and waited. I heard the cars hit and then my body whiplashed. I curled in a ball to my right and had my body contracted, but the force was too great and my head was released and thrown straight into my steering wheel. And my car skidded to a stop.
At first I didn't know what had happened. I was shaking but ok.
And then it hit...
I sat up and caught a glimpse of my face in my rearview mirror and lost it.
My head started pounding, my body started shaking, and I started to cry uncontrollably.
I immediately went into shock. One of the ladies on the corner came running to my car and opened it up.
"Are you ok? Ma'am are you ok? Do you want to get out?"
I couldn't really process what she was saying all I could think and say was
"I can't move my neck! What happened?! Why can't I move my neck?!"
"Who has a cell phone?! Is someone calling 911?!"
and then I started to sob
"I have the worst headache, I can't look at anyone, and my neck hurts so bad..."
I looked out my window, and saw the other 2 cars, not as bad as mine and the people in them were ok, they were out and about and walking around with their phones to their ears.
I grabbed mine and tried calling my dad... and then my mom... then dad.... then mom.... No answer......
I was alone and I was hurting and freaking and I couldn't remember what had happened.
I had to mentally remind myself to breath and to calm down because I couldn't breath and I needed to take my adrenaline down so when I had to answer question I would be able to.
Then the cops came,
"Ma'am, can you tell me what happened?"
"I... can't really remember.... I know I looked down for a second and when I looked back up they were stopped. I tried to stop but my breaks didn't work."
"Were you looking at your Cell phone."
"No I was not."
"Did you have your seat belt on?"
"What?"
"Did you have your seat belt on?"
I sat there.... did I? Did I put it on when I got in my car? Did I forget?
"I... don't remember. I'm positive that it was."
"Ok, do you need assistance, does anything hurt."
"Yes, I can't move my neck, and my head hurts so bad."
They asked me some more questions and were actually really nice about things
[probably because I was having a nervous break down]
next thing I knew the ambulance was there. They asked me some more questions, and then told me that I had hit my head on my wind shield. I kept telling them that
"I didn't I promise. I had something in my hand. I... can't remember what it was. But that's what broke the windshield not my head, I'm positive I had my seatbelt on."
"Sorry little lady, the abrasion on your head matches the break and is in the same place. You are just lucky you aren't bleeding."
[Trust me if my head hit the windshield the way it was broken I would have definitely been bleeding, and hard core too.]
So of course they asked me the exact same questions the police man did because no one communicates and you have to answer them to anyone new you come in contact with even if they are all in the same place. And I'm pretty sure asking someone a million questions when they are in shock isn't the greatest. I had to remind myself to breath so many times, because I could feel myself freaking out.
The only way I wasn't freaking out was by cracking jokes with the paramedics. Because thats what I do when I freak I laugh and make jokes. So they put the neck brace on me [child size because my neck was too small.] and got me strapped down on the stretcher. and off to the hospital we went.
I yet again answered the same questions, plus a little more, to the paramedic in the back of the ambulance with me. Laughed some more, and then we were at the hospital.
AND again the nurse and paramedic were standing right next to each other and she was asking me the same questions. I was trying to be polite, but I was getting annoyed.
I was wheeled into room 25 and met my doctor [don't remember his name, doesn't matte] and they transported me from the stretcher to the hospital bed..... and when they tried to pull the board away I shouted over them.
"My hair! You velcroed my hair! Your pulling my hair out"
ha all the women nurses sternly looked at the male paramedics and said
"Seriously guys, you didn't move her hair?!"
haha I'm not going to lie I laughed to myself, it just made me laugh.
Well, they got my hair out and then they came to take my blood and put my IV in. And of course they had a nurse in practice come and she had to poke me like 3 times before she figure it out, and it hurt SO bad.
I normally have no problem at all giving blood or getting shots, but that's normally because I watch them the whole time so I know what is going on. I had a panic attack because my neck was strapped and I could only look at the ceiling, and I could feel has hesitant she was. I could feel her nervousness, and so it made me have a panic attack. I started crying, and I tried so hard to relax, to make my muscles stop contracting, but I couldn't I was so terrified. When they finally got the needle in I asked if it was too far in because it was hurting really bad and it had never hurt like that before. They didn't answer me and went on their merry ways [such nice people]
I was then wheeled into get a CT scan of my head and neck and my internal organs to make sure there wasn't anything broken or messed up, [oh right before this I was able to get ahold of my dad so he was on his way] When I was done, my dad was waiting in my hospital room for me and I instantly felt better. I knew someone was there and I was ok.
A few minutes later the nurse came in and told me I was ok, nothing was broken and that I was able to go home, they took the brace off of me and gave me some meds and sent me on my way.
I am now terrified of cars.... I had to close my eyes the whole way home from the hospital because I kept freaking out. And I thought I was home free with no freak outs, when I decided to open my eyes, and the car next to us honked their horn really long at someone and I just lost it. I cried the whole rest of the time, and I just had to calm myself down.
I got home and told the story about 9 times to different people, and then decided to take pictures.
Please don't mind my nasty face.
This is the bump on my head. It had gone down a little bit since the accident and this was as good as it was going to get.
My sad sad car. I am seriously so sad that Little Ruby is dead :(
Today I woke up very stiff and sore, and still in a lot of pain, but I am so grateful that nothing worse happened, and today I woke up with a beautiful black eye and swollen face... haha
