**Some pictures in this post are graphic.**
I woke up, after taking a few days of the antibiotic, with hives covering my entire head!! They were under my hair, on my forehead and on the back of my neck. I had a few random patches of them on various other places on my body as well. The worst was my head and neck. I had hives, large hives, overlapping on the back of my neck, so bad that I couldn't move my neck. The hives on the rest of my body were not just little ones either...I'm talkin' BIG welts! And man, did they itch!
Anyway, I wound up back in the hospital by Wednesday of that week to get a shot of SUPER-Benedril to make them go away...having them for what seemed like a decade with absolutely no relief was bad; very bad. So with the hives mostly gone, all hopped up on antihistamines and a strong dose of steroids I headed back to work . . .
It was Friday, February 1, 2008 and my husband was driving me to work (at the time we worked down the street from one another). It was very crappy out; a lot of snow, slippery roads and school was just canceled so we turned around and headed back home to pick up our youngest daughter from morning daycare. We were nearly in our back yard . . .
Have you ever had something so bad happen to you that you suddenly wake up and realize that life stings? I don't mean "sting" as in, "pinch me because I must be sleeping" kind of sting, but the kind where you, quite literally, cannot possibly open your eyes any wider and it hurts so bad that you know, without a shadow of a doubt that you are in fact alive? I do.
At that very moment, realizing where I was and how I got there was the first sting. Looking to my left and seeing my husband hunched over the steering wheel stunned or even maybe unconscious for a minute or two was the second sting. Shaking him until he came out of "it" was like taking that first deep breath when coming up for air and breaking the surface after a long swim under water. It felt good but then the "sting" came. I was panicked. It was surreal. I can remember each moment as if it was burned into the folds of my mind, like it just happened. It hurt so bad . . .
As my husband frantically tried opening his car door I remember looking around trying to find my door handle. The windshield was busted up and all I could see all around us was white . . . my head hurt, my chin burned and all I felt was pain. Where was our car? I started frantically shaking and crying. I reached for my door handle and as I did the car door was pulled open and a small hand reached in to me. I grabbed for it but couldn't get up. I tried really hard and was able to swing my legs around to get out of the car. The young lady who pulled me out of the car asked if I was OK as I collapsed into the snow . . . I couldn't feel my legs.
I COULDN'T FEEL MY LEGS!!!! Why couldn't I feel my legs? As soon as I was out of the car, my husband jumped out and checked on me and then immediately went to the mini-van that was now facing the opposite direction as she was going before she hit us and was in our lane. We were in a ditch . . . We were in a ditch and I couldn't see the front end of the car. I assumed it was just engulfed in the snow; I didn't realize that the front end of the car no longer existed.
 |
 |
 |
My husband said that the woman in the other car just sat there and wouldn't speak to him. I believe we sat there for about 15 - 20 minutes before a police officer came. I remember him asking my husband for his license and insurance and a brief description of what happened then is a blur. The only thing that I remember after that is another officer, from the county, asking for both our driver's licenses and then she never came back. She didn't even ask us what happened; just took our licenses and walked away.
 |
| The other vehicle. Not too much damage. Front end still intact. |
We learned a lesson that day, and no, it wasn't not to drive in a snow storm. But it was never let your car insurance laps, not even for a day or two like we did. Because of my surgery, the several trips to the ER and not getting my paid, we didn't have the $ to pay for insurance that month. That was definitely a sacrifice we shouldn't have taken. Oh, and the second lesson learned is don't use one of the no name insurance companies to insure your vehicle. When you laps for a few days, there is NO grace period to pay. So, needless to say, we were not insured at the time of the accident. Not a good situation. But, that didn't mean that the accident was our fault.
Well, we went to the hospital, they did CAT scans on my legs and checked out my husband and sent us home several hours after with crutches, leg braces and some pain meds. In waiting for the tests and stuff my left leg regained most of the feeling back except for a 4" x 2" area on the outer part of my thigh just above my knee and and then it was pain like I've never felt before . . . boy did it hurt. And my right leg has never been the same; my right knee, 3 years later still has no feeling and I wince when it is slightly touched. I've learned to get around like this. It took a while for my stomach and my chest to get back to normal as well, even though my stomach is still sensitive to the touch.
 |
 |
 |
 |
Saving you the details of going back and forth to court for over 2 years, my husband loosing his driver's license for over a year and a half and the fact that we were ticketed for the accident was the Mother of all nightmares. The sacrifices and time I lost doing for everyone else during those 2 years was very taxing. I learned a lot about myself during that time.
Well, after the accident and getting back to work, well sort of, I couldn't go up or down stairs and I couldn't stand for more than 15 minutes at a time even with crutches, I lost my job. My dreams, our home and our lives were flipped upside down. I never thought I'd live in hell, but here I was . . .
Well, after the accident and getting back to work, well sort of, I couldn't go up or down stairs and I couldn't stand for more than 15 minutes at a time even with crutches, I lost my job. My dreams, our home and our lives were flipped upside down. I never thought I'd live in hell, but here I was . . .
