I meant to write this blog yesterday.... but I was too busy at a Third Day concert!!!! (geeper gee golly gosh... I LOVE them!) anyhow, as you can see by the date on the above picture, 2/21 is a pretty significant day for me. most people would rather not remember the day they were involved in an accident.... but that day was quite significant for me and I enjoy taking this day aside to thank God for His faithfulness and for the friends He's given me.
since I've got SOOO many new friends, I'm going to tell the story of what happened on that day. wait, hmmmm.... I think perhaps I'm going to see if I still have the original e-mail version of what happened that day and I'll copy and paste it (taking out the parts that have nothing to do with the accident at all. haha). that way you get the raw emotion of it all. (yes, lots of raw emotion... haha actually, I was quite calm and of sound mind, all things considered) and then after it, I'll add any little extra comments I have.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
first I want to praise God for His protection and loving kindess. He is a truly loving God and had His arms around me this aftenoon.
now for an explanation of what happened. this afternoon I was on the 60W Fwy going between my jobs. I was in the number 4 lane when a semi in the number 3 lane that was traveling faster than me cut me off in the front. he clipped me as I was attempting to swerve out of his way. because of the impact and swerving, I spun out. behind me was a second semi that couldn't get out of the way in time. he did all he could to not kill me and he was successful BUT I was still hit by him as well. I finally ended up at rest on the side of the road. the Budweiser semi (second one to hit me) ended up jack-knifed across the FWY. the first guy got away. I had a few witnesses stop and help me out. they were amazing. helped me call the CHP, gave me water and took pix of the car using my digital camera while I processed everything that happened. the Fire Department and CHP got there within 15 minutes. they were amazing. I'm so thankful for them. CHP was so helpful and caring AND amazed to see me alive. I could just feel God's peace through everything. when I was initially cut off all I could say was "Jesus, help me!" and just kept repeating His name and asking for protection and wisdom as to what to do. praise God I came to a stop at the side of the road! praise God for all the help I got and how ready and willing the witnesses were to help me out in any way.
now I need to ask for a few prayer requests:
1) for my physical body. fortunately I was not seriously injured. but I AM in pain (increasingly within the past hour) and I don't have health insurance. right now I'm feeling the pain in my head, neck, shoulders, lower back (I think it just aggravated my injury from last summer), left elbow/wrist and right ankle (aggravation of an old injury, perhaps). I'm also feeling some discomfort in my right wrist and left hip. pray for quick healing of pain and for some way for me to get very, very cheap or free chiropractic or massage therapist care.
2) justice. the guy that caused the accident took off and none of the witnesses that stopped got any information on him. CHP is going to check their 911 call log to see if anyone called in with any information on the guy at fault.
3) peace. for me, my family and also for the driver of the Budweiser semi that hit me. he was worried about me and repeatedly asked CHP how I was doing.
I'm including a pic of my totalled car and the jack-knifed Budweiser semi. praise God that I always carry my camera with me and there was someone there with presence of mind to take pix of the accident!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
so that's what I had to say the day of the accident. it appears I left out a small detail... when I went to the ER to make sure I was fine and dandy, the ER guy basically didn't give a care about me. he didn't have me get X-rays or anything. I told him exactly where my pains were and what had happened in the accident and his response was "it doesn't look like you broke anything. you'll be in a bit of pain but will be fine." and prescribed me some med's. also, the morning of the accident (and even just before it) I remember having such a peace. I was so happy and in God's presence the whole day. I was thanking Him for everything, specifically my friends. during the accident while I was saying His Name over and over again, my first thought was that I was going to die. it was odd because I had mixed emotions about it. I thought "I can't die! I can't leave my friends!" but then I thought "but I want to go to heaven!" as soon as I gave it all up to God, such peace came over me. I seriously thought I was going to die and was fully prepared for it. so when all the spinning and crashing was done on the freeway, I was honestly in shock that I was alive. I kept feeling my own body to make sure it was in tact and TRYING to find blood. (I didn't even notice til hours later, when I got home, that I did have some small scratches on my left arm... still not sure how that happened as there was no broken glass.)
ok, follow up from that original e-mail. a friend of a friend from church provided me with reasonably priced chiropractic care for several months afterwards. upon arrival there, 2 days after, I discovered that I had whiplash (DUH! of course I did... but did they check for it at the ER? no.....). also, I was informed that because of the 2 fractures in my lower back (from an accident the year before... it was a fall from about 7 ft, NOT a car accident) that I can never have my lower back adjusted. it sucks, especially when I'm in pain, but at least I'm alive. anyhow, that was such a great blessing! they never found the guy that originally caused the accident. and since neither I nor the driver of the Budweiser truck was at fault, our own insurance companies did whatever they stinkin' felt like doing. apparently I caused a bit of damage to that poor Budweiser truck. haha anyhow, we didn't get much from my parents' insurance company. they gave me $1,500 for medical. to put that in perspective; JUST the original trip to the ER, which basically achieved nothing, cost nearly $900. I had to pay about $500 of the chiropractic bills out of my own pocket (for the first month or so I was going 3 times a week and was paying extra to get some rehab and other stuff done since my back couldn't be adjusted normally), and I had to stop going because I didn't have enough money to keep it up. in regards to the car... all they did was pay of the payments for the totalled car. and they dropped me from my parents' coverage, so I can never drive one of their cars again even though in the report I wasn't at fault or anything. that was frustrating. on the medical side, I still have pain from the accident. mostly in my lower back/neck. but my knee, ankle and elbow like to act up every once in a while. usually they act up when the weather goes cold. BLECH! I had to wear an elbow brace and not use my arm (ok, so I didn't always follow that order... I'm really a bad patient. I like doing everything for myself! I had to ask a few guy friends of mine to watch out and make sure I didn't use my arm and if I did I gave them full permission to yell at me and take stuff away from me.) for a few weeks because my elbow wasn't healing. I still wear a knee brace when I do heavy hiking/walking. I also had to be very careful about how much I did cuz sometimes I forget about my back and I'll push myself too far in carrying stuff that's a bit heavy or whatever and the back pain would come back. fortunately, now I don't have to worry as much about using my elbow or back too much. they just act up whenever they darn well please. haha but when they're acting up, I've learned to baby them and I don't push myself as much as I would normally. (that was a HARD lesson to learn!)
but in all of it, I still see God's faithfulness and I use 2/21 to thank Him for His faithfulness, His hand of protection, His love and the friends He's given me. =0)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment