It's all good.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

The car misadventure of Concussion Girl

Thank you everyone for all the well wishes. They are very much appreciated. I realize that I haven't had the chance to fully explain what happened to me on Thursday, so here goes...

The roads were a wee bit slippery on Thursday morning. I made my usual trip up the river in the morning, driving a little more slowly due to the conditions. I was on the highway about 10 minutes away from the hospital when I hit a patch of black ice. The back of my car swung suddenly to left. Then it swung to the right. Then the car swung around in a circle towards the ditch. Then it rolled over on itself one or two times and came to a stop at the bottom of the ditch.

After the car stopped rolling, my first thought was to get out of the car, in case it exploded. So I turned the car off. My keys were stuck in the ignition, so I left them there. I tried to open the door, but it was jammed shut. Slight panic. Then I noticed that there wasn't any glass in the passenger side window anymore, so I could get out that way. As I shifted myself into the passenger seat, I noticed my vision was blurry, because my glasses had fallen off. I patted my surroundings in search of my glasses. Found them. Then I needed to find my bag, because it had my cell phone. I looked out the window and saw that it was in the snowbank 20 feet away. Good enough. So I crawled out of the car, went over to my bag, got my phone, and called 911.

Then I called the hospital and told them I wasn't going to make it to work that day.

Lots of cars and trucks had stopped on the side of the road by this point. I sat in a man's truck while waiting for the RCMP to show up. Then I sat in the RCMP officer's car while he filed the accident report. Then he drove me to the hospital (yes, the one I was supposed to be working at that day) to get checked out. My neck was starting to hurt, I had a bump on my head, and my hand was cut.

They took me in right away at the hospital and put a neck brace on me. I saw the doctor pretty quickly. He did an exam and found that I was having some tenderness on one of my vertebra, so he ordered a CT scan of my head and neck to rule out serious injuries. While I was waiting for the scan, I felt really dizzy, so they let me lie down. And they gave me a warm blanket.

The CT scan was pretty painless, but I was worried about my dizziness, and I really wanted to talk to my mom. It's scary being in the hospital by yourself, even if it's your workplace. Thankfully, some people I know came to see me and helped my get in touch with my mom. I was pretty shaky. All anyone had to do was look at me and I would well up with tears.

The CT scan came back normal, and then one of my coworkers drove me home to Fredericton. My mom showed up at my place a few hours later, and she's been taking very good care of me.

That night, aside from the fact that every time I closed my eyes I could see myself rolling into the ditch, I started having some vertigo. So on Friday I tried to see my doctor, but she was working in the ER, so we had to go there. We waited four and a half hours to see her, which really wasn't that bad, since we had nothing to do anyway. She told me that the dizziness and memory loss and confusion that I've been having is normal when you have a concussion.

It's going to take some time to clear up, so I have to rest for a while. I'm still a little shaky, but I do feel a bit better today. It's a little stressful, because I need to go get back to work, and I need a new car. My car is pretty much a goner, and right now it's sitting in a lot somewhere near Woodstock. I can't drive until I feel better anyway.

So that's the way things have been. I'll keep you updated.

1 Comments:

At 8:08 p.m., Blogger Rosey said...

Repeat: Thank goodness you're all right. At least you have a good reason for your concussion: I once got one from falling off a cardboard box. And aren't the warm blankets lovely? I hope you're feeling better soon. Sending hugs to you!

 

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