True Story Tuesday

Thanks to Rachel and Mr. Daddy over at Once Upon A Miracle for giving me a platform to share this.  Be sure to hop on over to their blog and link up to play along.

This is the sign that greeted us when I hauled RockCrawlinChef's banged up and bruised cookies into Urgent Care on Sunday...

I've been in medicine a long time and I've never come across "Fly Symptoms", unless they look something like this...

Nor do I know what "Sinus Symptons" are.  D'ya s'pose sinus symptons are 2,000 sinus symptoms?

Nor have I ever come across "Upper Respitory Symptoms", and believe me, as a mom of boys, I'm pretty sure that if there was such a thing as a spit symptom (actually, spit would be a sign, but we've already been down that route) I'd've heard about it.

We're not even going to talk about the exuberant use of exclamation points or the missing apostrophes (or the incomplete sentences).

RockCrawlinChef took one look at the sign, looked at me and asked, "And I'm supposed to trust these people?"  I assured him that the physician probably didn't write it, 'cause if he/she did, it would be illegible.

The Rest Of The Story

I made RockCrawlinChef go to Urgent Care, as I said in my earlier post, and he's fine (which I knew) and they gave him Flexeril (I didn't even have to threaten them for it).  No Vicodin, though, and I'm okay with that.  He seems to be managing his pain well with just 800mg ibuprofen.

Turns out, the accident wasn't exactly a rollover (Thank God), but more of a tip-over.

He and Partner were on the highway, which thanks to Mother Nature, was an ice skating rink.  They were only doing about 45mph and as they crested a hill, Partner saw brake lights, so he lightly tapped his brakes, hoping to slow down before they got to the cars at the bottom of the hill.  When he tapped his brakes, the backend of the truck started to slide out from behind them.  They ended up sliding sideways into the median, tearing it up pretty good.  The truck came to a stop sideways in the median, but the momentum carried the top of the truck right on over and they ended up on the driver's side.  They managed to miss everything: mile markers, guard rails, and median dividers.

A state patrolman was northbound on the other side of the highway and saw the whole thing happen.  RCC says that the patrolman was standing in front of the truck looking through the windshield almost before they'd come to a complete stop.  Partner immediately got out of his seatbelt and stood up, but RCC's seatbelt was locked up with his weight, so he was stuck in his seat on his left side.  Partner was able to get his shoulder up under RCC's hip and lift him enough that they could release the seatbelt and RCC could scramble up to standing.

Now, the thing is, armored trucks are made so that no one can get into them.  Which means that no one can get into them if there's an accident and they need help.  Luckily, RCC and Partner weren't that hurt.  But the doors on the trucks are heavy and they weren't really in a good position to get them open.  You know, one door was under them and the other was over their heads.  The driver has control over the doors, so it took RCC crawling up under the door, throwing the combat latch and heaving it open while Partner released the other lock.  Apparently, RCC had to stand on the side of the seat, put his back to the door and use his legs and back to lift it up and hold it open while Partner climbed up and out of the cab.  Partner then held the door so that RCC could get out.

RockCrawlinChef escaped with nothing more than bumps and bruises and Partner ended up with a small (less than 1") laceration from falling items in the cab.  I can honestly say that all's well that ends well, for that seems to be true.

Side note to Partner: the rubber side is supposed to be down!

Oh. My. God.

I had planned a cute litte post about the additions to our zoo, but before I could get there, I noticed that I'd missed a couple of phone calls from RockCrawlinChef, who had to work today.  My Chef doesn't currently work in a restaurant, though he's got the itch to go back.  No, he's an Armed Service Tech, aka Armed Courier, who works for a national armored car company, picking up and distributing money between banks and businesses. 

The fact that I'd missed three phone calls didn't bode well and I called him back, expecting news like "It took us forever on the shuttle, so I won't be home until late" or possibly good news, "We're making good time, so I'll be home early."

What I got instead, stopped my heart.

"Hey Babe, just wanted to let you know I'm okay."

"Uh..." I'm okay just means that something went wrong.  Of course, I know that his job comes with risks, but he's armed and good with his gun, but still...

"We were in a..." Please God don't say robbery.  Don't say it, don't say it. "Rollover."

Is it wrong to be relieved that it was *only* a rollover?  People are killed in rollovers, but I was immediately relieved.  If he was okay enough to call me three times, he was really okay.

He and his partner are both okay, though Partner's got a laceraction from flying debris in the cab of the truck.  RockCrawlinChef's back is sore and he was checked out by the paramedics at the scene, but I'm making him go to Urgent Care as soon as he gets home.  If his back is sore already, he's going to need some Flexeril (and honestly, I hate to admit it, probably some Vicodin) to get throught the night, 'cause once those back spasms hit in full force when the adrenaline's gone from his body, he's going to be in agony.

If thing's can go right in an accident, they did in this one.  They were on their way to pick up money, so the truck was empty.  Since the truck was empty, Chef was riding up front with Partner, rather than in the back in the messenger seat.  The messenger seat is the most dangerous seat in the vehicle because none of the "liability" is secured, so in an accident, the messenger is subjected to flying debris that basically becomes shrapnel.  Oh, sure, the messenger seat is surrounded by a "cage", but the cage doesn't stop all of the coin, it just scatters it like a shotgun into the messenger.

Also, because they didn't have any liability aboard, they were able to take care of themselves after the accident, rather than having to guard the liability.

To be continued...

Computer ITD Continues...

Good News: The IT God was able to get my laptop back up and running.  I love that man!

Bad News:  I lost pretty much everything.

Good News:  I had most of it backed up on my jump drive.

Bad News:  My jump drive also got an ITD.

Now the REAL nightmare begins...

Whew! I thought that the worst part of Monster's accident was, well, the accident. Hmmmm...was I wrong.

Last week as I was heading to the orthopaedist for Monster's follow up I received a voicemail from the owner of the car that hit him asking for insurance information. Since I was busy, I kind of blew it off, knowing that the important people (the hospital, the police, etc.) had all of the insurance information. When I got home from working for Mom at her B&B (http://www.allensparklodge.com/) this past weekend, I was greeted by a letter from the owner of the car seeking my Homeowner's or Renter's insurance.

No citations were issued in the accident, therefore no fault was assigned, so I was perplexed by his request. Turns out the owner of the car is not only a SOB, but he's also a personal injury attorney (kind of redundant, huh?) and by requesting my Renter's insurance (not that I have any) he tried to "trick" me into admitting that Monster was at fault in the accident and wanted my non-existent Renter's insurance to pay for the damages to his car. Not happening. No citations issued. No fault assigned. I'm not paying.

Wanting to make sure that I had all of my ducks in a row, I went to the police department to pick up a copy of the accident report and much to my dismay found it completely incorrect and incomplete. If whoever is in charge of accident reports was a student of mine in Medical Records, he/she would fail the class. We're talking legal documents, people! At least try to be accurate. And the icing on the cake - the written statement from the driver of the car is in TURKISH! The police department doesn't have an interpreter who can translate Turkish, so no one knows what the hell her written statement says.

UGH!!! Keep posted for further nightmare developments...

A Mother's Worst Nightmare

On Thursday, October 29th, I got the phone call every mother dreads..."Monster's been hit by a car." RockCrawlinChef, Digger and I were visiting Digger's girlfriend who had broken her arm badly when she peeled off bars a couple of days before when Ashee-butt finally got ahold of me to tell me that Monster was on his way to PVH via ambulance.

Monster was attempting to cross a street in his aunt's neighborhood, had looked both ways and started across on his skateboard when - BLAM! - he was airborne. A woman driving a Prius had turned the corner and neither saw the other when they collided. According to Monster, the sound of his wheels on his skateboard was louder than the Prius and he never heard her coming. The driver was doing less than twenty miles an hour (Thank God) when she hit Monster, but she managed to knock him clean out of his sneakers. He dented the hood and broke the windshield with his elbow, fracturing his left humerus, then completed two flips as he rolled off the car. His elbow hitting the windshield is probably what saved him from severe head or back injuries.

By the time Ashee-butt got ahold of us, he'd already been picked up by the ambulance and was on his way to PVH with his Aunt Terri, who saw the whole thing. Since Monster was supposed to have been on his way home from Terri's house, my first thought was that he was hit on Highway 287 and I was greatly relieved to find out he was hit in her neighborhood. The injuries would have been so much worse if he'd been hit on the highway where the speed limit is 55 mph.

When we got to the hospital, the police officer met us and could not get over the fact that Monster was getting away with just a broken arm. According to the officer, he should have been almost dead judging from the damage done to the car. So for anyone who owns a Prius or is thinking about owning a Prius, just know that an 85# child can total your car at very low speeds.

From the initial x-rays, we were pretty certain that Monster would require surgery to fix his arm, as it was severely displaced, and he was admitted over-night until we could get an orthopaedic consult. After a VERY long night on Peds, we finally got our ortho consult and got amazing news - he wouldn't need surgery after all to reduce the fracture! The ortho P.A. felt that his fracture could be reduced using a clam-shell type fracture splint and surgery wouldn't be necessary! I can't tell you how excited we were to get that news. Monster is a lousy patient and was already super grumpy over having been kept in the hospital over night. The thought of having to stay for surgery was almost more than any of us could bear - he may not have made it out of the hospital alive!

We made it through, though, and he's back home where he's back to the old obnoxious Monster. He got very lucky and understands how lucky he is to have come away from his accident with nothing more than a broken arm and a small bit of road rash. Bet he looks two or three times before crossing the street next time!