My interesting, albeit painful, week...

I do apologize for the delay on this post. Read to the end and it will make sense.

I started at a new job on Wednesday, March 11th. It's in my town about 2 1/2 miles away and takes me about five minutes to get there. Let's just say I'm thrilled with this new drive time! It's much better than the 45 minutes one-way that I was driving. It's a busy medical office that has had an interesting time itself lately. More on that later... I'm enjoying it but I do tend to leave late every day.

This rang true Thursday the 19th as I dropped off my wedding rings at the jewelers to be re-rhodium-ed, if that's the official term. The same was also true on Friday the 20th. Except today, we were running low on gowns for the office. So according to our contract with a local dry cleaners, I bagged them up and threw them into my car to drop them off and pick up some more. I left the office at approximately 5:40.

As I drove to the shopping center housing the cleaners, I pulled into the left turning lane and stopped at the light. As I patiently waited my turn for the green light, I noticed that the car headed in the opposite direction was trying to speed up to make his left turn before his light turned red. Or at least that's what I thought was happening. "Oh crap, this is going to hurt," was my last thought before he plowed into me head-on going approximately 45-50 mph.

He struck me hard enough to push me into the Blazer behind me but also hard enough to turn me slightly and push me onto the median. My final resting place was at least 20 feet back and facing three o'clock instead of twelve with my rear bumper slightly in on-coming traffic.

My car, a Saturn ION, held up wonderfully. The airbags deployed and played a major role in my safety. My engine crumpled without coming at me. None of my glass was broken. My trunk was squished but again didn't fold up into my back seat. My little plastic car did a good job. I walked away.

I wasn't unharmed but it could've been so much worse. Because I saw the car coming, I did something I knew better than to do. I braced myself against the steering wheel with my left hand. You know, one of those things they always tell you not to do? Yeah, I did it. I had about 10 seconds to recognize what was going to happen and respond. Oh well. That resulted in a broken wrist, in two places. However, that was the extent of my major injuries. I have a pretty amazing bruise directly under my left knee. I mean, it's amazing. Huge and multi-colored. Other than that, I have bruises from my lovely seat belt that saved my life.

I went to the hospital afterwards where they x-rayed my wrist and knee to make sure everything was okay. My wrist, as I said, was broken. My knee was just bruised. They splinted my wrist and gave me the name for an orthopaedic doctor. I went into Dr. O's office on Monday thinking I'd get a cast and would heal in 6-8 weeks. He had something entirely different in mind.

I left Dr. O's office on Monday with a surgery time for Tuesday. Yeah, not exactly what I was prepared for... Basically, I chip fractured my ulna but broke the radius to the joint. Dr O said he could set it manually but the pain would be excruciating and it most likely wouldn't stay there. That would cause future problems as I got older. The solution? A titanium plate screwed into the bone to set it and keep it there.

Sounded good okay to me. And it was, until Tuesday night when my nerve block wore off... The excruciating pain he mentioned? Well, it wasn't avoided. The block wore off about five hours before they estimated it would. I didn't have enough medicine in my system to keep it from going into shock. Let's just say that I hope that's the last time I ever reach a 9 or 10 on the pain scale.

Since then, things have been fairly smooth sailing health-wise. I did, however, find out that the driver that hit me doesn't seem to have insurance right now. Which will be... interesting. Did I mention he was born in 1930? That he doesn't remember the collision? He left in an ambulance with a neck brace on as did the passenger from the Blazer. I think they're okay though. Just the standard annoyingly painful whiplash.

As we fight with this whole mess, we still have to worry about replacing my totalled car. It's been an interesting week. I've gone through several emotions varying from pain to anger to contentment to overwhelmed. Thankfully, I have one more story that proves God loves us. Proves He takes care of us. I could've been much more severely injured but I walked away with only a broken wrist that was essentially my fault. He even cares about the small things and nudged me to drop of my rings so they wouldn't have to be cut off!

Can I say that I'm thankful that this happened as I stand on the verge of possibly suing someone? As I deal with the frustrations of typing and living with one hand? As I worry about being off work for a week from a job that I've only been there a week and a half? No, I'd be lying if I did. I am however, very aware of His hands at work as things are resolving and as our needs are being met. It was better me, who has a support system, a means of being okay, and age on my side for healing than someone else that may not have been in the best of health, without good insurance, or that didn't routinely wear a seatbelt. I'm not happy about it but I know He has a reason and I'm okay with that.