Achiness, bones I never knew existed, and a crumpled car

[fenchurch]

Thank you all so much for your good wishes, they have really meant the world to me, especially these first few days... you have no idea how much.

Typing is still incredibly difficult... not only am I one-handed, but the fingers on both hands are still sore (I suspect it's from gripping whatever happened to be nearby during the rolls), with one sprained or strained finger on my left hand that I really can't use for typing at all.

The stitches in my elbow are beginning to itch, which I suppose is a good sign, but is probably going to drive me crazy. My shoulder is, understandably, excrutiatingly painful... I finally got a gander at the notes the doctor made for me (since I suspected I wouldn't remember much of what he told me). I've got two fractures in the distal clavicle, and the bit I kept feeling moving was the nice clean break in the acromion process. Yeah, I'd never heard of it before, either.

The next morning Rackham and his parents drove over to look at the car... turns out the guys who had first stopped for us (and had covered the car with a tarp and had helped gather up a bunch of our stuff that had been flung out) had told the tow truck driver to keep the tarp on the car, so he'd tied it down for the trip to the wrecking yard (where it was placed in covered storage), which meant all our stuff ended up staying relatively dry.
Rackham took a camera with him and got a few shots of the car, I may look at putting up a few more later:

A front view of the car (with a VERY bad (as to be almost unrecognizable) picture of Rackham's dad, with Rackham standing behind him)..


And a view of the back -- the box you can see in the rear window is one of two we used to haul Christmas presents home. Rackham had gotten the idea as we were loading the car and had snagged some large old boxes from his parents' garage, loaded them down with stuff and then sealed them with packing tape. It ended up meaning a whole lot less stuff flying around the interior when we rolled, and we also ended up losing very little.

All in all, the car did exactly what it was designed to do, give its life to save ours. It's a crumpled mess, but we're still up and walking (albeit painfully at the moment) and talking and my shoulder should heal up in just a few months (if I don't go stir crazy first).

We went through my father-in-law's travel agent today and managed to book an aisle and window seat on a flight out this Saturday for a really reasonable price... and if we wind up getting someone assigned to the seat in the middle we can always look at swapping around... but she didn't think we'd need to. I'm really anxious to get home, even though it means we won't have all these hands around to help anymore. I want my own bed and I miss my cats, and I just want life to get back to some semblance of normalcy.

Comments

[meyerlemon.livejournal.com]

YIKES!!!!!

Thank HEAVENS that you got out of that okay! (hugs)

[magista.livejournal.com]

Wow. Somehow in all the "fun" of New Year's Eve I missed the original post of yours. Thank goodness you're okay and well enough to be annoyed by the healing process (which is the only one I know other than the xiphoid process, from CPR class...).

And of course you can't have a nice constricting, pain-reducing cast for your clavicle. That really must be awful. I hope your flight home is incredibly boring.

Body parts have weird names...

And I thought my last day of the year was bad.

[rackham.livejournal.com]

Just in case anyone is wondering, that's the front bumper sticking out the driver's window. It had come off, and they stuck it inside the car.

[vissy.livejournal.com]

Phew. You guys were really lucky!

[corellian-sugar.livejournal.com]

I wish you both a swift and uneventful journey home. It will be good to get back to your own bed, your babies, and just breathe and relax at home.

:::big hugs to both of you:::

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

Eeek! *pets you carefully* Here's praying for a safe and uneventful journey home.

[gamiila.livejournal.com]

That poor little car's certainly taken a beating! Seeing the extent of the damage, I can't help thinking that you were both so lucky to have escaped with relatively minor injuries...it certainly looks like it could have been much worse.

Have a safe trip home, and best wishes for a speedy recovery to the both of you.

[yav-14.livejournal.com]

Unbelievable! Here's wishing you an uneventful and uncrowded flight home!

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

I'm just so, so glad that, in the larger scheme of things, you guys are OK. And I don't blame you at all for wanting to get home to your cats.

[tomte.livejournal.com]

YEESH. If this car could talk, its final words would have been "Banzai!"

I'm just glad you two are alive and knitting back together.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Well that looks pretty second-hand!! What a good thing that you did parcel up your parcels, and thank goodness for crumple zones that crumple and, as you say, keep the contents of the car like you and rackham safe(ish!).

I think I would find the elbow and collar bone injuries very debilitating as well - more than I would a foot or ankle fracture I think.

I wish you a very good journey back to your home, your bed, and your cats. Feel better soon Fen.

[queenofattolia.livejournal.com]

Sigh. This is one of those times I wish we weren't separated by so many miles. I'd bring you food to fill up your freezer. Do you have friends and family around who will pitch in and help at home?

The car looks awful, but it is largely intact, which is obviously what saved you (thank God).

Just take care during your trip and take it very easy at home, okay? Cats are usually very good during recuperation (at least mine is) (unless they're being Devil Cats From Hell). I hope you don't go too crazy (try to download and watch "The Christmas Invasion" if you haven't already (or watch it again) -- it cheered me up to no end).

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the thought, though, and I know how you feel... it's one of the downsides to having friends scattered all over the world.

And yep, we've got a goodly number of friends at home who have already volunteered to help... and I heard from one friend that they've already got a list of people at church who have volunteered to come by during the day to help out, and they've already got people scheduled to bring us dinner for the first week or so.

taradaktyl, who has been watching our cats, is also going to do a bit of grocery shopping before we get back, so we'll have some staples that we can easily use.

The car looks awful, but it is largely intact, which is obviously what saved you (thank God).

I'm honestly still amazed that we came out of this as well as we did. And we are pretty much planning on replacing that car with another of the same make and model... I loved driving it, and it saved our lives... that counts for a lot.

(try to download and watch "The Christmas Invasion" if you haven't already (or watch it again) -- it cheered me up to no end).

We managed to get it downloaded a few days after Christmas, and I loved it! Definitely have to give it another watch, though!

[shaddyr]

Oh my gosh, Fen! I am so glad you came out of it okay (or as close to being okay as you are)

You will definitely be in my thoughts and prayers. You and rackham take care of yourselves!

[rosiewook.livejournal.com]

Wild. Simply wild. I am SO impressed by that car! And amazed you walked away from that.

It's certainly a testimonial to send to Hyundai, that's for sure.

I hope you're able to get in touch with those nice folks who helped you out and let them know you're doing okay. Because itching and restlessness are all the good (albeit annoying) signs of healing.

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

We're planning on writing to Hyundai as well as Dell and Fujitsu, since both of our laptops took a licking and kept on ticking (any time a computer gets thrown from a rolling car and manages to boot up without trouble, that's good construction!)

[cyndisuesue.livejournal.com]

Wow! Thank goodness the car did what it was supposed to do! It allowed you to survive the accident. Scary looking damage. I'm so glad you two are going to be alright.
Hon, I have to mention this, this is an unlocked post -you should blur your license plate!
I, too, hope you can get to Thank the good samaritans that helped save all your stuff!

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the heads up! I f-locked the post until Rackham was able to do some blurring.

[krrayn.livejournal.com]

Apparently I missed something.

Thank God you guys are okay!!

[knitress.livejournal.com]

OuchOuchOuch! I'm so very glad you are are both ok. And I'm so sorry that the clavicle hurts. I've fractured enough stuff to know how icky that can be.

If you haven't already done it, once you're home see your own doctor to talk about what you can do for the pain. Oxycodone and Vicodin made me really sleepy and my ob-gyn put me on more-than-OTC doses of naproxen sodium for daytime.

[eliz.livejournal.com]

Oh MY. I'm so glad you guys made it through okay. The car is just scary!!!

Here's to hoping the flight home was simple and you got upgraded to first class.

[elisi]

I somehow missed the original post...

Thank goodness that you're OK! ::sends many hugs::

(Sorry but I am pretty much speechless)

[eee1313.livejournal.com]

Holy crap! That's pretty impressive, in both scary and non-scary ways. I'm always amazed at how they can build cars to withstand so much damage, and keep the people inside alive. Which I'm glad you are, because yeeesh, that looks nasty!

Take care, rest up, and I hope you have the most boring trip home imaginable. You deserve it.

[kcarolj65.livejournal.com]

Just looking at the pictures frightens me! I'm so glad you weren't more seriously hurt, and hope that your injuries will heal quickly. ::hugs you:: (gently)

[desoto-hia873.livejournal.com]

Gleep! Just catching up on LJ after the holiday. What a horrifying experience! So glad that you and Rackham are mostly OK. Heal fast.

::hugs::

[hlynn.livejournal.com]

It's amazing that you came out with minor injuries--yay for modern engineering and materials, I'd say. I'm so glad you guys came out okay, and I hope you get home fairly quickly. There's nothing like being home after a shock to the system to help calm you down, and get life back into some kind of normalcy. :)

[jidabug.livejournal.com]

Egad, Fen. I am so glad that you two are okay and that your injuries weren't worse. Thank heavens for modern safety devices and that you were wearing your seat belts. I hope that you have a speedy recovery!

[ayinhara.livejournal.com]

Impressive damage to the car, but actually less that I had imagined.

I know recovering from the shoulder and clavicle injuries will not be fun. I hope that you are out of active discomfort soon.

[slm76.livejournal.com]

Very relieved to hear you're doing better. Will continued to pray for a speedy recovery.

[zotel.livejournal.com]

Well hopefully the itchiness will stop soon. At least presumably my Hyundai Elantra will be good and safe if it ever comes to that. Here's to a speedy to recovery! (hmm forgot how to make mugs, sigh)

[anirt.livejournal.com]

Speedy recovery! I am so glad to hear you survived a wreck like that mostly unscathed, and wish you a speedy and safe trip back to your home.

[anirt.livejournal.com]

Er, ok, so the speed reading doesn't help so much. Stiches and broken bones in places that can't be put in a cast. :( I hope your insurance will cover massage therapy at any rate. That did wonders after one of my accidents.

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

Even if it doesn't, I've got a membership at Massage Envy, so I'll look at going there after things are healed up a bit. I'm definitely going to be pushing for physical therapy, too.

[babyotto.livejournal.com]

owwie sweetie, so glad to hear that you're still doing okay.

Are you really ready to head back home & be on your own though? Remember to ask for help OFTEN.

::worrying about you both::

[maiasaura.livejournal.com]

Hang in there! Healing hurts! Our thoughts are with you!

[mommanerd.livejournal.com]

Catching up on this; I hadn't read these entries before.

It's miraculous that you both walked away from this. Amazing.

::kisses your shoulder::