Random Lunacy

Yep, it's that time of year again... hard to believe the car accident was five years ago, and I definitely think it's the sort of anniversary that needs to be remarked upon at least a little bit.

Once again, for those who are new to my LJ, it was five years ago today that rackham and I were on our way back from visiting my grandmother in Idaho Falls after visiting his parents in Utah for Christmas. We'd left Idaho Falls and it was wintry, but not too bad... but by the time we passed Pocatello and headed across the state toward Burley it had gotten downright scary: ice on the road, snow blowing and high winds. Thankfully, Rackham wasn't driving all that fast, so when the wind hit us and pushed us sideways off the road, we only rolled four times. We were also very lucky that the entire accident was witnessed by two wonderful gentlemen who pulled over immediately and apparently were already calling 911 before we'd even stopped rolling.

When we were loaded up in the ambulance, I was asked if there was anything I wanted them to find from the car... and I asked for my laptop (I later realized I didn't even have my wallet, but by gum I could get on the internet!). Turns out, in addition to the standard bruising and cuts, I'd broken my shoulder in three places and torn the crud out of the other shoulder (something that didn't become apparent until later). It also led to the weirdness of having the worst and best New Year's Eve of my life -- worst because I was in horrible pain and drugged to the gills, best because it simply felt so good to be alive.

Here's the surprisingly coherent entry I made about the accident the night it happened (typing with the only two fingers that weren't sprained or attached to a broken shoulder).

And the next few entries from later that week:
January 3 has some photos of the car.
January 7 has more details about the accident and the first week of recovery.

And if you want to read more, I've got most of the earlier posts tagged for easy perusal.

( And now for the update on the state of things today... )

And one of these days I really do need to get around to "re-reading" Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. I read it out loud to Rackham on that road trip and finished it the day before the accident... but it occurred to me last year that even though I'd been recommending the book to tons of people and had given copies of it as gifts, I didn't actually remember it. At all. (I didn't have a head injury, but it's more that some things became incredibly unimportant and never made it into long-term memory.)

Hmm. Might have to make it my first book of the new year!

Crossposted from my LJ

Thanks for listening to me whine earlier this week... The last few days have actually been much better. ( More blather about my shoulder under the cut. )

Other positives for the week:

Yesterday I was able to unload and load the dishwasher. This made me so happy I called my mom and several friends to brag about it. Seriously, if you ever want to feel completely useless, get into a position where you can't even manage to do standard household chores.

Today, for the first time in three weeks, I'm not wearing a baggy button down shirt or a stretchy tank-top. Nope, I managed to get a t-shirt on this morning! Yay! I feel almost normal! Of course, it's a big baggy t-shirt I snagged it from rackham's part of the closet, but still...

The swelling has finally gone down in my hands enough that I was able to wear my wedding ring today!

I noticed yesterday that the last of my bruises (the one across my upper arm from the seatbelt, probably the source of the broken shoulder), has FINALLY faded out. The area is still sore, but is no longer discolored. (ETA: I jumped the gun on this... Rackham has informed me that it's definitely still visible especially toward the back, though fading.)

And finally, in non-recovery news, shaddyr recommended an absolutely fantastic Firefly/BtVS crossover fic called "Carving Out the Future" by Dreamfall (there are more chapters available out on LJ here: dreamfall_nnwm). Dreamfall has done an excellent job of capturing the characters' voices... of course, the downside is that it's a WIP, but the story is satisfying enough that even if it never gets finished, I think it'll still remain a favorite.

Went to see the doctor today, mostly to get the stitches out (and boy does THAT feel good -- no more insane itching in an area I can't reach (i.e. the elbow of my injured arm)). It's going to leave a lovely scar. The doctor was really impressed by how (relatively) minor our injuries were, considering the sort of accident we were in. He discussed pain management with us and also gave us each referrals for Physical Therapy... although judging by the way he was talking about my next eight to ten weeks of PT, you'd think he was sending me to the gallows. Apparently, there will be even more pain. :-p

Rackham started back to work yesterday (though I suspect the main reason he did is because he was going stir crazy with boredom). He still can't drive and is still pretty stiff and sore (evidently television lied to us and bruised ribs take quite awhile to heal), but is able to get around without the neck brace for extended periods of time.

It felt so good to be out of the house for a bit... the friend who drove us to the appointment dropped Rackham off at work and then took me over by Trader Joe's for a bit of grocery shopping. It was just so wonderful being OUT... it could have been an auto parts store or a garden shop and I would have been just as happy. Of course, it also wore me out completely... I came home and slept for three hours.

In other news, the Coincidence Patrol is still out in full force. A few months ago I started picking up issues of Scientific American again at various locations (I'd had a subscription back in Junior High and loved it, but got distracted by fannish pursuits and switched over to things like Starlog and The Whovian Times (or whatever it was called)). Anyway, I'd been thinking of subscribing again recently, and what popped into my mailbox today but a subscription invitation from Scientific American. All I can think is that they have spies everywhere and were tipped off about my recently renewed interest by undercover agents at the grocery store and Barnes & Noble.

Yesterday was the one week anniversary of the accident... and some of the smaller cuts and scrapes are fading, quite a few of the bruises have mellowed to some truly ghastly yellows and greens (although I still have a number of lovely purples here and there), and my shoulder still hurts like all get out, but is a whole lot more tolerable (I'm only using the Vicodin to manage the pain enough to sleep at night and can sometimes get away with only taking half a pill at a time -- I still wake up when the stuff wears off, though). I'm afraid I'm hopelessly behind on LJ and hope that everyone is doing well... I doubt I'll be able to catch up on everything. I've been doing a lot of resting, though I did find time to get rinewick (Rackham's youngest sister) hooked on the new Doctor Who! I also managed a short shopping trip with my mother-in-law a few days ago for things I can wear with a broken shoulder... i.e. several loose tank tops and a few short-sleeved button-down shirts to go over them (they all ended up being Hawaiian shirts... archerrat would approve).

We're flying out tonight for home, finally... and while I'm not looking forward to being in an airplane for two or so hours, it's at least going to be considerably shorter than driving. Plus we'll get to sleep in our own bed tonight!! Yay!! We're borrowing some luggage from my in-laws and have managed to get quite a bit of our stuff packed away. There are a few things we've got boxed for shipping and a few other things that were heavy enough and not necessary enough that we'll just leave them here to pick up later in the year. I'm also really grateful that we were able to spend the first week of recuperation here... I'm not sure how we would have managed, otherwise.

Looking over my first post about the accident, I'm really amazed at how coherent I was... although I had apparently had the word "Deputy" shaken out of my brain there for awhile (if you hadn't guessed, Sheriff Guy = Deputy). It didn't help that he had introduced himself simply as Eric, at the time. We finally got a look at his business card a few days ago and realized that he has the same slightly unusual last name as some people we go to church with... we gave them a call, and sure enough, he's a cousin. It's a very small world.

Some things we've found out since the accident:

Yeah, we were right in remembering what felt like a really strong wind blowing us off the road when we hit ice -- according to the news, that area was having wind gusts up to 60mph at that time.

There were apparently over 40 accidents on that stretch of road that day (three serious, including ours).

The reason everyone in the ER kept pronouncing our last name correctly (a VERY rare thing) was because the recently retired ER manager is married to Rackham's dad's cousin and has the same last name.

For a small hospital in a small town in Idaho, the ER really had its act together... we left there with all sorts of paperwork, plus two CD-ROMs with self-executables that provide our x-rays, CT scans and other test results to give to our doctor. Color me impressed.

Yesterday, we called and talked to Michael (one of the guys who stopped right away) to let him know how things turned out... he was very happy to hear from us and gave us a few more bits of info about the crash (since he actually witnessed it). Yes, we rolled about four times, and one of those was airborne. He had been absolutely astonished that we were in as good a shape as we were and that the car didn't look worse than it did. Gary, the guy he was traveling with, apparently told him later that he'd thought Michael had gone off his rocker, asking us all those questions -- M had asked about our Christmas, where we'd grown up, what sort of food we liked, that type of thing -- only to have it explained that it was a way of keeping us from going into shock. It worked pretty well, too. Those guys really were absolute godsends.

Oh, yeah, and I'm still typing one-handed, with sore fingers, which means you probably still won't hear from me much. I'm pretty sure I just hyper-extended them gripping things while we were rolling -- the main thought going through my head when I realized we were about to roll was "don't put your hands up don't put your hands up" -- because of my mom's rollover accident a few years ago that crushed her left hand (she'd put her hands up by reflex when she rolled). When I told her about this later, she just said "you're welcome." :-)

...is most definitely not the best way to start off New Year's weekend.

We're both going to be okay... rackham tried to scrape all his hair off on the ceiling of the car. Lots of scrapes, small cuts, bits of glass and a few hunks of missing hair. He also injured his neck a bit and is currently wearing one of those foam-type neck braces... and he has stitches in a deep gash in his elbow, a small fracture in his foot (probably from stepping on the brake) and some bruised ribs. Oh yeah, and lots of bruises.

I got a few scrapes and cuts, a deep gash in my elbow (also stitched), LOTS of bruises, and I broke my shoulder in three places (it's a seatbelt injury, so I can't help but feel somewhat grateful for it. Better a broken shoulder from wearing the belt than a broken neck from not. My first bone breakage ever, and I did it in a fairly spectacular way. My right arm is immobilzed, so I'm typing entirely left-handed... not too tough, but a bit slow.

And oh, yeah... it frelling HURTS. They gave me Vicodin, which I am hoping will help me sleep through the night. Or at all. (and should also explain any weird typos you might see.)

( More details under the cut )

I'll try to type up more later, but my hand is getting tired. The upshot is that we're going to be okay, although it doesn't feel like it tonight. My right arm is out of commission for about the next six weeks and we'll be heading back down to Provo as soon as we're feeling up to being in a car that long... we'll stay with my in-laws for a little while until we're to a point that we can fly home.