First off, we're okay.
May. 13th, 2002 02:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaOn our way in to work this morning, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
curiousangel and I were involved in a six-car pile-up. Traffic had slowed considerably as we approached Baltimore on I-95, which may be the reason why no one was seriously hurt. Suddenly, the car behind us hit us hard, knocking us into the car in front of us, and then there were a series of other impacts that shook us back and forth. We were both wearing our seat belts, which did their jobs admirably.
Shock helps a lot, actually. I checked to see if Misha was all right, and then walked up and down the line of piled-up cars making sure that there were no serious injuries and starting to take down people's information. He called 911. Our car was sadly crumpled front and rear, but the frame of the passenger compartment was untouched. We were at least able to start it up and drive it to the side of the road, when the police asked us to.
As I walked up and down the wreck I started feeling more and more wobbly. Dizzy. Headachy. Neck-achy. Unsteady on my feet. Nauseated. I wound up spending most of the next hour and a half leaning against the barrier at the side of the highway trying not to throw up or fall over, and waiting for everything to finish up with the police so we could go to the hospital. Misha took over the information-gathering job, despite the fact that his neck was also aching. We started to piece together what had happened. Apparently, a dump truck swerved to try to avoid an 18-wheeler, and instead hit the woman behind us. She hit us hard enough that her air bag inflated (ours didn't), and she was scraped up a little - including a bloody scratch from the air bag, on her six-months-pregnant stomach. Her car and ours were the only ones so damaged that they had to be towed. At least everyone had insurance.
The guy we hit drove us to the ER at the hospital where I work. We were quickly separated - I stayed in the main ER because of my concussion symptoms, and Misha was sent to Urgent Care, which is one step down. Both of us were strapped into cervical collars. I got a whole series of X-rays - including a pelvic X-ray, because they didn't believe me when I said it was normal for me to have pain when my hip bones are touched - and a cursory neurological exam. We both walked away with prescriptions for 800mg Motrin pills and a dire prediction that we're going to hurt a lot more tomorrow. I was given a scrip for Valium too, which I guess is to relax my muscles. (I wasn't exactly hysterical or anything.) They said that as long as I didn't lose consciousness or have altered mental status there's nothing that needs doing for my dizziness &etc. But the whole ER trip took hours and hours and hours.
Bill came and got us and drove us home. I expect that the dump truck driver's insurance company will be providing us with a rental car, but we didn't want to wait around in the ER with nothing to eat or read while all of that got worked out.
It could have been so much worse. We're lucky to be as safe and well as we are. We're lucky to have insurance that will sort everything out for us. Lucky. We're lucky. But sore.
curiousangel and I were involved in a six-car pile-up. Traffic had slowed considerably as we approached Baltimore on I-95, which may be the reason why no one was seriously hurt. Suddenly, the car behind us hit us hard, knocking us into the car in front of us, and then there were a series of other impacts that shook us back and forth. We were both wearing our seat belts, which did their jobs admirably.Shock helps a lot, actually. I checked to see if Misha was all right, and then walked up and down the line of piled-up cars making sure that there were no serious injuries and starting to take down people's information. He called 911. Our car was sadly crumpled front and rear, but the frame of the passenger compartment was untouched. We were at least able to start it up and drive it to the side of the road, when the police asked us to.
As I walked up and down the wreck I started feeling more and more wobbly. Dizzy. Headachy. Neck-achy. Unsteady on my feet. Nauseated. I wound up spending most of the next hour and a half leaning against the barrier at the side of the highway trying not to throw up or fall over, and waiting for everything to finish up with the police so we could go to the hospital. Misha took over the information-gathering job, despite the fact that his neck was also aching. We started to piece together what had happened. Apparently, a dump truck swerved to try to avoid an 18-wheeler, and instead hit the woman behind us. She hit us hard enough that her air bag inflated (ours didn't), and she was scraped up a little - including a bloody scratch from the air bag, on her six-months-pregnant stomach. Her car and ours were the only ones so damaged that they had to be towed. At least everyone had insurance.
The guy we hit drove us to the ER at the hospital where I work. We were quickly separated - I stayed in the main ER because of my concussion symptoms, and Misha was sent to Urgent Care, which is one step down. Both of us were strapped into cervical collars. I got a whole series of X-rays - including a pelvic X-ray, because they didn't believe me when I said it was normal for me to have pain when my hip bones are touched - and a cursory neurological exam. We both walked away with prescriptions for 800mg Motrin pills and a dire prediction that we're going to hurt a lot more tomorrow. I was given a scrip for Valium too, which I guess is to relax my muscles. (I wasn't exactly hysterical or anything.) They said that as long as I didn't lose consciousness or have altered mental status there's nothing that needs doing for my dizziness &etc. But the whole ER trip took hours and hours and hours.
Bill came and got us and drove us home. I expect that the dump truck driver's insurance company will be providing us with a rental car, but we didn't want to wait around in the ER with nothing to eat or read while all of that got worked out.
It could have been so much worse. We're lucky to be as safe and well as we are. We're lucky to have insurance that will sort everything out for us. Lucky. We're lucky. But sore.
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Re: aaiiee
Date: 2002-05-13 03:47 pm (UTC)True, and thanks for mentioning it. My understanding is that it's just the first few hours after a concussion that really matter in terms of necessary observation and sleep being dangerous, and by the time I wind up in bed it will have been at least twelve. But also Misha is currently doubting whether he should really go dancing. There's another line of strong storms coming our way, and the last one included a tornado. Not a good inducement for driving across town for a dance.
When Bill called to warn us that there was a tornado headed in our general direction, I told Misha that being in a car accident and having our apartment destroyed by a tornado in the same day would simply be too overly dramatic. Fortunately the universe appeared to agree.
Oh, and thanks for starting by telling us that you're all right.
Heh. I was raised right, I guess. It's been the opener of every single conversation I've had about the accident, including the one I just had over the phone with my mom: "Hi Mom. Let me start out by saying that we're both okay." "You were in an accident!" "Well, yes, now that you mention it."
Good reasons to stay home
Date: 2002-05-13 07:38 pm (UTC)Given his absence from the dance, I surmise he decided to stay home. I now have his dance booklet for next Saturday's ball, which I will pass along whenever convenient.
I left the dance early, since the wind had freshened to somewhere around a Force 4 gale, and I didn't fancy driving home in wind whipped rain with the usual assortment of I-695 drivers around me. I'm now home, having driven past an uprooted oak tree less than a mile from here. I hope the ones in my back yard all stay put.
Re: Good reasons to stay home
Date: 2002-05-13 07:48 pm (UTC)Around 20 to 8, I pulled up the Doppler image at weather.com (http://www.weather.com) and called out "Hey, looks like the storms are going to go north and south of us, so you could probably make the dance." No answer. I went into the bedroom and he was fast asleep.
Dance booklets! Do you have mine as well as his? That would be great. Every bit of review is going to help.
Re: Good reasons to stay home
Date: 2002-05-14 06:50 am (UTC)The program is available online at http://www.just.net/~roger/ball2002/ although you'll have to look elsewhere for the specific steps and figures. I'll note from last night's chaotic attempt that Shandy Hall is beautiful when all four couples in the set know what they're doing, and a complete mess if even one person goes astray.