Today I had my follow up apt. with the orthopedic Dr. about my ankle. I’m feeling good and I’m so relieved to say that I should heal up fine, no surgery! I will be on crutches for a while, 2 to 3 weeks before swelling goes down, physical therapy in a few weeks, and 6-8 weeks before I begin to get back to normal. But, no surgery and I’m fine. I’ll gladly use crutches for months if it means I can avoid going under the knife.
I’ve felt so much love with all the kind comments and warm emails everyone has sent.
My manager from work who happened to come along with an attorney from https://www.abercrombiepa.com/personal-injury-lawyer-in-davenport/, upon the scene of the accident along told me I was physically shaking when he got there. While that extreme feeling of shock has alleviated for the most part, a tiny bit is still with me, two days later, in the form of being extremely emotional ever since. I cry at the drop of a hat. And I’m a pretty emotional person to begin with, but now it’s kind of crazy. My best friend Erica was over earlier and she was showing me this new T-mobile commercial that features the singer Pink and I got teary eyed, lol. So every time I check my email and I have a new comment or email, the floodgates open, but in a good way. Thank you so much for your kind words, positive thoughts and prayers, they have helped enormously.
I don’t think I really explained it in the last post so I’ll do it for posterity and for anyone that cares to read it. I’ve been so proud of myself, riding my bike to and from work daily now for almost two months. I’ve noticed on a couple occasions where I’ll be riding my bike and people back out of driveways, or pull out of parking lots and quickly glance for cars and then proceed without even seeing me. I’m pretty sure this is precisely what happened with my accident. I know I’ve been guilty of this kind of behavior myself, looking for large vehicles but not even paying attention if there could be a little kid on trike behind my car while backing out of the driveway. Check out https://www.parkerscheer.com/criminal-defense/ for legal advice on the matter.
I mostly ride on the streets with traffic, but there is one road that is a two lane highway with lots of traffic and so I use the sidewalk. On my way home from work I was on this sidewalk and passing a business parking lot. An Expedition, in the parking lot, approached the sidewalk as if it was going to pull out. It stopped or paused and usually I’ll try and make eye contact to make sure they see me, but it was either too high or tinted windows, I can’t remember, but I didn’t really see the persons face, and I just made the mistake of assuming they had made that stop/pause to let me go by, so I proceeded and as soon as I got right in front of the vehicle they hit the gas and plowed right into me and knocked me into the street. At first I was so shocked that I thought it was just a matter of me getting up dusting myself off and hopping back on my bike and riding home. The guy stopped and asked if he should call 911, instead I said “let me call my dad” thinking he’d just come pick me and my bike up and take me home or to the dr. for a once over, lol. My dad said “did you call 911” I said “no” he said “where are you, I’m calling 911 right now”. Apparently someone who saw the incident had already called 911 so they were already on there way. I was in so much shock by the incident I realized that I didn’t even look at the guy who hit me, I had no idea what was really going on even. Later I found out that there were two police cars, an ambulance, a firetruck and then a third police car pulled up as they were putting me in the ambulance. Even when I got to the emergency room and called Matt he asked me where I was and I had to tell him I didn’t know. We have a newish hospital and I wasn’t sure if I was in the old one or the new one. Fun times. My father, on the contrary, was very consistent as he even managed to contact auto accident lawyers in Birmingham from Heninger Garrison Davis for some legal advice.
That was the part of the week that sucked big time.
But today, well today was an awesome day. No need for surgery, I won a tote bag in an Etsy virtual labs game of Name That Tune. My sister called to tell me she saw my grass journals on the front page of etsy. And I got to hang out with plenty of friends. Can’t get much better than that :)
Once again a post with no pretty pictures, sorry. I promise, next time. Cross my heart.
I got a little shaky just reading that! I really hope this doesn’t stop you from biking (once you are 100% of course).
OMG, I’m soooooo glad that you are alright. Thank God!!!! If you’re going to continue to bike to work, I think I’ll have to buy you a BIG HORN for your handle bar area…one that sounds like a cruise ship horn. Take care girl, you’re a toughie! You’ll bounce back. Love ya, Stacy :)
So scary! I totally understand that shock thing. It was total deja vu! When I lived in Texas I was in an accident that could have been really bad. I was driving my roommate’s car and I turned left across a five lane street. I was it on the driver’s side. I remember I had enough sense to pull into a parking lot after the accident but then I couldn’t feel my legs and that totally freaked me out. I was shaking so hard and my hands were tingling and all I could think was, “I can’t breath, I’ll never be able to dance again, I have no idea how to contact anyone.” (I had only been living there 2 weeks. I didn’t even have my home phone number memorized yet.) To this day I don’t know how many people were there. I just remember being loaded into the ambulance. I ended up having the police call my parents in California because I knew they had my home phone number to call my roommates. I came out of it with no broken bones but all my classmates got a kick out of making fun of my neck brace. (I had some bad back and neck strain and some contusions but that was it!)
I’m so glad you’re okay. It’s hard after accidents, especially if you were a pedestrian or biker at the time. You feel invisible. Don’t worry. You’re not.
Blessings!
Glad to read you won’t need surgery. Heal well friend.
yea… no surgery!
So glad to hear you’re doing better and surgery isn’t needed! That’s awesome. Just take it easy. I hope you got my gnome text yesterday. I couldn’t resist sharing. ;)
Yeah, the emotions always run high after stuff like that happens. The second time I was hit was a very minor accident and I actually rode to school anyway afterwards. But I was still shook up and I remember trying my best to hold back tears during our spelling test and failing even though I wasn’t actually hurt.
Hope you have a good and restful weekend! Still praying for you!
robyn, you poor thing!! since my main mode of tranportation has been my feet (we don’t have a car yet) i’ve been scared s***less of motorists who have no regard to pedestrians (or to cyclists either). i’ve had a few brushes with death myself (ok, that’s a bit dramatic). props to you though for riding your bike to work. maybe not for awhile again, but much props to you anyway, and please get better soon!
robyn, you poor thing!! since my main mode of tranportation has been my feet (we don’t have a car yet) i’ve been scared s***less of motorists who have no regard to pedestrians (or to cyclists either). i’ve had a few brushes with death myself (ok, that’s a bit dramatic). props to you though for riding your bike to work. maybe not for awhile again, but much props to you anyway, and please get better soon!
That is certainly awesome to now lastly find a blog where the blogger absolutely knows what he is talking about.