This morning I got a phone call that nobody wants to get. Luckily for me and my family, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. My husband usually gets home from work at around 8am, and I think it was about a quarter till. All week I've been waking up before my alarm, so I was already up and browsing facebook when my MIL called. I instantly froze because she never calls this early, so I knew something must be wrong. For whatever reason I didn't answer. I guess because I didn't want to give in to the voice in my head saying something was wrong.
I was hoping she would leave a voicemail, saying something like sorry to call so early, just wanted to tell you, such and such. But a few seconds after it stopped ringing, she called again. Now I knew it was bad, so I answered. My husband was in a car accident, and his phone was damaged and like many, he doesn't know anybody's number. Luckily he remembered his parent's house phone, and luckily she is off on Wednesdays.
She said he was in an accident and she asked if she could come get him and he said no, I won't be here by then. He said he was ok, but that was all he really said. He had borrowed the paramedic's phone, so he couldn't talk long. She got the number off her caller ID so I called the number and got voicemail, but he called me a few minutes later. I was happy to talk to him, he said he was ok, but he sounded very weird, and everything he said was short and one word. He said they were taking him by ambulance to the hospital and for me to meet him there.
Of course I was thankful he sounded ok, and I got to talk to him instead of an EMT or a cop, but I was still worried. Thanks to watching too much Grey's Anatomy, I know someone who is alert and talking isn't always guaranteed a good outcome. My MIL usually takes Emily on Wednesdays, but wasn't going to today because she was going with my FIL to a doctor's appointment that was expected to take a while, but of course she offered to take her anyway so I didn't have to take her to the hospital with me.
So I got myself ready and then got Emmy up and dressed. I was ready to go when my MIL got there, so I took Em out to her car and....no car seat. My FIL takes it out for some reason when they're not using it. Which I don't get why, it's not that they often have passengers and need the seat, and even if they do give someone a ride, it's a 7 passenger vehicle, I think they'll be ok with one seat out of commission. So anyway, I was going to get my seat out and put it in hers but I knew that would be a pain and I was already stressed and anxious and trying to deal with getting the seat unhooked was probably not a good idea. So we just traded cars. Luckily they have the Buick version of our Traverse, so at least I didn't have to drive an unfamiliar car while anxious and worried.
The hospital wasn't far, and Ryan text me on the way, so that made me feel better. When I got there a very nice front desk lady looked up his info and took me back and pointed out what room he was in. It sounds corny, but when you're already freaking out, I was very thankful for a nice person when I walked in the door who was very helpful. So he was ok, he had a lot of dried blood on his face, and a cut on his head that was bleeding pretty steadily. The truck is totaled, and he's so sad about that. He loves that truck, and he just put a lot of money into it to get it how he wanted it. But I am so thankful he wasn't more hurt.
We opted to do a CT scan since his head was hurting and it came back clear. He got a shot for the pain and an rx for some pain meds, and they had to close his head cut. They tried gluing it at first but every time he moved his head at all or facial muscles it opened back up and started to bleed again. So once they got all the glue cleaned off, they stitched it instead...four stitches. I think I got there around 9:30 and we finally got discharged at 1:30. Neither of us had eaten anything so we went to the cafeteria to get some lunch while his prescriptions were being filled. Once we got home he got some much needed sleep. He's still feeling ok now, but I think tomorrow he will be very sore.
I don't spend a lot of time in ERs, I've went to the ER twice but was only there long enough for them to swoop me up to Ob triage when I was pregnant, and a few times I've been to another ER for my back, and once for norovirus and dehydration, also while pregnant. But those times, the ER was always pretty quiet. But today, we could hear several people groaning and yelling in pain, and not long after we got there today, we heard the doctor call out someone's time of death. That really shook me, I've been thinking about it all day. I know it happens, probably many times a day in every hospital, but to hear it for yourself, to know that another person just a few rooms down just died and that their family member was going to get that phone call 4 days before Christmas.....it's just so sad, and I am so thankful that the phone call I got today turned out with a pretty happy ending.
He's sore, he's banged up, his beloved truck is gone, but he is still here. It could have been so much worse. He wasn't wearing his seat belt, thank God for airbags. Thank God Emily wasn't with him. I'm so thankful that my dreaded morning turned out ok, but I am so sad for the family of that man or woman whose life ended today, and I am so aware of how easily that could have been our reality today.
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