To make sure that this blog is a must read amongst all my friends I staged an elaborate car accident of which to make my initial post about.
My parents and I were driving to Idaho Falls on Friday December 7
th for my sister Lori's wedding reception. It snowed and rained on us the whole trip. We even had to put chains on to go over the Sierras. So a 12-hour trip was turning unto an almost 18-hour trip. It was about 12:30am on the 8
th and just as we were about to take the exit into Idaho Falls our van hit a patch of black ice while my dad was driving 55 mph. I was asleep, laying on the bed that we put in place of the back seat in the van. But I woke up when I heard my parents yelling and screaming. I felt the van fish tail and then start to spin. Then I felt myself rolling and rolling, with my head and neck pinned up against the window, and then I landed hard and flat on my back in the dirt. I couldn't breathe. I've had the wind knocked out of me before but never like this. I truly thought I was going to die. I could hear my mom and another lady calling for me and I thought, "why can't they see me? Why am I not by them?" But I couldn't move and I couldn't breathe. Finally my breath returned and I said, "Mom, I'm over here." She ran over to me along with the other lady who had stopped with her two friends when she saw us roll. They told me not to move and asked me how I was. I said it hurts and they asked me where. I said,"My butt...my back...my neck...my head," between gasps of breath. I had fallen asleep in the van with my cell phone in my hand and it stayed in my hand until my mom took it from me. My dad came over and checked on me and he just kept apologizing and asking if I was okay. He was pretty shaken up and then then left to go take care of the situation. The women who stopped gathered some of the blankets and coats that were scattered on the ground and covered me with them to keep me warm. One of the women sat with me and held my hand and talked to me. It was really hard to breathe and even harder to talk. My speech was slow and unsteady and quiet. I said I was thirsty and that I'd been thirsty for hours and I should have got a drink a while ago. I also asked her and my mom where my camera was. They hadn't seen it and didn't seem too concerned about finding it. I thought that was rude because I really wanted my camera. They told me that I wouldn't be able to take pictures even if they did find it. I told them I just wanted someone to take pictures of everything going on. My mom sat with me and described the scene to me. She said when the van stopped after rolling she wondered where I was and what happened to me. She climbed over the seats and saw the bed flipped up and moved it to look for me. When she realized I wasn't in the van she kicked open the back passenger door, because it was jammed, and started to look and call for me. She said we had rolled the van twice and that the top of the van (it was a van conversion) had come off and our stuff was everywhere. All over the street and the median. I was shocked and wished I could see it for myself but all I had a view of was the dark night sky and the face of anyone who leaned over me. I touched my face to scratch an itch and realized I was covered in dirt and, because it was snowing, snow.
The road on the right is the highway where we hit the black ice on. The ditch to the right is where we spun off and started rolling. The right lane is where the van landed on its wheels. The ditch on the left is where I landed, just before the sign.
This is where I landed with my feet towards the fence and my head towards the frontage road.
After a long time of lying there on the cold ground the ambulance showed up and started helping me. They asked me where it hurt and I said,"My butt...my back...my neck...my head." One of the paramedics put a collar on me and then all of them put me on the stretcher and strapped me in really tight. They loaded me into the ambulance and told me my mom was riding in front. My dad climbed in the back with me and kept saying,"Oh Christina, I'm so sorry," over and over again. I reached for his hand and told him it was okay. One of the paramedics told me he was going to check my breathing and lungs and would try and do it over my sweatshirt. Taking deep breaths for him while he checked my breathing was near impossible. He had a hard time hearing anything on my right side and even had another paramedic try, but they couldn't hear well and informed me that he would have to cut off my sweatshirt. I was pretty bummed because it was my red
SUU hoodie that I loved. After checking my breathing he had to put an iv line in my arm. I told him I was afraid of needles and asked if someone could hold my hand. My dad was being checked out by a different paramedic and so couldn't hold it, but the third paramedic finished taking my blood pressure and then held my hand while the other inserted the iv line. I kept telling them how thirsty I was and they kept telling me I couldn't have anything to drink. They gave me morphine and something else on the way to the hospital.
When we got to the emergency room the nurse finished cutting off my sweatshirt and proceeded to cut off my
tshirt, top, bra and jeans. After all that cutting I said worriedly, "Don't cut off my socks, just pull them off if you need to." The doctor asked where it hurt and I, once again, said. "My butt...my back...my neck...my head." He pressed on different places on my body and asked if they hurt. I said, "no" and he said, "Does this?" and I said "no" and he said, "How about this?" and I said "NO. It doesn't hurt on top. It only hurts on the back of me!" He stopped asking.
Within minutes of being in the hospital everyone I knew in Idaho Falls was there in the hospital to see me (except two friends because I wasn't thinking to call them). My sister and her husband, his parents, my other sister and my aunt and uncle. My sisters were crying when they came in to talk to me. I told them to stop because that would only make me cry. When I was alone in the trauma room with one sister I asked her in a hushed whisper if she had her phone with her. She said she did and I told her to take some pictures of me because no one had taken any pictures yet. My mom came in and took some with my phone too. My sisters stayed with me and held my hand and talked to me for awhile until it was time for my full body scan. I don't remember much about the next couple hours because of the drugs. I just remember the semi-circle of the body scan machine above me and trying to move my arms but the nurse stopped me. I also remember trying to sit up and it made me so sick I threw up. Later I tried to turn over in my bed and threw up again. The body scan only showed 2 compressed fractures in the discs in my back.
Me looking stinkin' cute the day after the accident!
I spent the night in the hospital and my parents stayed with me, my dad slept on the floor and my mom on the chair. I woke up pretty early, around 6:00am and my mom got me a drink of water (finally!!!). I didn't feel like going back to sleep so I called two of my friends in California even though it was 5:30am their time and I knew they'd be asleep. We did a three-way call and I told them the whole story. After the phone call I slept for a little longer but woke up missing my sister. So I called her to tell her to come over to the hospital and she said her and her husband were on the way. She brought my parent's camera and I told her to take lots of pictures of me. She also brought my camera and that was the only time I cried, when I saw the wreck of my camera that was left. I'm taking a pain reliever, anti-nausea, anti-inflammatory and muscle relaxer. A nurse came in to talk to me about the prescriptions I'd be taking and how to take care of myself. He said I could be released if I could sit up, stand and walk with out throwing up. So my mom and sister helped me sit up and I didn't even throw up that time!! We then went for a walk to the bathroom and everything went well so I decided I was okay to go home. I kinda didn't want to because I was so scared that I was still too hurt to leave. My mom helped me get dressed and a nurse put me in a wheelchair and wheeled me to my brother-in-law's parent's van.
Before we went to the hotel we stopped at
Walgreens to fill my prescriptions. I called another friend to tell him about what happened while we were driving to visit the crash site. I was, literally, seeing the crash site for the first time. My parents told me what happened and where. There was still lots of our stuff all over the ground. But it was mostly pieces of the van, snacks, and other odds and ends we didn't need or were beyond repair. I did find a button that had come off my coat! My camera was found the night before. It was covered in dirt and my lens was missing a piece and banged up pretty bad. It was really freaky to see where everything happened and how things could have been so much worse!
That evening was my sister's wedding reception and my mom wouldn't let me go to the luncheon and to decorate before the reception. She even called my friend, while I was asleep, to come over to the hotel and babysit me while everyone else was gone. He did come over and stayed with me while I got ready for the reception. His wife, my old roommate, came over after she got off work and then all three of us went to the reception. I totally stole my sister's thunder at the reception! I arrived late and already everyone there, even people I didn't know and didn't know me, were coming up to me and asking about the accident and telling me they loved my photographs. My family must have told everyone who came through the line about the accident and everyone wanted to talk about it and ask lots of questions. So I was a pretty popular girl in Idaho that night! But I started to fall asleep while talking to some friends and I knew it was time to go back to the hotel. I was so
stinkin' tired I fell asleep by 9:00pm.
We really were blessed. No one else was involved in the accident. The metal posts on the side of the highway didn't go through the van or any person. The van rolled through a ditch but landed on its wheels on the frontage road. I landed in the ditch on the far side of the frontage road and barely landed between the gravel road and barbed wire fence. I was not wearing my
seatbelt and flew 20 feet out of the top of the van and didn't sustain more injuries than some bruises, sore muscles and 2 compressed fractures. The accident happened close to our destination so we had a place to go and our family and friends around us.
The whole thing is really scary and amazing.
The van with the roof on the ground next to it.
View of the inside of the van with out the roof. At the very bottom of the photo is the bed, exactly where I was sleeping.
