allaboutwomen

She fell asleep at the wheel, woke up, and realized she was about to hit another car. So she swerved, over corrected and rolled. She rolled 3 times. I am shocked, amazed that she's alive. That she didn't have a concussion, or cracked skull, or broken spine. She became unconcious during the first roll. Passer-bys had to cut her from her seat belt (I'm guessing she was upside down), because it was choking her: but it kept her from being thrown wildly during the accident, so it's wonderful she always wears it.

We were signing the closing papers on our house when it happened. 3:00 on Thursday, last week. At midnight, we left her a voice mail, asking if she was alright, we hadn't seen her for 24 hours. Now, that's not unusual, she works 2 full time jobs to have money not just to survive, but to pay for child support and to have money to visit Georgia every month to see her two children. She also spends nights at her guy friend's. We were supposed to go to Georgia, us in the Mustang, her in the Ranger, the next day, so it was possible she left without us. We were concerned, but not alarmed. We decided if she hadn't turned up by noon (when we typically woke up) we would start calling hospitals and police and whatever friends or relatives we could think of, which aren't many, we don't really know her friends.

Well, we found out before noon. 7:00 AM, her sister called: the only phone number my roommate had memorized by heart in her trauma was her ex husband's. He called her family. Her family found our number in the sister's cell phone, luckily. We have two numbers, it was possible that I had only given her the one that no longer works. All we the info we got was that B was in an accident, she rolled, she was at the next big city, about 1.5 hours away. We got the hospital's name, and while I found a pair of pants, my husband mapquested it. He had 4 hours sleep and was not very alert. I had 2 hours sleep and had that energy you find right after a nap.

On the trip I was antsy. I was quick to blame B, and just as quick to dispell that useless feeling. Yes, she was driving after not sleeping for 30 hours. But what good did it do to be mad at a girl in pain? She certainly had learned her lesson about calling for a ride when you're tired! So I tried to internalize the guilt. B had fallen asleep midword before: why didn't I notice a pattern, warn her of her problem with staying awake when tired? What if she had narcalepsy and I had never suggested she see the doctor? But truely, I was too tired to put much emotion behind the arguments. I just figured, what had happened, happened. Let's just deal with right now.

"Right now," was a fracture in either her foot or ankel, she was too medicated to remember, what appeared to be whiplash in her neck, and really really strained muscles in her left shoulder. Her eyes, which are normally blue green, were so brown, they were almost pure black, glistening a rust when sunlight hit them. The irises were larger than normal, expanding on the whites of her eyes. Where the whites should have remained, there was the color of fresh blood. Her eye lids and hollows were bruised badly, and swollen shut. The glimpses of her strange colored eyes were few and far between because of this. We didn't even have an airbag, so I don't know what her eyes hit. Her nose was NOT broken.

We got her home. We took a nap, to compliment our lack of sleep. We focused on keeping her comfortable. As comfortable as she could be in such pain. She couldn't eat, the pain killers threw her stomache for quite a loop, even when she ate a few crackers before taking them. That night, well wishers flooded our house. They helped change bandages, and talked to our injured girl. I kept offering to throw them out: don't people who aren't feeling well need peace and quiet? There was one in particular who I constantly reminded, "Indoor voice," and who kept begging to let his family move in with us until he could get a job and another place. His trailor is pretty chemically dangerous, but it's solid, and his wife works. So he's not very down on his luck. Mainly, I don't see Phill and I putting up with his loud (some times rude or obnoxious) attitude. I tried to reason with him ("we really won't have the room") and Phill just said, "Hell to the no." Suddenly, I didn't appreciate having random people in my house at all.

The next day, we went and looked at the truck. It's still in our name. It's under our insurance, and B wasn't on our policy. We were in the process of selling it to her, and figured we would decide whether we were going to add her to ours or ask her to get her own policy when the title was hers. All we were waiting for was for her income tax to come in so she would have money to pay us. So we don't know what will happen with either the payments or the insurance. We haven't sat down and decided yet. The truck...well, it's cab is completely concave. The roof in bashed far in. The door frames are so warped, the doors won't close. The doors themselves are bent. The tires were completely smooth. The rims were banged up, with dents and asphalt clinging to them. Brandie was overcome with emotions, part guilt, part fear, and part releif, I would hazard to guess. Phill closed off, being strong for us girls. I was shocked and worried. How did this happen? How did she survive? What do we do now? What is the insurance company going to say? What are we going to pay for? Can we declare it totaled? Can we just sell it for scrap? The engine looked salvageable. We went to Wal-Mart and got her prescription, and soup and Gatorade for her to get calories in. That night, the girls that had been over the night before came back, leaving the men behind. That was more bearable, the girls kept the noise down, and somehow that helped. They cut and dyed B's hair to help her feel better. That was Saturday.

Sunday, I hid. I knew that the young man who kept insisting on shouting in the living room, wanted to move in, and said that since he was a house dad and I was a house wife he was just going to come over every day and hang out, was going to come over and hang out. I turned off the phone so that I wouldn't get his text asking to come over. He came over anyway, without my say so. So, I ignored the knocks, pretended to be asleep. No answer is not an open invitation. I took care of B, watching movies with her, talking, and that night I gave her a bath. I have never been a care taker before, and it was interesting to try to get her in the raised tub without getting her foot in the water, because we saw what might have been those liquid stitches. I learned a lot about how to transport her that night.

Monday, I took her to the doctor, and found out her health insurance doesn't cover her care because it was an auto accident. She ate some solid food that day, I took her back to the house, and her brother was on the way from Georgia to take her back, back to her family and her mother. Heck, if I were in her posistion, I'd want my Mom too (actually, I would say Mommy.) I had to leave right away, because I had a lot of testing to do. Afterward, I had some errands to run. I got home around 6, and she was gone.

So, to sum up the three days since then, I spent all day Tuesday in school, playing catch up, Wendsday was supposed to be a short date with Phill, which turned into a long romantic day with him, and dinner with the family I mentioned above. I'm not sure how the dinner went. Inappropriate comments at loud volumes was embarissing, and it was difficult to make our waiter understand that onions were deadly to our male friend (yes, the one who kept shouting) because he's allergic. But once the waiter understood, and discovered there were indeed onions in the dish, he interceded quickly and flawlessly. He actually removed said plate from under our friend's nose, with a quick appology. It amused me. We played video games with them when we got home, until after midnight, and at one, I sat down to finish catching up in my classes (stupid stupid stupid me.) I finished at 7 am, turned them in to the school (I woke Phil to keep me awake in the car while I drove: instead, he drove), and went to bed at 8 AM. I woke up at 12:45, went to Biology, and while I think I did VERY well on the comprihensive final, I also don't think it matters, because I failed EVERY SINGLE TEST, missed a project entirely when it was worth a whole test grade, and didn't turn in all my labs. So, next semester, Biology again. I should at least know most of the material by then, anyway.

I'm going to go live the rest of my day. Talk to you all tomorow.

The moral of the story is, driving sleepy is just as bad as driving drunk. If you think, "I'm tired," you are ALREADY too tired, and you need to follow a 3 step process: 1) Drink coffee, it has the highest percentage of caffine, 2) Take a 10 minute nap while the coffee kicks in: those two steps compliment each other perfectly. 3) Call somebody to tell them to expect your call or arrival. If you are going to arrive at home in 10 minutes and nobody is there, tell a friend or a boss you will call them in 20 minutes, and what route you are using. If you go a not-well-used way, it could help you get the emergancy help you might need. Stick to the plan: you don't need to be doing multiple things if you are sleepy, you need to be asleep. It's the only cure. God bless.