The Accident

A bunch of people keep asking me what exactly happened a week ago Monday when I got into the car wreck. I wish I could say it was a daring GTA maneuver to avoid a stampeding herd of deer or hobos and the only way to avoid mowing them down was to crash into a pole. But alas, life isn't that exiting. I switched lanes on the service road of 183 South and lost control. I was doing maybe 40mph on the service road (a crawl compared to some of the speeding limits I've seen here in the Lonestar state) and saw an Academy Sports place up ahead and decided I want to head on in there. I went to change lanes, and when I put my foot over the brake to do so, something didn't catch on the road & the car started fishtailing. A lot can happen in 3 seconds, because before I knew it when I tried to right the car it tailed really hard the other way, and in an instant I was off the road, headed down a slope & slammed head first into a big cement pole.

The force of the impact sent the shock through my toes, ankle, shin, knee, and decided to exit about 3/4 the way up my leg & POP*... the femur cracked in half. If you're into practical FX makeup or horror films it was pretty interesting to look at... a thigh trying to run away at top speed while the rest of the leg was twisted the wrong way trying ffebly to bend at the knee to keep up... Now you'd think the age old drama of self preservation would cause one to let go of all other notions of humanity besides the basic "I don't want to die, my leg bone is severed will I ever walk again?" No... My first thought was "SHIT! I DON'T HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE!" Other than breaking my thigh bone, I cracked a bunch of ribs on my right side, have a bunch of bruises and a seatbelt laceration on my neck that looks like a narrowly escaped beheading from Shinobi.

How sad is that? That MONEY becomes the biggest fear? I had been without proper health insurance for a while (ever since my job at Dell) and have tried a bunch of times to figure out healthcare.gov. But with all the glitches & time-outs I simply let it fall to the wayside. I have a crazy schedule and there is no excuse of course but fuck it, when the thing never works, there's always a slim chance you'll break a thigh bone before you get signed up... & it was my turn to hit bankrupt on the wheel of fortune. Worst of it was I just dumped $400 into my car THAT DAY to get a bunch of maintenance done on it. Including a spanking new tire to replace the one I've been filling up every week because of a slow leak.

As far as any fault in the work done on the car, that's something Geico's going to check... My biggest concern was, the airbags didn't deploy. I hit a fucking pole, taco'd the front of Smaug (my car is a 2006 red Dodge Magnum & his name is Smaug.. shut up) and NO AIRBAGS??? My though was the sensor itself might not have been hit to trigger the airbags, but the guy at the tow yard & a few others who've seen the damage up close think otherwise...

The timing of this couldn't be worse either. Besides apprenticing 4 days/week at a Tattoo shop in north Austin (Pigment Dermagraphics, best new school custom tattoo artists I've had the pleasure of training under) I work part time as a Photoshop specialist about 20-25 hours the rest of the week for money...(tattoo training is all gratis on my part) I'm also moving this week, closer to the job & shop, and wasted the last week in a hospital rather than packing.

Luckily I have some pretty amazing family & friends. My sister flew down to TX to help me move & take care of the car insurance logistics (she's an insurance claims adjuster) and a friend harbored me for rest of the week after I was let go from the hospital. There are others, & I thanked them via various social media, & they who know who they are.

Back to the incident.... After I hit the pole, the second biggest fear hit. I didn't know where my phone was. It was in the cupholder & flew out somewhere, & I was about 30' from the road. I saw 3 or 4 cars coast past... unsure if they didn't see my arms flailing like a Team AMerica marionette or just didn't want to get involved, and after not being able to reach around to even see if my phone was anywhere, a guy pulled up & saw I was actually hurt. He phones the ambulance, and found my phone for me. The car was a wash. After they folded me in half and got me on a gurney (the shock made the pain surprisingly bearable) I saw the Desolation of Smaug (roll on snare drum) There was a can of paint in the back seat that exploded, I had a lunch bag in the front with 2 thermos' that frosted the front panel in coffee & kale shake, and as I was put in the ambulance I saw the front accordianed in... chopping a few feet from the length of the car.

Now I hate hospitals. I've seen first hand MULTIPLE acts of negligence leading to to death of loved ones (yeah, plural) so to me, a hospital is filled with people "at work"- not necessarily with people who have a passion for helping others. Are all healthcare practitioners like this? No. They just have a shitty track record with me. SO my trust is already shaky by the time I get there. I am from NY though, the land of distrust, and although mostly everyone was nice & did what they could for me (proving further that Texas is filled with awesome people) there was still that one nurse who was openly annoyed she had to work late. Another (through no fault of her own) was trying to help me get from the gurney to the bed, & didn't know any nature of my injury. She reached from my left side to the blanket they put you on to roll you like a burrito on or off the gurney, and every synapse exploded since she pulled me towards her & my leg stayed strapped down. I don't remember much after that but apparently I roared so loud she jumped back & I yelled at everyone to just let me do it, & I used this pull up bar-thing they had on the bed to pull myself on. It wasn't her fault, but fuck, TELL THE PEOPLE SOMETHING BEFORE HAVING THEM TRY TO HELP.

They then put a 40lb weight on my ankle to keep the leg stretched out. Without a bone, the leg muscles crunched up like a medicine ball... and that kids is where the pain happens... I gotta be honest though, I'd take a broken femur over a broken ankle ANY DAY. I broke my ankle (with the help of a negligent friend who kept insisting on bringing me to my feet AFTER said break)to the point where it was ankle soup back in 2010. & with the sheer number of bones, ligaments, tendons, and whatnot, it was WAY worse. That & an itchy cast I had to saran wrap before each shower, the dirty feeling of not being able to clean yourself under the cast... gross. This time around, NO CAST! Yeah! They stretched the leg so the bones lined up, put a steel rod in there & bolted it shut. I was walking with a walker in like 50 hours!

So now the road to recovery begins. This is my first week home, my sister's going to help pack the rest of my shit up for the move. Luckily I moves to this shoebox 1BR from a house in Pflugerville, knowing I was only gonna be here 6 months till I figured out what i was doing in life. But the new place I am moving to is going to be a thousand percent better. It's closer to the shop & my job, it's got a fireplace & laundry in the house... Plus it's a DUPLEX! So I'll have a set.. of.. stairs.. to deal with...

DAMMIT!