As you may or may not have already known, I was hit by a car on Thursday. I was jaywalking during rush hour, made it across three of four lanes okay, and then didn't look both ways before I stepped into the turning lane. Next thing I remember is flying through the air upside down and hitting the ground. I looked ahead of me and saw another car coming down the lane, so I crawled onto the median. Next came a lot of screaming and cussing. Partially because I was in pain, and partially because I was mad at myself for being such an idiot. The girl who hit me stopped and came to try and talk to me, as well as a military guy who gave me something to press against my head wound. The girl asked if I was okay, and I gave her the typical "Do I LOOK okay?". An EMT guy showed up and held my neck straight in case I had any sort of neck injury, and people kept talking to me and asking questions to try and keep me focused and aware.
At some point, I noticed the girl was crying, and I said "What are you crying for? I'm the one who just got hit by a car." She replied saying she was super freaked out, and I felt a little bad for being insensitive, but I excused myself given my current position. Eventually firemen arrived and did the whole check through of my wounds and such, then I got strapped to a backboard and loaded into an ambulance. At this point, I was pretty sure my left leg was broken and maybe my lower back. I had totally forgotten about my head wound because it honestly didn't hurt that badly compared to everything else,
The EMT in the ambulance informed me that I had smashed my head into the windshield of the car and shattered it, then flipped over the car and back into the street. Which sounds pretty awesome, minus the whole dangerous accident thing. They performed all their medical stuffs on the ride to the hospital. Then I was carted into the hospital and there were a lot of people around all at the same time making comments and giving orders and such. Oh, I think they had cut off my pants and shirt by now, too. Kind of a bummer because they were some decent jeans, but they weren't my best pair, so I wasn't devastated. I was given a tetanus shot and then morphine, which felt incredibly weird.
Over the next hour I had x-rays taken of my head and neck, my chest, and my leg, and then a CT scan of my head to make sure my brain didn't get jellified or something. I spent the five minutes of sitting still listening to "In The Presence Of Enemies Part 1" by Dream Theater in my head. (Super useful skill to have, by the way, listening to music in your head). After that was more questioning from doctors and then a CT scan of my abdomen. I had to keep holding my breath so the scans would come out clear, and they injected me with a dye that made my veins feel all warm and my mouth taste gross.
The EMT in the ambulance informed me that I had smashed my head into the windshield of the car and shattered it, then flipped over the car and back into the street. Which sounds pretty awesome, minus the whole dangerous accident thing. They performed all their medical stuffs on the ride to the hospital. Then I was carted into the hospital and there were a lot of people around all at the same time making comments and giving orders and such. Oh, I think they had cut off my pants and shirt by now, too. Kind of a bummer because they were some decent jeans, but they weren't my best pair, so I wasn't devastated. I was given a tetanus shot and then morphine, which felt incredibly weird.
Over the next hour I had x-rays taken of my head and neck, my chest, and my leg, and then a CT scan of my head to make sure my brain didn't get jellified or something. I spent the five minutes of sitting still listening to "In The Presence Of Enemies Part 1" by Dream Theater in my head. (Super useful skill to have, by the way, listening to music in your head). After that was more questioning from doctors and then a CT scan of my abdomen. I had to keep holding my breath so the scans would come out clear, and they injected me with a dye that made my veins feel all warm and my mouth taste gross.
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| This is a picture of my head after it was numbed, but before they sewed it up. |
After that was cleaning out and bandaging my road rash wounds on my hand and my foot, which hurt more than I can get across in typed letters, and then sewing up my head wound. They numbed the whole wound by injecting it with needles, then sutured the under layer of skin and stapled the top layer shut. They got me some papery shirt and pants and these super awesome sock thingers that I'm definitely still wearing. I got pain medicine prescribed, and then they rolled me out of the hospital in a wheelchair.
Total damages consisted of my head wound, the road rash on my hand, foot, and some minor scratches on my knees, and the bruise to my left leg. That's right. No broken bones, no internal damage, just some flesh wounds.
As of two days later, I'm already walking, though my leg is stiff and inflexible for the most part. My hand is healing, now cleaned again, smothered in disinfectant goo, and re-bandaged. My head is fine, though it's a bit weird feeling the staples in my scalp. I'm still feeling dumb, though I'm thankful that I'm not more hurt than I am now. It's weird to think that I was hit by a car, knocked clean out of my shoes, smashed my head into their windshield, flipped through the air and onto the pavement, and I got away with only two serious injuries and some scratches.
Now, for the second part of this blog. I feel really terrible for the girl who hit me. She had to have been scared out of her mind by what happened, and I'm not sure if anyone got ahold of her to tell her I'm okay. I'd also like to apologize for being insensitive and for, you know, walking out in front of her car during rush hour. XP Unfortunately, I didn't think to get her cell number while I was cussing angrily and bleeding on the median, so I have no way of contacting her myself. So, I want to try something out.
I'm sure many of you have heard of the Six Degrees of Separation thinger, but I'll explain it briefly. The idea originated from a Hungarian playwright who theorized that a person could be connected to any other person on the planet by as few as six introductions. This is where I need your help.
I want to use the Six Degrees of Separation to try and track down the girl that hit me so I can let her know personally that I'm okay. What I need from you all is to repost this blog on your facebook wall or whatever so it can progress another degree toward finding her. I know, this sounds like your typical chain letter or whatever, but it's different because it's actually for a cause. Nothing bad is going to happen if you don't help. I'll just be disappointed in all of you and have to try and track her down some other way. But, if you help me and we succeed, it'll be a crazy story to tell and I'll have another topic to post a blog about.
So think about it. If you live in the Colorado Springs area and you know of a youngish girl, probably late teens, that just had the windshield of her champagne-colored Camry, (I think) smashed in an auto-versus-pedestrian type accident, please let me know. cm.ludeman@gmail.com. If not, pass the link to this blog on to anyone else you know who lives in the area. It'd be awesome if you guys could help me track her down.
Thanks for reading, and I'll keep you updated as to how things turn out.
So think about it. If you live in the Colorado Springs area and you know of a youngish girl, probably late teens, that just had the windshield of her champagne-colored Camry, (I think) smashed in an auto-versus-pedestrian type accident, please let me know. cm.ludeman@gmail.com. If not, pass the link to this blog on to anyone else you know who lives in the area. It'd be awesome if you guys could help me track her down.
Thanks for reading, and I'll keep you updated as to how things turn out.
Colin, there was likely a police report and you can get her name from the police then.
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