14 months since being hit by a car -- August 23, 2010

Image by Chris and Jenni via Flickr

Though this picture isn't me, I can remember the experience.  :)

I was hit by a car, on June 23rd, 2009, while walking across the street (in the crosswalk, with a green light and walk signal).  Ambulance came and I spent several hours in the emergency room.  No broken bones, was able to walk out of the ER, but continued having pain -- lots of soft tissue kinds of stuff -- hand, wrist, shoulder, neck, knee.  At the beginning, making the motion to close a ziploc bag hurt, I switched to a small purse and small water bottle because otherwise the weight was too much for me, and I was easily exhausted.  Mid-fall things began improving medically, and continued to do so slowly and steadily for a while.   I don't have health insurance and that has added an additional struggle on top of everything else.

Heartfelt thanks to those of you who've been walking with me these past 14 months. 

I've been trying to write journal entries periodically with the thought that they may be helpful if we need to go to court while at the same time giving me the chance to think about my progress.  Here's the latest one.

Fourteen months since the accident -- I continue to realize just how much the effects from it are still with me on a day to day basis.  In the past four months I have been getting closer to being as good as I'm going to get, so to speak, body-wise.  My physical therapist released me from care, saying that she had done as much as she could do for me.  My original doctor has moved to a new office and I have started seeing Dr. Pham.  She says that I will never be back to 100% -- that I may have some 100% days but that I will also have 50% days.  Simple daily activities are so much harder now.  Carrying my daughter's car seat, washing dishes, pulling wet clothes out of a dryer -- even writing, if I do it for too long -- cause pain in my wrist, my shoulder, my forearm, and/or my neck.

I know that I'm so lucky that the accident wasn't worse than it was -- so lucky.  And yet the impact it continues to have on my day-to-day life is significant.  I am able to do so much more than I was able to do directly after the accident, but I know that often, if I try to accomplish too much in a given day, I will be in pain later on.  I continue to take two different pain medications and sometimes wonder what will happen when I stop taking them --- if there will be a resurgence of a higher pain level.

I saw the massage therapist on Thursday and he said my body is allowing him to work much deeper than it ever would have 8 months ago.

I continue to struggle to pay my medical bills and field phone calls from creditors and see my doctor every 2-4 weeks.  I have an appointment with her tomorrow and I'll be interested to see what she has to say.