Two Trips to the ER in One Week - YIKES!

Last Sunday I moved 50 bricks from one side of the yard to the other. I remembered to use my legs rather than bend over to pick up the bricks, hoping to avoid a backache. Success. Well, kind of. I didn't have any back pain following my little landscaping task. But I did note a strange numbness in my right upper thigh. By the next day that numbness had turned into a raging fire-like sensation and when I would move in certain ways a searing sharp pain would surge through my entire groin.

Went to see the doc who sent me to the ER. Turns out I had a pulled groin muscle and pinched femoral nerve. OUCH! ER doc prescribed a muscle relaxer and Vicodin for the pain and told me to stay home for 10 days and ice it. No way I could take that much time off from work. I was able to put in a couple hours a day from home the first two days, but that Vicodin puts my lights out. Mostly I slept - up to 18 hours a day!

Had a follow-up visit with my doctor on Thursday who agreed with the ER doc that I should take off 10 days, but agreed to write me an excuse to return to work on Friday. I went on to work half a day on Thursday, and a full day on Friday. As I was driving home on Friday, I had a car wreck!

I had the green light, was driving about 40 mph, and out of nowhere this older car (have no idea the make or model) flew through the red light. I slammed on my brakes, but couldn't avoid the other car. Hit the driver side door, and my car spun around and wound up going the same direction the other driver was going. My air bag deployed - what a strange sensation. It scraped up my left forearm and had a hole in the top that continuously emitted some sort of dust. My neck and shoulders were killing me and I have a nasty scratch on my throat

and even nastier bruise on my right breast from the seat belt. I'm grateful for these minor injuries, though, because had it not been for the airbag and seatbelt, I'm sure I would have gone right through the new windshield I just had replaced on my car! The more painful injuries are the ones with no visible marks. My neck and shoulders are soooooooooooooooooo sore!!!!!!!

So, I'm sitting in my car kind of dazed, but fully conscious. The accident happened at an intersection next to the Greyhound bus terminal so there were a lot of witnesses. Including quite a few homeless chaps. One came up to my car and opened my door. Another man told him to bug off and he started yelling all kinds of obscenities saying he was just trying to help. A nice woman came over as those two guys were yelling at each other and told me that 9-1-1 had been called and to just relax because an ambulance was on the way. The other car involved was about 30 yards ahead of me on the road, pulled over by the curb. The driver never emerged from the car so I don't know if it was a man or woman or if there were any passengers.

After the homeless man stopped yelling, he went to the other side of my car and tried to open my passenger door. He told me to unlock it and foolishly I did so. He then crawled into my car, sitting on his knees and telling me he loved me and was praying for me. I looked out my window and saw the nice woman and mouthed the word "Help!" She immediately leaned in my window and told him, "Get out of her car! You have no business in there! Get out right now!" and he did but then started yelling, dropping the 'f' word over and over, and got into some sort of a scuffle with another homeless guy. I just wanted the ambulance to hurry up and get there. My right wrist was hurting, along with my neck and shoulders.

Eventually the EMT did arrive, and so did a Houston cop. I told the cop I had the green light and gave him my driver's license and insurance. The EMT asked if I had any known medical issues and I told him I was diabetic. So he did a blood sugar test - it was 219. High, but considering the situation, understandable. He then put a neck collar on me, which was incredibly painful, and helped me out of the car. He & his partner taped me down to a back board. I saw the nice lady and another man telling the cop that I definitely had the green light. Then they put me in the ambulance and asked where I wanted to go. I said the closest hospital, which was St Joseph's - just a couple blocks away.

I never saw a doctor in the ER. Just a nurse. She gave me a shot of Toradol which helped a lot with the pain. Then I was taken for x-rays of my shoulder, neck, and right wrist. It was swollen, but all the x-rays showed no fractures. After 3 hours, they released me. The cop never did come see me in the hospital so I had no idea where my car had been towed, nor did I have an incident report so I don't know if the other driver had insurance.

I had called Gina and she met me at the hospital. We got home around 11PM and I took a Vicodin and crashed. Today I tried to call the accident division of HPD to find out where my car was towed. They told me to call the "Tow Line" so I did. They had no report that my car had been in an accident or been towed. They asked for a case number, which of course, I didn't have. So I called back the police and they said no incident report had been entered into the database. They suggested that I call the Fire Department since their EMTs had come for me. I called the number they gave me and it doesn't open until Monday. Such a run-around!