1:35PM: Already ordered. Put my food in my passenger seat and my coke in the cup holder. I pull up to the entrance, look left and right. Okay I can pull out now, I thought. There is a moving truck turning into McDonalds. I put my foot onto the gas and make a left turn.
1:36PM: I pass through one lane. I get to the second and see a truck. So close. There is only time for me to throw up my arm and scream in fear. The impact crushes my door into my side. I hear it. It is the loudest and most dreadful sound I've ever heard. My window shatters. Glass all over me. My coke busts and wet soda is flung across me. I feel cold. I continue to scream as the man in the truck asks me if I am okay. I don't know if I'm okay.
1:40PM: I call my manager because I know she can call my mom and Michael. I know I can't . I can barely breathe. I can't wrap my head around the fact that I am trapped in this car and I have no idea what is hurting or if I am okay. My hand is bleeding.
1:42PM: A policeman is talking to me. I hear him say ambulance. I nod. Yes. I need one. My other manager shows up. She holds my hand and sits in the car with me. I think about how wonderful she is. I'm crying.
1:50PM: It's so cold outside. I'm shaking from the cold and from being nervous. The fire truck is here. They tell me they are going to have to cut my door. They put a blanket up to protect me from glass. After a couple of minutes I feel the door come further into my side. I yell out. They stop and try to do it another way. My car is being ripped open.
1:55PM: They tell me not to move. They will move me. It's very hard not to move. They slide me onto a board and get me out of the car. All I can see are blue skies above me. They load me into the ambulance alongside the man that was in the truck.
2:00PM: They are asking me what hurts. I'm too upset and anxious. Then the pain starts to set in. My hand. My neck. My shoulder. My side. I hear the driver say I could have internal bleeding. I could be paralyzed. It doesn't help my anxiety.
2:15PM: After the longest ride of my life, we are at the hospital. She tells me they are taking me to trauma. Just in case. I'm terrified. All I can see is what is above me. I have no idea what's going on. They press on my stomach and my back. She's okay, they say. Roll her back out.
2:17PM: My mom was there before me. And Michael. They stand around my bed as I cry some more. Dad shows up. They roll me into a room.
2:20PM: My sister and brother-in-law show up. Daniel had been at the scene of the accident but I was already in the ambulance. I feel loved. But I'm still scared.
3:00PM: A doctor looks at me. Tells me we will get some X-rays. Takes my neck brace off. That's good news. The nurse gives me a pain pill. It helps.
4:00PM: They haven't even cleaned my hand. There is still glass under me; I can feel it.
5:00PM: I'm rolled out to get X-rays of my hand, my shoulder, and my hips. My hips started hurting at the hospital. Probably from not being able to move for hours. The nurse does all the X-rays. She was nice and it only hurt a little. I'm rolled back in the room to wait for the results.
6:30PM: The nurse comes in. No broken bones. You'll be sore. He slaps a bandaid on my hand (which was never cleaned), gives me a prescription for ibuprofen and a muscle relaxer. I am discharged.
7:00PM: I walk out of the hospital, crying from the pain in my hips. I survived. I was going to be okay. I had imagined so much worse as I laid in that hospital bed, listening to the nurses talk about what could be wrong with me.
I don't know how I came out of that with only a bruised and cut up hand and incredible soreness. But I did. And I am so thankful for the people that helped me through it.
So glad that you are okay!!
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