When I first started out my GreenBottoms business, as all small businesses take time to gain steady sales and customers, I tried to go back to work where I worked while I was pregnant, Ruby Tuesdays. It was at a time when everyone was really starting to feel the effects of the economy and tips were awful. I would make $20 or less a shift after tip out and came to the conclusion I could probably make more at home making diapers. So I only worked for two months from about September 2009 to November 2009. I got a big order in from Malaysia and my business slowly grew. I changed the elastic to being sewn around (cased) to sewing the elastic in the seam allowance so the minky would roll outwards. This helps prevent wicking onto the outer fabric and keeps the baby completely pampered in soft minky, even around their chunky thighs.
Life was good, I could work when I wanted. In the spring the boys were over a year old and we started having many family outings. We went to springs, beaches and life was grand since taking care of the boys had become much less challenging and much more fun. Then things changed oh so suddenly....
We went with our friends Ryan and Abby to Sarasota beach on May 16th 2010. It was a nice day, we had a tent and lots of snacks. The boys loved their boat floaties and we stayed til the evening. It was around 7:30pm when we left the beach. We made our way through the front of the parking lot looking at the beach before we left. Josh made a left turn onto a straight away for the exit. I was looking at him while he was turning and notices a car that was heading parrllel to ours in the parking lot going very fast, too fast to be in the front of the parking lot where kids could run from the beach to their car. While we were making our turn she was still coming very fast and I hoped that she was going to stop for her stop sign before crossing the road that we were turning onto. Right when she should have been stopping she wasn't, I yelled to Josh to stop, he looked and didn't see her car because we were still in the middle of the turn and there were cars blocking his view. As he turned back towards me he said "what?" and before that word escaped his lips her car was smashing into ours. Since I was never in an accident and we were in a parking lot I was off guard and didn't brace myself for the sudden hard impact. Her PT cruiser smashed into our front left side of our Nissan Maxima and pushed our car out of the straight away road and 3-4 parking spaces over. There was smoke and my ears were ringing. After a couple of seconds I realized the airbag bursted was burning me and jumped out of the car. I heard Jaxon screaming crying and he was closest to the other car and couldn't get to him on his side so I opened Jonah's door on the right and jumped across Jonah's seat to unbuckle Jaxon. My heart was racing and all I could think of is if Jaxon was alright. I unbuckled Jonah with Jaxon still in my arms and grabbed both of them out as quickly as I could because the cars were smoking a lot. I looked at the driver of the other vehicle and she was still in her car breathing hard with her friend in the car still so I assumed she was having a panic attack. Both Josh and me got the kids away from the smoking cars and there were a lot of people in the parking lot asking us if we were okay. I said I hope so...I was so worried about the boys being okay than myself. I don't know when Josh got out of the vehicle but his door was trapped in on the left side of the car so I'm sure he climbed out of my side of the car and grabbed Jonah from me. I calmed Jaxon and Abby and Ryan came to us to ask us if we were okay and they took pictures of the damage. The girls got out of their car, the passenger said she had a paper to finish and an exam to study for and she had no time to waste there so she called someone to pick her up. The driver tried to argue with her that she had the same to do and they both agreed they should not had been at the beach instead of studying and writing for the end of their classes. The passenger left before the cop came and the driver had her parents coming. I had to get away from their because there were noxious fumes coming from the smoking cars. I took the boys down the parking aisle to the end of the parking lot where there was a small field of grass. I put the boys down and watched them closely for any injuries. Jaxon did not want to be put down at all. So I sat down with him because I wasn't feeling so great.
My head was pounding, I felt weak from my surge of adrenaline, I had no will to stand. Abby and Ryan came to me and we were talking about how dumb it was to be speeding in the front of a parking lot where she could have killed a child. Good thing it wasn't a child but it was Josh's limited edition 6 speed Maxima that Josh just rebuilt the transmission single handedly just a couple of weeks before. The cop that came was not a police it was some security guard for the parking lot. He said he could not write the other driver a ticket for running the stop sign because the parking lot was private and the stop sign wasn't registered. What a load of bull crap. He didn't write a long form of the crash report even though you know he had nothing better to do for the rest of the evening, he just sat in his truck while we waited for the tow trucks to come. The driver's parents were at the cars and so I walked back over, they said they are really sorry and the girl said sorry too. I was speechless, I had so many things I wanted to say like what if it was a kid instead of our car? Why were you at the beach when you had important things to do? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOUR BRAIN?! Ughh but I didn't because those weren't very nice and I would probably explode on her if I started in. The radiator was busted on his car, the chassis was bent, the car was totalled. We were 2 hours away from home so we called a friend's tow truck from where we lived earlier but it would be a while until they were there. It was getting dark and the boys were hungry. We put their car seats in the back of our friend Abby's Volkswagen Beetle and the boys' seats could not fit rear facing so the boys were to be front facing for the first time ever. It was a small car and I had just been in an accident so I was terrified and anxious the entire way home. Ryan stayed with Josh to wait on the tow and Abby, me and the boys left to get food and go home. Abby is a careful driver thankfully and the boys fell asleep on the ride. We got home and my nerves were still terribly rattled though.
The next day was awful. My head felt like it was going to split in half, my neck felt half broken. Taking care of the boys wasn't that hard because they didn't want to do anything but sit on the couch too. Which is totally not like 14 month olds, they usually were only still right after waking up and right before bedtime. I was still breastfeeding so we waited until the boys were in bed and went to the hospital because we had no health insurance and no general doctor for us. We forgot the car insurance information in the car, which was towed to Josh's dad's house, so a doctor saw us and said we had to pay $250 each for any tests or treatment to be done. We don't have that kind of money laying around so we left with no explanation of what was wrong with us.
The next day Josh's dad advised us to call a lawyer since we felt so awful. The next week we saw the lawyer. He said we should go to a injury doctor and so we did. We did therapy for months, it helped for the day or two if we were lucky but we were still injured. Leaving the boys two times a week for most of the day was depressing, the drive aggravated our injuries, I couldn't take anything since I was still breastfeeding. The injury doctor was about to end our therapy and we were not even slightly better, we were WORSE than in the beginning! So we switched injury doctors...
We had to start therapy all over again but this doctor was extremely thorough and focused on personalized therapy treatments. I had new MRIs done and they found many slipped disks. One that might be unstable in my neck. My right arm was in so much pain, it was hard to take care of my kids, cook, garden, EVERYTHING. I had no desire to sew because cutting the fabric hurt so very much. An MRI was done of my wrist and two tears were found and a ganglion cyst which is a build up of toxins from injury. My business was basically done for. I was getting severely depressed, everything I did caused my pain. Josh was depressed, his rare car was gone and we were having trouble working and making money so the money that was for a new car was spent on bills. One night we had the boys spend the night at Josh's parents and I tried the medicine Josh was prescribed, the anti-inflammatories made me feel a little better and having the relief from the vicodin made it a very relaxing night at home. After 6 months of therapy I decided to stop breastfeeding to try to see if the meds would 'fix' me. I was not one to take pharmaceuticals though, I usually don't even take anything for a headache but it was time to end the suffering. I stopped breastfeeding my boys when I planned on breastfeeding until 2 years old or whenever they decided to stop. We tried all kinds of ways to put them to sleep since that was the only time they nursed still. They screamed for me if we were at home. It was hard, instead of cuddling with my boys to sleep, we packed them up in the car with a sippy of cow's milk and Josh drove them around until they fell asleep. We did that for two weeks until we tried again at home. Josh cuddled with them to sleep, they screamed for me and I had to leave for them to not want me and my boobs there for bed. The next night I tried to stay again, didn't work, I ran out of my house, forgot my phone and went to walmart. Read Stranger Danger to find out what happened that fun night...
After weaning the boys I was left with lonely nights. But at least the meds seemed to be helping...I tried to restart my business. I came out with one size testers in September of 2010. They were a hit! I came up with the idea to make the front minky since with the snap down rise the inner minky rolling out on the legs probably wouldn't prevent wicking onto the cotton print. Plus thats super soft minky rubbing between your legs, what baby wouldn't LOVE that?! Everyone loved them but I soon realized I wasn't fully healed and shouldn't push my injuries. But we NEEDED to make money, and I had to help because bills don't stop coming. I was in Joanns Fabrics getting fun things for the boys to do and I always talk to the workers there. The one I talked to the most happened to be a manager and asked me if I needed a job. With my boys trying to destroy their store none the less! I agreed and started working there in two weeks after the general manager came back from vacation and did inventory. I loved working there, I could talk to other crafters about their projects, brainstorm with them, drool over the super cute fall and Christmas stuff and run down the minky aisle nekid (just kidding about the last part but lots of fondling was done to the fabric. It began getting harder the more I worked though, my injuries would bother me more than ever. My hip would hurt from standing for long periods of time, I tried to avoid the cutting counter but it was part of my job and hurt my wrist terribly, closing sucked because of tucking fabric for a hour would kill my arm and wrist. It was definitely taking its toll and I wasn't sure how much longer I could hang in and my vicodin intake was increasing to make up for it all.
It was December 20th, it was a chill day of just spending it with the family at home and I decided I had to run to walmart to get the boys some milk after dinner. It was dark and I took the back road to the highway. I had just came up over a hill and saw a car coming in the opposite direction start to drift onto my side of the road. I slowed down quite a bit hoping he would correct his car. Nope, fully in my lane I hit my brakes and pulled over as far as I could, there was a telephone poll to the right of me and a green utility box in front of me but my GMC Jimmy was a foot away from the road when this car impacted my driver's door at about a 45 degree angle and gauged all the way down my SUV. When he hit the rear tire he bent it into my rear bumper and bounced to the other side of the road.
At first I was in shock that I just got into another accident that was entirely not my fault. I hated my car but we could not afford to buy another and I was dreading getting out to see the damage because it wouldn't take much to total out my car's value. I got out, people in the development next to me were asking me if I was okay. I went over to the driver who hit me's car and he was still there with his car running, I asked him if he was okay through his rolled up window. He didn't respond, he had his phone to his ear. Then he tried to drive away but his car was really messed up and did not move, only reved up. I asked him if he was okay again and only got a rev in response. There was a van that pulled up behind him and a nice lady asked me if I was okay. I said I think so, she said good, I'm calling the police. I walked to the car again and tapped on the window and asked him if he was okay, he started to open the door so I backed up and he stumbled out of the car, I was scared and stepped far back from him. He still pretended to be on the phone..the lady asked me to come over to her car and said she thought he was drunk, I agreed. It was freezing and I had forgotten my jacket in my hurry to leave to get milk before bedtime. She gave me a blanket to use and let me wait in her van. The fire truck and ambulance was first to come, they asked me if I was okay, I said I hope so. My right wrist was already in a brace from my previous accident. I just wanted to get home before bedtime, I really just wanted to crawl under a rock though. My friends, Abby and Ryan once again, were coming over to hang out and they had passed by the side road while driving on the highway and saw the commotion, when they got to my house and Josh told them and Abby came to the scene immediately. Police came and the guy had fallen on the ground twice already, once in front of them. They took my report and I waited in Abby's car. My dad and his girlfriend came, they lived less than 2 minutes away from there. They called a tow friend for me. The police told me the driver said that he was on post traumatic meds and also had a bottle of Kahlua in his front seat. After I got the crash report I realized he lived in my neighborhood...
I went to my injury doctor 3 days later. Had to start my therapy from the beginning again. Lovely Christmas present, my neck and shoulder hurt so bad.
So Ive been going to therapy for over a year now. I'm finally not depressed anymore, I started gardening again despite it hurting so much. The sunshine healed my soul. I'm still terrified in parking lots. I won't let anyone else drive me or my kids because I get so anxious of their reactions to other dumb drivers. I feel like they give licenses to anyone these days and I'm still avoiding crashes.
No comments:
Post a Comment