Car goes boom.
September 24, 2008, 11:25 am
Hello there. So my hand is getting better, I probably should write a big thing here about what went down with the accident.

On the early morning of August 28th, Will and I were headed to his in-home care, per usual. I turned out of our development onto our main road and started heading out. A big red Ford Escape was well ahead of me. Everything was going as normal until some raccoons decided to screw with our day, playing in and around the trash. There are a few houses on this "country road", as it is classified as one, and thus is a 55mph limit road. So it was trash day, and these raccoons are picking away at a decent breakfast. Thing is, I see this all happening down the road -- I see that the SUV doesn't hit them and I'm actually thinking to myself "I'm glad she didn't hit those raccoons". And then it dawns on me that she's not hitting them because she's not moving. The minute this realization hits, it's just too damn late, and I hit the breaks and slam into her.

I can't for the life of me explain how my brain and eyes didn't interpret this situation as it was. Were her break lights too dim? We all had our headlights on that morning -- it was a bit dark. Did I miss her break lights come on? Why didn't she use her hazards if she knew she was coming to an unexpected dead stop on this 55MPH country road...? Having only had one accident before, coming at the expense of a deer on the way to Pittsburgh, which BARELY classified as an accident given that I could see that one coming too... this whole wreck still baffles me.

So I slam her SUV, the airbags go off and some kinda whacko electrical smoke puffs out of the steering column. My immediate thought right before impact is "I wonder how long until I get my car back". The correct thought is most likely "Will better be OK or I'm punching this person in the face". So crash boom bang, car comes to a stop. I jump out of the car and open the back driver's side door to see if Will is ok and he's fine. Just staring at me like "why did we stop?". Gotta love rear facing car seats. I get him out of the car, the lady ahead of me is already on the horn with 911, and the ambulance is coming. Firefighters came too. Will loved the firefighters. Loved their gloves, their outfits. I called Mo and told her about what happened. She had just got to work, so she turned around and took Will over to the in-home care. The sheriff shows up and helps facilitate the exchange of information. I say faciliate because at this point it's about 20 minutes after the crash and my right hand and wrist are starting to hurt pretty significantly.

AAA tows my car away to the body shop, and bless Nationwide Insurance, they get started immediately on everything. Everyone I talk to seems like they have their ass lit on fire about my claim and they are all working fervently to get things lined up for me. Rental car, send us medical bills here, estimator is on the way, etc. etc. Pretty cool stuff.

Mo takes me to the ER at Ohio State and they do a few X-rays. Apparently the people at work who I called to let know that I was in an accident haven't relayed the "I smashed my car" message to the mailing lists, so I have people calling my cell phone asking for help. It's a good day for the routinely casual "how are you today?" question, because I finally have an atypical answer. I explain to those that call that I'm in the ER because I was in a car crash. The stumbling replies somehow make me feel better.

The lady who came in to do X-rays comes in again to take another one, this time with my hand in a different position. This position makes my hand and wrist hurt worse. I should have been tipped off right there that I broke something, but seeing as how I have never broken a bone before, I'm oblivious. Turns out the doctor saw the fracture on the initial X-rays and wanted a clear shot of the break, hence the 2nd mini-round of X-rays. The X-ray tech said to Mo that she knew there was a break but she couldn't say anything. Makes sense.

So I fractured my right scaphoid bone.



As you can see in the picture, it is a small bone in my wrist. A few days later I met with a very well respected hand and microfracture surgeon who gave me two options: 1) Be in a hard cast up to my elbow for 6 to 16 weeks with a 40-60% chance of this thing healing or 2) have surgery, get a titanium screw put through the scaphoid bone to fix the 2.9mm fracture, and subsequently get the stainless steel pin out in 10 weeks. Good as new. The surgery would allow me to get back to work and typing a lot quicker. I went with that.

So I'm on the mend now, and can't lift, push, or pull anything for around 3 months. The car is getting fixed and in the mean time I have a Pontiac Grand Prix I am scooting around in. The most notable changes so far have been not being able to fully play with Will, which completely sucks, because he's walking now and it's incredible to see him flying around the house. Also, they threw me on percocet for awhile which was AMAZING. I really enjoyed that. I should have taken more time off of work, but you know how it is. You don't go to work and the work piles up. Also the beginning of the quarter is hitting now, so I can't really afford to be gone.

That's about all I have for now. Hope this covered what you wanted to know.

3am...
September 10, 2008, 6:51 am
... is a really bad time for the nerve block to wear off. I shot straight up in the reclining chair and decided it was time to find the Percocet. Now I have to wait until 9 to take some more.

Also, this made me laugh.

Surgery is done.
September 9, 2008, 10:50 pm
Went in around noon today. Whole update on this fiasco + pictures when I get better. Big bandage + sling + Percocet = getting along ok. Starting physio / rehab stuff Friday. Happy it is over with. Surgery is a very interesting thing. I'll expand on all that sometime soon.

I broke myself.
September 4, 2008, 11:20 pm
For those of you who may not know, I was in a car accident and broke a bone in my right hand. I am going to have surgery on it shortly to fix the fracture. I have been advised by doctors that I could go the non-surgical route and be in a cast anywhere from 6 to 16 weeks and it still might not heal due to the location of the break... so surgery sounded like a much better option.

My new car was hammered pretty bad, but insurance seems to be working hard to keep from totaling it.

I'd post a bigger write up but that's the short version for now. I love you guys.

The newest of the new.
August 24, 2008, 10:30 pm
I am sure a lot has been going on. I decided to do an update tonight, so I'm going to think as I go:

The Ohio State Fair was a good time this year. I worked out there one day as a volunteer at the Beef booth inside the food pavilion. I wrapped sandwiches and talked with some people from work in a manner that I usually don't get to. It is refreshing to see people in a different light outside of the office. I think being in a service position you tend to interact with people when something is wrong on their end, and so there's pre-set modes of how the conversation usually goes. When you're both somewhere just being people without any opening constraints, conversation tends to evolve and people aren't held by crazy restraints.

We did go another day too to hang out and have a good time. Will seemed to enjoy himself a lot. He was a tired little man by the end of it but I think he did great. Knocking on wood, I have a pretty easy going kid who just likes to eat, sleep, and play. And boy does he play.

Will is taking more and more steps by himself, away from holding onto furniture and walls. He took 4 big steps today after letting go of the wall and made it to one of our green chairs. We clapped like crazy for him and he just looked at us like "what's the big deal?" And then I proceeded to mock him, albeit in a loving way, and he laughed a bunch at my interpretation of his walking. So I milked it over and over again, making funny sounds to his clumsy walking. And every time he laughed. You know, life really should be so easy. We had it all figured out at one point and then we just complicated everything. We should all be ashamed of ourselves :-)

I heard through the grapevine about a garage sale that would have some old Masters of the Universe toys for sale. I woke up early in the morning and was sadly disappointed to find only about three to four figures that were, by generous accounts, "smoked". Well, they weren't too bad I guess. I'm hard on quality. Anyway, the guy wanted a buck for them and I pulled the old Randy trick of "all I have is a $20". Which worked well, as the sale wasn't in full swing yet and he didn't have change. So he just let me take them for free. I washed them up really good and now Will has a He-Man and Skeletor that he can smash up like I did when I was little.

Staff employee appreciation week was last week. I wasn't lucky enough to win a gift card (oh well) but my name was up on the big poster for being there... get this... 10 years already. I can't believe I have been here that long. Columbus was a fleeting idea way back in 1996 and now it is almost like, "where did the time go?"

Football season is coming up. Buckeyes haven't played yet, and that's a good thing. Because my Browns, who are playing some pre-season ball, are killing me. The games are not turning out well. We can't defend the pass and we are getting guys hurt in the same old Cleveland pre-season fashion. I think I'll do everyone a favor this season if I don't watch any of the games. When I do, bad things happen. The Browns were down like 30-3 before the HALF the other night. Prime time spotlight and poof. Just like that.

This might be an old video to some of you, but I think it's really great to watch. If you haven't seen it before, try to find a time where you won't be interrupted to watch the whole thing. I guarantee you won't be disappointed. It is a far cry from my usual "couch on wheels down a hill" or "bottle rock in the rear" videos that you've come to know and love from me. Rather it is something much more entertaining, for all the right reasons in the world.

Well, I think I'm done. Love you all.

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