6 years later

February 1, 2008 was not a great day for us. 6 years ago Ray, Andy (Rays best man in our wedding) and I were headed to Chicago. Me for a bachelorette party (for Jill Reister) and Ray & Andy for a fun week in the windy city and to see Andy's then girlfriend (now wife) Alya.

I remember us driving in our brand new Toyota Highlander from Cincinnati. I remember going to Andy's med school house, he wasn't there and I remember going to his hospital on UD's campus and paging him.

Then I don't remember anything until 4 days later, then another day later.....

So what happened?

I guess when five hours into the 5.5 hour trip we suddenly came upon an accident on the highway and had to stop. A tow truck came up upon us and hit us going approx. 45 miles per hour. The ambulance from the other car accident came to us and the paramedics diagnosed me this a concussion. The car we were able to drive to our hotel to check in. We met Alya and went to dinner. I guess at dinner I was on "repeat" of "what happened". When I was rude to a waiter Ray had had enough and knew the real me was not present. He jumped in a cab with me and took me to North Western Hospital downtown Chicago.

Upon being admitted I put my head down on the hospital bed and that is when I took a bad turn. I began to seizure and stopped breathing. Doctors and nurses came running in and Ray was pushed out of the room. At the time we had been married a year and a half. A nurse told Ray she had called the Priest to come down as my future looked grim. This put Ray into I can't even imagine what kind of state. He called Andy and Alya to come to the hospital. A&A later told us years later that on that drive to the hospital they were planning their future, of how they would move in with Ray and be there for him as he would grieve over loosing his young bride. Praise God that did not become the reality! Praise God also that we have this amazing friendship!

The doctors put me into a coma and rushed me for brain scans. I had a subdural hematoma. In terms you understand: my head had hit the head rest really hard from that tow truck and a the pressure of laying down burst a vein in my brain. The vein burst was having blood squeeze on my brain and the pressure caused the seizure. The hole in my vain was 4 (can't remember if that is mm or cm) that is the point of brain surgery or not. They decided to keep me in the coma and would re-evaluate in 12 hours with another scan if the hole was growing or shrinking. 12 hours later the hole had not grown, no shaved head/surgery for this girl. At some point the hole closed itself and with in 24 hours of arrive at NW I was woken from the coma.

I have 3 recollections of the 5 days I was at NW. The first was I remember Katie Weimer walking in the door. I have been told I believe Uncle Geoff, friends Haifa, Jill and Nic came but that is just hear say as I have no memory of any of that. My parents both flew in from NV as soon as they could but no memory of that either.

The second, I remember being in a stairwell at the hospital and this girl, who I assume was my physical therapist trying to teach me how to take a step up the stair. I knew what she was saying but it was just too exhausting/confusing to put all together.

The final. It was right out of NBC hospital show. I remember waking up to doctors in first years surrounding me, reviewing my file. Who were these people? I was later told I saw this group twice a day for a total of 10 times. News to me.

What I took away from this:
seizure medication is for the birds. It gave me every side effect on the box, grumpy, double vision, nausea, and a whole bunch of other horrible things that made life for me and Ray over the next 3 months miserable!

Physical Therapy is amazing! I was a non believer before the accident. I thought I was going to have pain of a 9 the rest of my life! Today I'm going with a 3.5 in my back and not every day!

Have insurance! The D*** A** that hit us didn't have insurance. We had to hire a lawyer and sue our own car insurance to pay for the damages, hospital bills, pain, and they had to buy us a new car turns out our brand new SUV was totaled.

Love is amazing! Ray took care of me through the whole thing and was right by my side the whole horrible time.

X-Rays are not my friend. You know how they always ask you, "is there any chance you could be pregnant"? Well they didn't ask me that at my 6 month appointment follow up to check my brain to make sure it did in fact heal as it was suppose to. It might not have been but I feel like those scans and procedures are what sent me into a miscarriage at 10 weeks, delivering my 14 week baby at home hours before we went to dinner for Sweetest day.

So that's it, that's my story from 6 years ago. Seems like a story or a bad dream but it did happen and I'm glad we made it alive out of it to tell the story. and.......this is why I am the worlds worst back seat driver and can't handle ray driving, EVER. Always afraid we are about to be rear-ended.