Accidents by the Vanload

I got rear-ended yesterday. Deanna agreed to walk Daelyn across the street to his soccer practice. Kelly said she'd be willing to be the responsible adult for him and would keep him after practice if I wasn't back yet. Deanna had lots of homework, so I gave her the spare key so she could get back into the house and get started. Then Dane and I loaded up to run and get our allergy shots.

On the way home, in the rain, a young woman, driving her friend's mother's car, hit me from behind when I had to stop in traffic. She was probably going far too fast for the amount of traffic and the rain and couldn't stop in time. I watched her in my rearview mirror as she plowed into me. Dane and I weren't hurt, but we both walked away with bad headaches and my tailbone began to ache. It worsened as the evening wore on.

It took an hour to exchange insurance info and fill out the Incident Report. The policeman who helped us was wonderful and a dear friend and neighbor, who was driving by, stopped to check on me and Dane and stuck around through the whole thing, which was a HUGE relief for me. I worked for him my first job out of college and having him there was the next best thing to Don or my father.

By the time I got to Kelly's to pick up Daelyn, then home, I was sore and rattled. Nicki was coming to dinner, so we packed up and went out for Mexican food. On the way, my arm was itching terribly. Nicki (who's an oncology nurse) checked it out and told me I was having a reaction to my shot and that I needed to take some Benadryl and go to bed. She also gave me Ibuprofen to take the edge off my headache and soreness. Before heading to bed, I measured the welt on my arm. It was 4 cm long and 2 1/2 cm wide. My arm still itched and ached this morning and my tailbone pain was back.

But today is another day and was my day with my mother. We took off to run errands, then she treated me to lunch. As I was getting out of her car, trying to open the umbrella in the open doorway, the door swung shut on my hand, hitting the outside of my palm and slamming the soft tissue underneath the thumb against the hood of the car. Blood vessels popped in both spots and they immediately began swelling. I couldn't use my hand. A girl at the counter at the fast food place took pity on me and got me a bag of ice, which helped, but I have to keep my hand above the level of my heart or it throbs.

To sum all this up - my two-day injuries amount to: pain in my tailbone whenever I sit or move a particular way, a headache, a welt with pain and itching on my left arm, and a swollen, unusable left hand.

I'm not sure if I should look forward to tomorrow or dread it.