People, You Shouldn't Drive Drunk!

I kind of fell off the face of the ol' blog, huh? Probably for good reason. There are a couple of changes happening in the M household in the next couple of months; hopefully I'll be able to share more soon. For now, I'll just say that we've had quite the week. We received some unexpected (tough) news late last week, and then Brian was hit by a drunk driver on his way home from work this past Tuesday.

I was at home starting dinner, and I had just gotten off the phone with Brian. He let me know that he was a couple miles from the house and would be home soon, so I was confused when the phone rang again and I saw it was him. He quickly let me know that he had just been rear-ended while sitting at an intersection and had to go talk to the police. After we hung up, I didn't know whether to rush over to where he was or just sit tight...but I ended up just waiting to hear from him again.

Basically, Brian was sitting at a red light, completely stopped. He heard some skidding behind him and started looking around. The next thing he remembers, he was waking up. We don't really know how long he was unconscious, but we know his head hit the steering wheel and then his head rest. His airbags didn't deploy. The car that hit him was traveling 45 miles an hour, which caused it to actually get wedged underneath of Brian's car. Brian's back wheels were pretty much off of the ground. The force of the impact then pushed Brian's car into the car in front of him.

Yeesh.

When Brian came to, he fumbled for his phone and called 9-1-1; the dispatcher told him that the police were actually already there (so he was probably unconscious for what, a couple of minutes?) He was confused and disoriented, so when they asked him if he needed to go in the ambulance, he declined. At the time, he was so worried about getting the other driver's information for insurance purposes that he didn't think he could go.

Instead, he sat around and watched the police administer a field sobriety test and then arrest the driver who hit him for DUI. On the police report, his blood alcohol content is listed as .13...well over the legal limit. And, get this, it was not his first arrest for driving drunk! Brian's car was finally towed, and then a police officer dropped him off at home. Please excuse Brian's awful cell phone pictures. Obviously, the accident impaired his picture-taking ability. ;)

Poor car :(

The whole thing probably took half an hour, but my caring husband insisted that I stay at home because traffic had gotten so bad around the accident. With the way people drive here, he was worried I'd get hit trying to come get him! Looking back, I'm surprised I didn't just rush over there. Brian had been so calm on the phone that I honestly didn't realize how bad it was. I think he was trying not to scare me, which worked...at first.

When Brian walked in the door, it became apparent pretty quickly that he wasn't okay. He wasn't making any sense when he was talking to me, and I was getting even more worried. He would start a sentence and not be able to remember what he was saying. Once the adrenaline from the accident wore off, he realized how hurt he was; he said that his neck and back were killing him, he had the worst headache of his life, and he could smell blood. As I write this, I'm getting kind of teary-eyed because it was just so scary. He didn't argue at all when I said we needed to go to the emergency room, which made me panic even more! I fully expected him to put up a fight!

After a half-hour drive to the hospital, a brief wait, a CT scan, neck and back X-rays, a surprising number of laughs, and one super-weird doctor who only wanted to discuss the service academies instead of reassure me that my husband was going to be okay, Brian was diagnosed with a cervical sprain/strain (whiplash) and a severe concussion with loss of consciousness. He was given a couple days off work and prescriptions for some super-strong pain killers. After having some late-night Wendy's for dinner (which was really not as good as what I was in the middle of making before this whole debacle!), we finally got to head home.

Thumbs down for drunk driving!

 Brian woke up the next morning super sore and with a bad headache, but we had to spend the day running around to get the police report, check out Brian's car, get him a rental car, go on post and get him checked out by an Army doctor (who is referring him to a physical therapist), and deal with the insurance claim. The other driver is still in jail, so things are moving even slower than usual. We probably over-did it, because he is feeling even worse today and having a lot of back spasms. :( Hopefully in 7-10 days he'll be feeling as good as new.

Pretty sure your bumper is supposed to be attached to your car...

 We are still waiting to find out if Brian's (practically brand new) car is totaled.  It would be awful if it couldn't be repaired, but we know that it's is just a possession. We can fix his car or replace it, if needed. This is all such an inconvenience, but we are so lucky that the accident wasn't worse and Brian's injuries weren't more severe. So very lucky.

So, anyway. I don't know why this isn't common sense, but you should not drive drunk. It's stupid and you can hurt or kill people, and then you get arrested which probably sucks. PSA over. :)