Not sure if I explained what's happened here since the 24th of Jan, been too tired and busy to go into details. Jan 24th was Andrea's 24th birthday, and she had some nice plans with her brother, his wife and the baby for that afternoon, and then we were all going to go out to dinner together for her birthday. Well, she was excited and anxious to start the day w/ my son and his family - they were going to go to the mall, do some shopping, etc. My son and his wife both happened to have that day off to attand my grandson's last day of Baby Gym class, and there was a little party afterwards.

Anyhow, A. was anxious to get picked up and go out w/ my son and all, and she got upset because my son told her they were busy in the morning, but be patient, they would call her when they were on their way. Being bipolar, Andrea got a bit upset about the delay, and had decided to go out and do a few things on her own. That was a big mistake, as she was a bit upset, and one should not drive like that. But she did, and was distracted by the air freshener she was trying to install in the car (while driiving), and she lost control of the car. Next thing you know, I get a call from the hospital, that she was brought in after a 'minor' accident. Hubby and I got to the hospital, found her lying there on a back brace, with her neck in a collar, her face all red, and her nose bleeding. She smashed into a utility pole, completely broke it in two, and then hit a few mail boxes, and another pole of some kind. The car was totalled, her knee was cut open (her left knee) and she was trapped inside the car. They had to remove the drivers side door to get her out.

That was more than a week ago. She had to haveher knee repaired by an orthopedic surgeon, and she got out of the hospital the next day. Unfortunately, she is still in quite a bit of pain - her chest, her knee (which is in a walking cast from mid-thigh to ankle), her back, you name it. My husband and I have had to alternate taking time off to take care of her. She is miserable, not sleeping, even with all her meds and the Ambien CR her pdoc has Rxed. She is one miserable human being right now. She has totalled our 2002 Mazda Protege, but that's not really important. In fact, we are getting more money for it than we had paid for it about a year ago, which is weird.

Two steps forward, one step back.... She was doing so well before all of this, too. I've been through so much in the past several years, I'm practically numb to this latest setback, aside from all the insurance calls, etc, and the time I have had to take off from work, which I hate to do. I am handling people's disability claims, and when I'm not at work, I can't get anything done on the cases, which is not good, especially for the claimants.

Things are slowly getting back to 'normal' now, whatever THAT is. I fear my entire life will consist of going from one crisis to another....

Trying to hang in there, Jacquie

HERE IS A LINK TO THE PICTURE OF THE CAR FROM THE PAPER http://photos.allaroundphilly.com/de...&Photographer=

Hi J - Yes, I think you did post a little about the accident the day it happened, I remember it being her birthday too.

OMG - The picture of the car, I am so glad she got out of that alive.

I can't imagine the pain, I would be misrable too. The cast and all.

Things will get better for her each day. Hang in there.

Hugs, Nikko

Hi Jacquie
She is one very lucky girl. From covering accidents for almost 20 years I can;t believe she was so furtunate to take out a utility pole and have the damage she did and not ahve massive injuries. There are two impacts, ehr car stopping hitting the pole and then ehr body projects until it stops too.

She is a very lucky girls, bless her. I wish ehr a speedy recovery, I hope she can get up around a bit more and lgihten your load.
Hugs to you Mom for all the stress,
Di

Jacquie,

It seems you've had a lot on your plate. It is good to drive soon after an accident so as not to develope a fear of it. Your daughter may not be able to do that if she's on pain medicine though. I hope she has a speedy recovery.

befuddled2

Thanks for your replies, friends! Yep, that car surely looked bad; my husband saw it in person to remove our personal possessions, and he said it was hard to get inside to get the stuff out! Andrea only remembers the initial impact, and thinks she might have blacked out at that point, or something. Her foot, tho, seemed to be firmly planted on the accelorator, because she did quite a bit more damage before she came to a stop.....

Diane, I can sure appreciate your paoint of view, as you have seen many, many of these cars up close. It's just amazing how that pole actually broke like that ! If you looked at the picture in the link I supplied, you can see a police office off to the left side. HOW ABOUT THIS FOR A COINCIDENCE?? That is a patrol womann who used to be our regular babysitter for my two kids when they were of babysitting age! When I 'jogged her memory', she even remembered where we lived! She sat for them for at least four or five years! Sure is a small world!
** It's probably a good thing for you to be back at work, so you're not sitting at home thinking of all the 'what ifs'. You are a very strong woman, that's for sure!

befuddled, she mentioned that she could probably drive, but she does have that walking cast thing on her left leg, which makes it hard to get in the car in the first place. She doesn't seem to be afraid too 'get back on the horse' if you know what I mean!

Break's over, gotta go...........