Car Accident

I finally went to the optometrist to get a new prescription and contacts. My left contact had torn in half earlier in the week, and I was way overdue (I think the last time I went was the spring of '03). I tried to make a lunch appt, but warned one of my co-workers I would probably be a little long. Unfortunately it ran even longer because on the way back I got rear-ended.

I don't know when I started doing this, but when I'm in slow-and-go traffic, and traffic actually stops, I tend to look in my rear view mirror to make sure the person in front of me actually stops. This time I was sure the Jeep behind me was going to stop (we hadn't even stopped suddenly or anything), but then I heard the tell-tale screach, and BAM - my burrito was all over my steering wheel, lap, and floor.

Interesting to me how that shot of adrenaline affects you. Here I know everything is fine - I'm not injured, I have insurance, I'm not at fault... and yet I can't stop shaking.

We pull over to the side of the road and I collect my info. By the time I get out of the car I can feel a headache coming on, and a CHP officer is pulling up. He had just seen us and asked if we wanted a collision report. We fill it out and inspect the damage - I'm pretty impressed with how my car held up... here I have a little Honda and have been hit by a Jeep Wrangler, but I just seem to have some deep scratches and maybe a chip out of the bumper. After the CHP officer fills out the paperwork, I start heading to work and now my head hurts pretty bad and my neck is hurting. I called and told Bobby, and mentioned I was going to the chiropractor on Monday anyway, but he said I should go right away if I was sore. Something about insurance companies get this idea that if you don't go right away that you must not actually be hurting. By the time I'm at work the right side of my back between my spine and shoulderblade is aching pretty bad. I called my insurance, took some Aleve, and called my chiro.

I feel kinda silly about the neck thing. I think every story I hear about someone getting in a car accident and having a sore neck is always from the perspective of the person at fault, and it's always as if the person being hit and who now has a sore neck is just milking the insurance and couldn't possibly really be hurting. But I really do hurt pretty bad. I took 2 Aleve at around 2:30, and I still had a rather bad headache and was really sore.

When I rear-ended someone a few years back it was a similar situation, just reversed. When I visited my chiro later that week for my normal adjustment, she asked if I was sore, I said no, and she said I wasn't abnormally out of alignment or anything. But this woman has known me my whole life (she was my mom's best friend in high school) and is a family friend. This time when I got to her, she asked me if I was sore, I said yes, and she did some x-rays. Sure enough, I'm pretty jumbled up. She told me to ice my neck when I got home and come back on Monday.