As I reflect on my 2017, I am very mixed. I ended 2016 getting engaged to the love of my life and started the New Year by almost getting my finger cut off in a garage door freak accident. I was home alone, passed out in the dining room on the way to the bathroom to clean it up and see if my finger was still attached while I waited for my mom to come back and get me to take me to the doctor because there was no way I was driving myself. The doctor took one look at my finger, said "that looks like it hurts" and then had the nurse come in and put a make shift wrap/splint on it and told me how to clean and care for it on my own at home. No stitches because of the way the cut was and the risk of tearing the skin and thankfully they didn't even mention removing the nail. It was a fun day.You can say I didn't start out on a very high note. I was still positive that 2017 was going to be a good year despite my rocky start. However, throughout the year I have had about 15 different doctor visits for various reasons: the first being my finger accident. The second was for an abscess on the back of my thigh that continued to grow (only for 2 days) to the point where I could hardly walk. I made an appointment to have it looked at. The doctor numbed my leg up and sliced the abscess open with a scalpel, dug around inside a bit (yes, I could feel most of this happening and somehow I still managed to hold very still the entire time) before packing it and again, sending me home to do the dressing changes and trim the packing until it came out all of the way. I have a nasty, purple scar now that occasionally is still irritated on the back of my thigh and looks great in shorts! Ha!
The next visit was for a recurrent stye in my eye that started just after my finger incident and seemed to go away but then would come back and it would hurt to even blink. Between the finger, the abscess and the styes, however, I managed to find my wedding dress and continue to plan our beautiful wedding. After the stye fiasco that ended in April, everything seemed to go a little better.
On March 15, 2017, we closed on our first home and moved in. In May I finished my 3rd semester of Nursing School and on June 3rd we got married. We managed to dirt bike a couple of days prior to the wedding without either of us getting hurt and my finger nail grew back just in time to be able to get my nails done for the wedding. We went hiking without incidence after the wedding and then traveled to Denver at the end of June to see my sister-in-law marry her fiance.
Thats where the next part of the story begins. On this trip, or so my husband says, we conceived our first baby girl. At the end of July we took a test and found out that I was pregnant.
10 days into August I was walking home from work and was hit by a car. I was about halfway across the street, in the cross walk with the cross light. A lady turning left "didn't see me" and hit me. Thankfully I saw her and started to get out of the way, but not quick enough. She first struck my knee with her car, then I hit my head on the hood before rolling down the side of the car as she kept going. I was hit so hard that I took off her mirror with the force of my body and then was thrown/rolled two lanes over where I finally stopped, battered, cut and bruised. But I was alive and I am very thankful for that. And thus starts another series of Doctor visits, Physical Therapy and countless calls, emails and letters from insurance agencies.
Thankfully, as of now, our growing daughter and I are much better off than we could have been if the outcome had been different. I have seen a specialist for my knee, my back, my eyes and of course, the baby. I am very aware of the baby's every movement and I still worry that something could be wrong after birth due to the trauma, but I remain hopeful she will be okay.
I, on the other hand, have trouble walking across streets, even in cross walks, getting too close to moving vehicles and I still struggle with nightmares and flashbacks often. I have trouble walking long distances due to the pain in my back, my knee has several centimeters thick of scar tissue on it and is very sensitive and causes additional pain when I walk and my elbow is still pretty sensitive from the whole ordeal.The insurance lady I was speaking with is making it sound like they are going to try to blame some of my injuries and pain on my pregnancy and say they are related and not related to the accident but I know better and I'm just hoping that I am strong enough to fight this on my own and not have to involve a lawyer.
Well, that is my 2017 in review. There were many hard times to go through and many, many blessings that came our way. I know that 2018 will bring many happy memories and many more blessings; it will be a hard year full of new adventures as we become parents, I graduate college and start working as an RN and adjusting to "Adult" life! Ha!
