Old Friends and Old Stories

I ran into an old friend today, and she reminded me of something I wanted to write about here on my blog. I'm glad I saw her! Actually, with it being so blazing hot today, we left the playground earlier than I think we would have and some of us continued playgroup at Chick-fil-A. I ran into so many people that I know, or maybe I'm more comfortable talking to strangers, but my friend seemed to think I was strange!



I have two beautiful boys that I'm very proud of most of the time. One is almost 4, and the other is just 4 months old today. Both pregnancies were interesting, to say the least.



When I was 16 weeks along with the first, hubby and I were on our way to church one May Sunday morning. The sun was shining, it was a gorgeous day, so we had the windows open, and we had not a care in the world; but then, we remembered. The bridge we had to go over to get to church was closed for repair that weekend! We had forgotten, so we had to detour through a small, narrow, winding road to the other bridge. No problem, or so we thought.



Hubby was driving, so I used my cell to call the church. We were going to be late now, and hubby was supposed to teach Sunday school for the youth that morning. It just so happened that my dad answered the phone, as he was the closest one to the phone at the time. No problem, he said, we'll see you when you get here.



If you know the Chesapeake - Virginia Beach area at all, I'll bet you've heard of Elbow road. That's the road we were on. Hubby had never traveled that particular road before, and as we went around a corner right in front of Bethel Baptist church, he caught the gravel on the non-existent shoulder just the tiniest bit, and that's all she wrote, folks. We ended up going down into the ditch (which was about the same size as our 1996 Ford Taurus!), cleaning the ditch out, hitting a culvert and flipping a couple of times, landing on our top and spinning around until we stopped. When we finally stopped, we were pointing the same direction we were originally travelling, just upside down. We never crossed the middle line, and we landed directly between the church's two driveways.



The very first thing that went through my mind I absolutely believe was from God. He spoke to my spirit and said very clearly, "The baby is fine. get out of the car now." I was hanging upside down in my seat belt, and my right hand was injured. Hubby couldn't get his door open, so he put his seat back to get the back door open. I asked him to help me get out of the seat belt, and by the time he got me out of that, people from the church that saw it happen had pried his door open to get us out.



I was able to walk a safe distance away where they sat me down until the rescue vehicles came. I lost sight of my husband, but knew that he was OK. People were crowding around me more than anything, but I couldn't figure out why. I was yelling out the phone number to the church that we attended to get someone to call there and get my parents to come. (I guess someone did, because they were there when I was being put into the ambulance.)



I don't think I ever lost consciousness, but I had a head injury, and a badly mangled right hand. My hand had gotten caught between the asphalt and the roof of my car, because when we started going down, I held onto the roof ( the car we had didn't have the handles at the top of the windows). That, combined with the fact that I was pregnant was enough for them to take me to the trauma center at Norfolk General Hospital instead of the smaller one that was closer, Chesapeake General. They took my husband to Chesapeake, and I wanted to go with him, but they wouldn't take me. My mother rode in the ambulance with me, and my father stayed with the car until it was towed back to the farm, and then came up to Norfolk. My sister-in-law went to Chesapeake with my husband, who was treated and released rather quickly, thank God. All he had was a few scratches on his face and arm.



When I got to the hospital, I was very vocal (read: "yelling") about the fact that I was pregnant. The EMT had forgotten to tell them that over the radio on our way there. They immediately started working; cutting my clothes off, doing an ultrasound, x-rays, the whole nine yards. They sent me for a CT scan of the head, and then we waited. The US showed that the baby had a heartbeat, and wasn't hurt a bit, praise God! The first x-rays of my hand showed no broken bones, but the Dr. that was treating me didn't believe it. He just knew that my fingers had to be at least dislocated or something, as badly as it looked. He then sent me for more x-rays of my hand. At the same time, I kept complaining about my left thumb; it hurt, and it was swelling and turning all different shades of purple. He said it was just jammed, and it would be fine. HA! (More about that in a minute)

All the tests came back normal. Oh, I had a concussion, but my hand was not broken, it just looked like hamburger. Each finger was skinned on the sides from the knuckle to the tip. I found out later that my tailbone was broken, and my left thumb WAS broken. So much for that Dr. actually listening to his patient.

They kept me in the hospital in the Labor & Delivery unit overnight so they could monitor the baby, and released me the next day, which was Monday. We came home and rested for a while, and then I made a phone call to Bethel Baptist Church. I wanted to let them know that we were OK, and thank them for all they did for us in the aftermath. As I write this, I'm tearing up, because what came next was just about the biggest blessing that we have ever received.

Come back, friends, and I'll tell you more!

To be Continued...