I had to let these pictures speak for themselves because it's hard to narrate a story you don't remember. Even though some of the pictures are of me, and I took all the others, I have no memory of being there with Ken, Syd, and her friend Hollee.
Everything I know is from what Ken has told me (repeatedly :). I was sledding down the hill, and somehow got turned around backwards. He tells me it seemed like I was trying to get off the sled and turn the right way again, but I couldn't get stopped in time. I crashed into a tree, mostly with my back and shoulder. I'm not sure if I was knocked out right then, but he knew something wasn't right. I know we went home at some point because there were piles of my snow clothes all over the house. I remember nothing from turning off a movie Saturday night, to being in the hospital Sunday evening. Not a thing. Ken took me to the hospital because he was worried I'd hit my head. I couldn't remember anything, even when he answered my questions over and over. I spent the afternoon at the ER, getting xrays, CT scans, and whatever else they did. Then I had to stay the night with a grade 2 concussion.
My shoulder and head are a bit tender, but the thing that was making me the most crazy in the hospital was my right eye. It was a totally unrelated situation, but happened to overlap with the sledding accident. Last weekend I woke up and my eyes were hurting so bad I could barely stand to open them. I tried flushing with saline, with Visine, everything I had in the house. I finally called the eye doctor to see what they thought. I never spoke to a doctor, but the receptionist recommended some specific over the counter drops for dry eye. We got those and used them all weekend, with no help. Finally, as a last resort, we found some generic pink eye drops at Walgreens that seemed to help the best. The soonest I could see a doctor was that Monday. At the appointment, he didn't see any signs of infection, or damage. He called it "surface breakdown," and said to keep using the generic drops if they seemed to be working. What do you do but trust the doctor? I went on with my week, put in my contacts again, and seemed fine. Ken tells me I was complaining about the same type of eye pain Saturday some. I had a regular exam appointment scheduled for yesterday, so I didn't try to talk to anyone over the weekend. In the hospital Sunday morning, my right eye was watering so much and was so so painful. It was so frustrating to be in a hospital, in such obvious pain and not have anyone even look at my eye or attempt to do anything about it.
We finally get out of the hospital and made my eye appointment. I saw a different doctor within the same office. He did a much more thorough exam than the original doctor and found an infection in my cornea. He prescribed some antibiotic/steriod drops that have already cleared up all the redness and swelling. Today my eye doesn't feel gritty or have stabbing pain shooting thru it when I look around. I'm very irritated that the first doctor didn't find it last week. It was the exact same pain in the exact same area of my eye both times I went in. But I'm glad to have a diagnosis and a remedy that is working. The worst part now that the pain is gone is not being able to see. I can't wear my contacts until the infection is cleared up. My backup glasses are almost 8 years old, and about 4 prescriptions off from my current contact prescription. I can use them at home, for close up work, but leaving the house and even thinking about driving in them makes me very nervous.
It's very surreal to see pictures of yourself and have no recollection of being there. It's weird to pick up a book you've been reading for a week and not remember what lead up to that specific page. It's crazy to remember everything up until a general amount of time and then just have nothing. Although, I'm not sure if I really
need to remember the actual crash itself.
Ken was so good thru the whole thing. He stayed with me the whole time at the hospital, even sleeping on a "fold out couch" the size of our love seat. He was patient about answering the same question every 5 minutes when I asked him. He's been great at keeping my family and friends updated thru texts, calls and facebook messages. Our neighbors and friends the Wessendorf's graciously volunteered to take care of Storm, even letting her come to their house to play with their kids and cats.
It would seem I'm very lucky to be home today, with no injury more serious than a sore shoulder.
