A Trip Down Memory Lane

Last night, I decided to go through the 4 file crates of financial info I had stored in my attic. I went through every file and purged anything that I didn't need. Along with cancelled checks (that go back to the very first checking account I opened!), I am going to have my Dad burn the purged stuff. After purging, I am now down to 3 crates.

The mere act of purging files was not the "trip" down memory lane. What I found was a file folder that detailed a car accident I was in when I was 21. I was hit head-on by a drunk driver. Back then wearing seatbelts was not the "norm", however I always wore mine. One of the first things my mother said to me was "Thank goodness you were wearing your seatbelt!"

I worked for a hotel on 3rd shift at the time, which was why I was out and about at 10:45pm. Can you believe the guy I was with at the time chastised me for going *that* way to work instead of the way I normally went?

Even though I was driving a big "heavy" car, the collision did major damage to the front end of my car, pushing the motor against the dashboard.


The other guy had a smaller car and his car was totalled, too. He didn't fare as well. He had to be hospitalized, as the report states. I heard he was blind for two weeks after the accident due to his face hitting the windshield. He was not wearing a seat belt. A short time after the accident, I saw him at a party DRUNK!


I felt all right after the accident, so I went to work. When the girl came in to take relieve me of my duties, she was all upset and freaked out because her friend had been in a car accident the night before and was in the hospital. Well, her friend was the drunk driver!!!

By the end of my shift, I started to have instense pain in my neck, shoulders and down my arm. I was taken to the emergency room. From then on, I had the most excrutiating pain for over 3 weeks. I had to go to physical therapy, an MD, and a chiropracter. I couldn't drive, couldn't shower, couldn't brush my teeth, or even comb my hair! Obviously, I couldn't work either. I kept a diary at that time and in reading it last night, the chiropracter had said out of 50 cases, mine was one of the top 3 or 4 worst whiplash cases he'd seen. Imagine that!


I'd always had a suspicion that the problems I've experienced over the last 5 years or so had something to do with that accident. In looking at the chiro reports, the suspicions were confirmed. The same areas that were affected then, are the ones that are causing my pain in the neck, shoulders, and arm now. Same kind of pains, too! I wouldn't have remembered the details of the suffering I'd been through had it not been for the chronicles I did during my medical treatment.

Ahh... I feel like an old woman today. My spine is stiff, and of course my arm is always in pain -- Just a matter of what degree.