After I Tripped (Friday Series #1.)

I wrote a previous series called; Before I Tripped Over a Stone. I wanted people to know I had a life before fibromyalgia. I experienced ordinary ups and downs. I did overcome a lot but had built a life, excelled, and was happy. Then I was in a car accident. This was the catalyst for my Fibromyalgia Syndrome. My memory fades at times, but I will do my best to explain what it was like for me after a car accident took my life and turned it upside down.

We will see how this goes!

Let’s start from the beginning on the day I tripped over the fibromyalgia stone…

I was living in Seattle.

It was a beautiful, sunny day in August 1998. I was 30 years old. My (then) fiance and I were on our way to the Human Society to adopt a kitten. We were traveling through a residential area when he very calmly said, “Hold on, Baby: he’s not going to stop.” At that moment I heard metal hitting metal, and I flew forward, my head hitting the windshield, my knees hitting the dashboard as the car spun counterclockwise. When I came to, my head was resting on the open window of the passenger side I was sitting on. My seatbelt had done nothing to save me in this kind of accident, frequently called being “T-boned.” The little two-door Grand Am I was riding in did not stand a chance against the full-sized Tahoe.

I remember the sounds of the fire engine sirens. They were so unbelievably loud! Then a different sound: police sirens, with the high whine of an ambulance siren not far behind. [I suffered from PTSD for many years after the accident, emergency vehicle sirens would set me off!] I remember a fireman asking if we were OK. My fiance kept complaining about his back. [In all fairness, he had been injured on the job and was preparing for a second, back surgery.] I stopped listening. I just wanted out of the car! The Tahoe was blocking my door. It was getting hard to breath. I was starting to panic. I needed out of that car! I looked for an escape through the back of the car; there was no way out! A paramedic started asking me questions. I answered “Yes” and “No” and “Please let me out of this car!” I finally pushed past the paramedic and made my way to the curb. I refused further medical attention. I was just trying to breathe. A police officer made his way to me and said, “You are not fine; you are in shock right now. Your pain will increase; you need to go to the emergency room today.”

I would have never guessed that the pain I would start to feel over my entire body that afternoon would never go away…

(to be continued…)

~Kim