In a Blink of an Eye...

It is amazing how quickly things can go bad.

It was supposed to be a normal autocross Saturday with the campus car enthusiast club.  The lot was small but the speeds were slower.  Afterwards, Jared and I were going to study marketing together.  I was going to take two tests on Monday and then leave Tuesday morning for thanksgiving break with my family.

Plans can change though in a blink of an eye...

I think it was my 4th or 5th run of the morning.  I was part of the first group.  I was driving Jared's car.  The course was very similar to the one we'd tackled two weeks ago and I was determined to place well.  I'd already made passes that felt pretty good and was trying to tweak small things here and there in terms of my driving line in hopes of squeaking off a couple hundredths (I ended up being second fastest, behind a SAE formula car (think powerful go-kart)).  Before I had left the pits to grab, most likely, an open face helmet from the club, Jared had offered me his closed face.  It seemed to fit as well as any helmet the club had so I accepted his offer.  How thankful I soon was that I was wearing it.

The course was a basic oval with slaloms along both straightaways.  While I never looked, I highly doubt I was getting above 45.

Accelerating toward far end of the track while weaving through the slalom as I had done before, I moved my foot to brake briefly to slow the vehicle and shift the weight to the front tires for the coming turn.

It feels like a vague dream but I remember realizing that the engine's rpm never changed and then their was a wall coming up fast (estimated speed of impact was about 35mph)...

When the memory recording started up again (though I confess, some of the details below may be in the wrong order.  It is all kinda a blur.), I was being helped out of my helmet and being given a rag for my bleeding mouth.  I remember looking around at the bent steering wheel, webbed windshield, the shifted and cracked interior, and at my hat and gloves sitting on the floor of the passenger side where I'd left them.

Soon the paramedics arrived.  With the jaws of life they cut off the jammed drivers door, put a neck brace on me and put me on a back board and into an ambulance.

In the short ride to the hospital, I recall learning that the guy riding in back with me was also named Corey.

Upon arriving at Hurley, my lips were numbed and stitched, a dentist came in and accessed my teeth, pulled out the remains of my upper and then they had to un-stitch the inside of my lip to pull out two tooth fragments (ow!).  At some point I was wheeled around for CT scans for my head, and chest, and a portable x-ray machine was used to x-ray my knee and chest.   Friends came in and checked on me.  The Vice Head of Mechanical Engineering even came and checked on me.  At some point my two nurse friends (Dani and Michelle) who work there were alerted to the fact I was there and they came in periodically to check on me when ever they could.  I was moved to a monitored room in the ER and proceeded to wait a while.

My friend Linda helped answer texts I was getting and kept me company till others came back.  I was taken for another CT scan.  This time for my stomach area.  Antibiotics were pumped into me.  An IV was started.  I still had the horrible neck brace on.  It was quite uncomfortable.  I was allowed to sit up and try to pee.  I found I simply could not.  Nothing good was on TV, as usual.  At some point Dani and Jared came in and sat and waited while they finalized my move to Trauma on the fifth floor.

Once moved, we sat and talked for a while.  Jared had brought my laptop so I got that out and started updating people on what was going on.  Finally, the neck brace came off.  Freedom!  I was allowed to hobble to the bathroom.  My right knee had a loss of some skin on the side and hurt.  Eventually friends left to get some sleep.  I kinda slept.  Nothing was that comfortable and the bed kept moving and making noise as my weight shifted (or sometimes, I think it moved simply because it was bored).  The door was open to the hall and it was loud.

At about 3:45, when I had decided I had missed her coming by or she'd decided to let me sleep, Michelle showed up after her shift and kept me company for about an hour.  We talked about random things (For some reason marriage and relationships was one of them.  I don't remember how that started.  The other major topic was all the medical equipment.) and I got my laptop out and gave her some links for sermons I liked.  She said she'd listen to them and gave me a link of an article on manhood.

She left so she could sleep before church and I semi slept till about 7:30ish (my nurse figured out how to stop the bed's automatic movements!).

Jared came by and we hung out for a while.  I got some food items to try to eat.  I found that if it stuck to the spoon I could lick it off.  I continued my drinking of juice and water through a straw.  Michelle came about an hour before work with a milk shake from Rally's!  At this point we decided to take a walk.  I was restless and bored.

As we slowly walked around, one of the people at the desk asked me if I was ready to leave.  Oh yeah!

About 40min later, I was discharged!  Wohoo!

My parents arrived that evening (Sunday evening) and Monday morning I was driven back home.  Tuesday I had a dentist appointment and they made an impression for my tooth and evaluated what was damaged and what should be done in the future.  Right now I just need to heal.

I don't know why God let this happen but I've realized some things during this whole ordeal...

• Being thankful for friends and family has a new level of appreciation this thanksgiving.
• 5 star crash ratings are a really good thing.
• The saying "I feel like I've hit a wall" carries new significance to me.
• I love nurses and what they do, but I'd never want to be in their shoes.  Thank you Michelle and Dani and all my other nurse friends or to-be nurse friends. 
• You know you have a true friend when he is more worried about you then his car which you just totaled.
• I know my birthday quite well now, being asked every hour or so by nurses.  They also seem to have feared my name had changed since they had last checked.  That or they simply forgot quickly?  ;)
• God is good.  To have this over thanksgiving week is much better then over a full school week.
• Life is fragile.  Live for eternity and don't take your next breath for granted.
• Having to lick food off a spoon forces you to take your time and enjoy it.
• Hobbling forces you to take a slower pace in life.
• 1/2 NS and 1/2 Peroxide solution tastes awful but does help clean cuts.
• Having big lips is no fun.
• I am a full face helmet enthusiast now.
• I will autocross again.
• The tape used for various medical things is quite sticky.  I still have residue on my arm that refuses to come off.

The final damage is as follows:

• One totaled car
• One totaled helmet
• A bloody jacket
• Bloody jeans
• A cut open shirt
• One missing tooth (though later found in the car)
• 3 chipped teeth
• A cut through lower lip with 5-7 stitches (can't tell at the moment due to swelling)
• A small cut near the nose that needed two stitches
• A badly bruised and scraped knee
• Bruising where belts were and the chest area

I truly believe God protected me from so much worse.  Some how my hands are perfectly fine (hard to believe looking at the steering wheel).  I got away with no broken bones (other then a fracture in my upper jaw bone around where the upper tooth was), no internal bleeding, and nothing really serious or life threatening.  God is amazing!

Have a wonderful thanksgiving!
Corey <><