Built Ford Tough

So, here I am on Wednesday day thinking it would be great to get out and go jogging. The weather is BEAUTIFUL, Misha's been a little sick-maybe the fresh air will do her some good, let's go for it! Just as I'm about to leave the house, Misha has a disgustingly dirty diaper (again, she's been a little sick...), I have to bathe her, etc. etc., and I think to myself, "Maybe I shouldn't go jogging today...Nah, let's go! You need to train for Race for the Cure, you need to lose weight, let's just go and be motivated." So, I get Misha strapped back into the jogging stroller (which she was already in when I found her with said diaper) and off we go! This is what our jogger looks like....

So, I need to get stamps, so I head toward the post office about a quarter mile from the house and decide I'll get stamps and just do the rest of my jog afterward. I start up my MP3 player to play me some GooGoo Dolls as I work out, I put on my sweet shades...I'm already looking hot in my Under Armour jogging clothes (well, I'm working out to EVENTUALLY look hot in them anyway). I do a nice little warm up down the street and do a bit of jogging as I come up the little hill to cross over the railroad tracks and across Mildred Street toward the post office.

I stop. I look BOTH ways. All the traffic around has a ton of time and distance to slow down (as was already happening to my left) and stop before I finished crossing the crosswalk. I think a little about waiting, and again I decided that there was plenty of time for people to stop. I cross over the first lane of traffic beautifully. As I continue toward the center of the street and look to my right, this is what I see barreling down at me...
Yes ladies and gentleman, that is the grill of a Ford F-150...and if you can picture it going about 25 miles an hour, that would be what I saw in that moment. I take a shocked gasp knowning that I would be struck and that there was nothing I could do about it and sure enough...BOOM! Dude slams right into me and Misha (being secure in the stroller). I am fairly sure my feet left the planet momentarily. I have many thoughts fly through my mind as I fly toward an eventual landing..."Oh my gosh, I can't believe I just got hit by a truck"..."What happened to Misha?!?!"...and mostly..."PLEASE LET HER BE OK!". I do hit the ground and immediately get up and try to rush over to Misha...rushing at this point was a bit slow seeing as how I was in a fair amount of pain. Dude gets out of his truck and says, "Ma'am, you shouldn't have been in the middle of the road." I say, "Sir, I had the right of way!". Perhaps if I had not been in so much pain and worried so much about Misha as I was "rushing" over to her, I may have taken the time to hit him instead of tell him I had the right of way...we all know I hit like a dude and I would have been effective in my communication. By this time I finally make it over to my screaming girl who, miraculously, is still in the stroller. You will note in the picture above that the seat portion attaches (it actually clicks in) right at the front wheel. From what I could see whilst I was hurdling through the atmosphere, it never tipped, rolled, or flipped over. She simply slid 90 degrees to the left, and the seat portion came unclipped so that she was laying down instead of sitting up. Dude tried to start taking her out of the stroller, and 4-5 people came crowding around. I told him to leave her as she was, that I was an EMT and it was best to leave her in that position until the paramedics came. Realizing that there was really nothing I could do for her at that point and that I was in a fair amount of pain, I laid down right there in the road. We were all but a block from the Ranson police department, so they showed up pretty quick. We were a half mile from the Ambulance Authority of Jefferson County, so the medics came at an impressively speedy pace as well. As I lay in the road, I called our good friend Pam Harmon (who we also have watch Misha when we are at work) using a bystander's phone to tell her that I hadn't been able to get a hold of Jerry all day and I need someone to be with Misha in the ER because clearly I wasn't going to be able to be with her. That sweet woman and dear friend dropped all she was doing and met us at the ER. (THANK YOU PAM!!!) I prayed...A LOT..."Please, just let Misha be alright...PLEASE...let her be alright." I saw a familiar face in the EMTs and fire fighters who showed up on scene from Independent Fire Company (whom we volunteered with when we first moved here) and told him I needed someone to contact Jerry at Lansdowne ER where he was doing his clinicals that day. He calmly reassured me a few minutes later he had gotten a hold of Tyree Kable (another person we had volunteered with and who also works for Loudoun County Fire and helped Jerry be prepared for and know what to expect in recruit school) and that Tyree would let Jerry know. (I came to find out later that Jer was actually contacted by a Loudoun County deputy and was told that way...Tyree also called him to let him know and to offer to drive him to the hospital if he didn't feel up to it, and was kind enough to notify Jerry's bosses about the situation...we are deeply indebted to his kindness and thoughtfulness). The EMTs then put me on a backboard as I watched them put Misha in a "papoose" (a child sized, although not as stiff, backboard).
I must say, it is MUCH more fun being the EMT than the patient. They loaded us both into the ambulance (by which time Misha was calm and easily consoled by the wonderful EMT Mary Ann), started an IV in me and hauled us away. By the time we got to the hospital(the short mile drive didn't take long!), Jerry had contacted the hospital and I was told he would be there within an hour. So, as I laid very uncomfortably on the backboard (my whole right side was killing me, especially from my hip down) I was asked all the standard questions..."Are you allergic to anything?"..."How much do you weigh?" (162 lbs.! and I better have left a dent!!!)..."What's your address and home phone number?"...blah blah blah...all the while hearing Misha crying once in a while in the other room (more about being restrained than about the bump that appeared VERY quickly after the impact)

and being so worried as to whether or not she was alright. I cried once in a while between the questions when no one was talking to me...I was scared, and I was a bit alone. The nurse told me she was going to cut off my spandex...I said , "No! It's Under Armour...it's REALLY expensive...please, just pull it off...I'll help you if you need it." So, she kindly said she'd try before cutting, and thankfully was successful in pulling the pants portion off and not having to cut it off. Thankfully she didn't remove my skins underneath...which would have been fairly embarrassing seeing as how the ER tech was fairly good looking...I got a sheet to save some of my dignity. I apologized to everyone that I was planning on shaving that day, but clearly hadn't had the chance! The deputy on scene came in and told me that Dude didn't have a current insurance card with him because he had just switched, but that they were going to get it from him, and here was his number if I had any questions on the case. I asked when I would be taken for x-rays so I could be cleared of any spinal injury and finally be able to lay on my left side to give relief to my very injured right side. The doctor tells me they are taking Misha for a CT scan to rule out any brain injury due to the bump on her head. Finally I'm taken to x-ray...they x-ray EVERYTHING but my left leg. I may have left glowing! They clear me of any spinal injury and I even HELP take myself off the board and I ripped off the c-collar and threw it across the room! I've got major road rash on the bottom of my right elbow (this looks relatively like ground meat, I realize...it's kinda that bad...that's kinda what happens when you skid across asphalt at 25 mph)

and some on my right ribs. This actually is redder than it looks...the flash made it look not as dark as it actually is.

I walk gimpy. I WILL be bruised and stiff for some time. By the time I'm back in my room, Jerry is there, I see Pam, and the wonderful Brothers Dunn & Roberson have already given a blessing to Misha, and then administer to me. The doctor comes in and tells me the results of my x-rays.
Miraculously I have no broken bones. None. All 206 bones are still in their respective 206 pieces as they should be. I have a fair amount of bruising...it's deep tissue, so surface wise it STILL hasn't even shown up. By this time I'm starving because I have yet to have eaten anything since 10:00 am which was only 2 pancakes. Jerry leaves to go and get Misha's car seat from the house just a few blocks away. Pam leaves to return to her family. I sit patiently and wait for Jer to come and get me and Misha out of the hospital that I'm not all too fond of...and have never been fond of. Misha I'm noticing has a few bruises on her right arm, but other than that seems totally unscathed. I refuse the Vicaden prescription the doctor wants to give me...I'm not going to take it anyway, I hate feeling out of it...you might as well not waste the prescription slip. Ibuprofen is all I need. We stop by the police station around the corner from the house to pick up the stroller that still had some of our things in it....this is what we get back.
This is pretty much how I found her, only on the side of the road, and Misha still strapped in it. I know without a doubt that Heavenly Father protected us from much worse, and kept us alive to finish whatever we still have yet to do here on earth. We all appreciate beyond measure the prayers in our behalf, and we are the very most grateful for a loving Father in Heaven who has kept Misha and me in the palm of His protective hand. I have witnessed the blessings given to me in my Patriarchal blessing being fulfilled, and I am so relieved that I have stayed worthy of those blessings. It's now 2 days later. I'm REALLY sore today...things have shown themselves to be hurt that I didn't realize where hurt Wednesday...mostly just bruises I didn't know where there, my neck, back, and right shoulder being stiff and sore from the actual impact and the whiplash of my body taking the full brunt of the hit. I found out this morning that the news of my being hit was on the radio today...104.7 here in the metropolitan D.C. area. I'm hoping it'll be in the local paper soon. I have no idea where they actually got the news of my accident. We got the police report today, and although I do not know how fast Dude was driving, I do know that according to the witness (the driver who appropriately stopped for me at the cross walk) I did indeed go up onto the hood of the truck before landing on the asphalt on my left side. Apparently I did hit my head. Dude was charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian, and for having no record of his insurance with him. As a note to some of the Henderson family who may be reading this. Other than Scotty's car accident all those years ago, I feel that I have met/exceeded the definition of "Henderson tough." To all of you who may not like me very well out there-it'll take a lot more than an F-150 to take me out...apparently we Heath women are built FORD TOUGH.
Again, my heartfelt thanks and love to those who have placed myself and Misha on prayer rolls in Temples throughout the country, who have kept us in their prayers, and who have generously brought us meals and goodies. Prayers ARE answered. Although I may not be in no pain, I am still alive...and that is answer enough.