CRASH!

Posted on 02. Oct, 2011 by Jillian in Glycogen Storage Disease

Sorry, I couldn’t help it. I like dramatic titles.

Ok, I know that I always take twice as long to say anything as I need to, but I’m really going to try to keep this short. I have some seriously fun stuff to blog about next. Also, this post doesn’t have a whole lot about GSD in it, it’s mostly just me whining, so feel free to skip this one.

As we were waiting at a stoplight in Gainesville on our way back to the airport we heard a screEEEAAACH and then BAM! we were rear ended. The boys were all ok (a few headaches, but nothing serious), and they were a little scared at first. Ben’s first word was “Really?” and then they all started laughing about it. It’s a good thing we all have a weird sense of humor; I can’t tell you how many times the car accident has been reinacted with matchbox cars. Anyway, Ben was pretty stiff, but ok. I had to turn my whole body instead of just my neck to check on the boys, but we were ok enough that no one needed to go to the hospital. We decided to just exchange insurance info and get to the airport to try and catch our flight home.

About half way there my back REALLY started to hurt. By the time we got to the airport and filled out incident reports etc. I could only gimp along. Ben had to lug all of our luggage, while I did my best to keep up. We finally got home around midnight, and I have NEVER been so grateful to see our night nurse in all my life! The next day (Saturday) I was definitely worse, so Ben watched the kids while my parents took me to an urgent care/ E.R./ I don’t really remember, I was in a lot of pain. They ended up doing an x-ray to make sure I didn’t re-fracture any vertabrae, but it looked ok. She gave me a whole mess of pain killers and muscle relaxants and told me to see another doctor in a few days if I wasn’t getting better. The good news is the meds knocked me out and I got to catch up on a lot of sleep. The bad news is the meds knocked me out, so I couldn’t take them after Sunday since Ben had to go to work at his office instead of working from home.

On Tuesday I had a 504, IEP, and transition meeting at the school. I’m so grateful that I can trust this school, because while I was trying really hard, and I had made sure that I wasn’t currently on the meds, I was in so much pain I couldn’t concentrate on a thing they said.

On Thursday Dallin was riding to school on the bus with his nurse when all of a sudden he passed out. She tested his bg a couple of times- he was fine. She tried tickling him to wake him up, a sternum rub, everything. When the bus finally pulled up to the school about 5 minutes later, she and the driver carried him down the steps of the bus, and then into the nurses office. Right after she laid him on the couch, he woke up and was totally fine. Now, some of you might think that maybe he was faking it, but that kid can’t go 5 seconds without smiling if he’s pulling a prank, and there’s no way he would “normally” go from wide awake to asleep and not wake up when he’s being carried around. He’d at least open his eyes for a moment.

Of course, this is the day that I’d decided to take a bath to see if that would help my back, and I missed the call from the school. They got a hold of Ben, and he was able to rush home, terrified for Dallin, and scared for why I wasn’t answering. I had/ have massive guilt for missing something so important!

I called Dr. Weinstein, but since blood sugars were taken several times, and the glucometer was definitely working correctly (sometimes it pays to have multiple kids that need bgs tested), it really wasn’t his area. Out pediatrician just said that “These things happen sometimes, and we never know why, but they never happen again. If there’s another problem, we’ll run some tests.” So far, thankfully, it hasn’t happened again.

After a couple weeks of not being able to stand for more than 10  minutes at a time, I finally caved and went to another doctor. To sum up, I ended up getting a CT scan to make really sure that I didn’t re-break anything, and I had to see him/ the physical therapist twice a week for a few months. After about a month, I broke down and started taking the opium he prescribed, and I really did get better faster after that. I’m pretty much back to normal now, unless I overdo it. But I’m not so sure my once beautifully organized house will ever recover from me not keeping up all summer.

Now we’re on to dealing with the bills. Did you know that if you get in a car accident in the great state of Florida, that the insurance companies are only required to pay 80% of the bills- even if it wasn’t your fault. The teenager who hit us had Geico, we payed extra for Hertz, and we have our personal insurance that we could dip into, but then our rates would probably go up. Yay.

There. So much for keeping it short. Oh well, now we can move on to the fun stuff.