Darn drivers!

I got hit tonight as I was walking back to the house. I'm fine....I think. His side mirror got my arm, right below the elbow. It's a beautiful black color and is swollen......am icing it now. I don't think it's broken. But man, it cracked. You could hear the crack of the mirror hitting my arm. And the mirror is broken.

It wasn't my fault, I swear. I was over as far as I could get because our road is narrow. He didn't even try to move into the other lane and there wasn't anything in the other lane.  He didn't even try.

He stopped and started yelling at me. And I started yelling back. That HE hit ME. I was OVER as far as I could go. HE didn't even try to get over. One of the neighbors came over and told the guy that I always walk as far off the road as I can. Always. And that he saw it happen.

The old guy gave me his card and told me to have to it checked out; he said he'd take care of the bill. But I really do think it's OK. I can go to the ER and they'll take X-rays. And tell me to ice it. And tell me to take Advil or something for the swelling.....and I can't take Advil anyway. So I'll ice it throughout the night tonight and see what happens. It doesn't really hurt or anything, maybe a little, but nothing I can't handle. If it's bad tomorrow morning, I'll call my doctor. (I have to pay $100 just to enter the ER at the hospital before they'll do anything.)

To be honest, I don't think the guy ever saw me. I don't think he was paying attention at all. I really thought I was over far enough that it was OK. There's a white line on the side of the road and I was walking right off the white line on the side.

OMG, that is terrible! l'm glad you're okay, it could have been much worse. lf it were me, l would have had the guy charged.  

Hopefully nothing is broken or damaged and you have no lingering after-effects. Sheesh. l'll bet that was nerve-racking  - and painful. Ouch!

Pam, I'm so glad you're ok!!!! What a scare!!! And I think I'd call the police about him. He could've done more damage to you--or someone else, with his lack of paying attention. In other words, he's a hazard on the road.

OMG! I'm so sorry this happened to you! Please keep a watch on it and go to the ER if necessary.

Yikes, that was scary!

Thank you. The police just left the house. When Rick got home, we decided that I should have called the police right then and there to report what happened. I was so rattled at the time that I simply wasn't thinking straight. Had I been in an accident with my car, I would have called. But since I was walking, I didn't think about it....I just didn't. 

Anyway, I called the police to report what happened and an officer came to the house tonight to take down the report. He told me to definitely call my family doctor first thing in the morning for an appt and he took down the number of my doctor. I will call. If they're not in tomorrow (and I'm not sure if they are, since it's Friday), then I'll go to the ER. I think I almost have to at this point now that the police are involved. The officer said I really should have called when it happened, that it's just like an accident with two vehicles; it was still a crash. He told me that next time, I am to call right away. I think I was so worried about getting home and icing my arm down that I wasn't thinking.

My arm doesn't hurt at all. It's stiff, really stiff, but it doesn't hurt. The officer was more than a little surprised that it doesn't hurt once he looked at it, but it doesn't.

I've been walking up and down that road now for about ten years. One of my biggest pet peeves as a walker is that a lot of drivers will not move over for a walker. In PA now, it's the law that you have to give a bicyclist 4 feet of space on the road. If you cannot do so, then you slow down until you can. When that law was passed, my sister said she thought she could hear me yelling 12 miles away because the law didn't include walkers.   

Oh and, of course, all the cats were out and about, checking out our "guest". He asked us how many cats we had and we told him we had seven. He was amazed. They were all out, too, except for Amber. He was impressed that there was no "cat smell". I thanked him because we really try to keep boxes clean. He was in a house where there was only one cat and the smell almost knocked his socks off. (I told him it probably helped that I had been baking cookies tonight, too. We were just putting them away when he rang our doorbell.)

Oh my gosh Pam!!  I'm glad you are going to have it checked out tomorrow and that you called the police.  We have a park almost right across the street but I have to walk in front of 2 properties (these are country properties; not huge, but no postage stamp yards either) to get to the park grounds.  I get nervous walking both kids there by myself because we have just small ditches, no shoulder and the speed limit is 50!  We do have several regular walkers who come up and down the street too.  

I hope your not hurting any worse come morning!  

I'm glad that you're going to call your doc. Even if there isn't a fracture, I'm concerned about crush injuries.

I'm just seeing this thread now Pam, I'm glad you're ok.  I wouldn't have thought of calling the cops either.  Glad you're not in pain.

Thank you. I'm fine. Honest. Just got back from the doctor. She said it's a really nasty hematoma, but the arm isn't broken or anything like that. I have a tendency to talk with my hands and she told me that the way that right arm was flying around as I was talking to her, no way was it broken. It is tender and it will be so for awhile. She said it could take as long as six weeks for the hematoma to completely dissipate and that my arm is going to look a whole lot worse in the next few days as the blood leaves that area and travels down toward my hand. It's going to be pretty ugly before it looks any better. 

They gave me a paper to have x-rays done if I start developing any pain or if I feel it's necessary. But honestly, I don't. There's very little pain overall, as long as nobody's pressing on it, that is.

I didn't have to do a co-pay because it's considered a vehicular accident and he is considered to be at fault. Therefore, his insurance will be responsible for everything. The doctor said he's getting off very easily!

The officer was to have called this man first thing this morning and he said he'd get back to me, so I'm hoping I hear something soon.

But I'm fine. I am to continue icing it and keeping it elevated as much as I can. My doctor said, "You know, if you were anybody else, I'd tell you to take Advil. But......" and she spread her arms out.  And I said, "I know, I know. No Advil!" 

It didn't hit me until later on last night just how lucky I was. Just another couple of inches and......well, it really could have been ugly. And then I started to shake pretty badly.  I am one lucky, lucky lady.   

MoochNNoodles said:

 
Oh my gosh Pam!!  I'm glad you are going to have it checked out tomorrow and that you called the police.  We have a park almost right across the street but I have to walk in front of 2 properties (these are country properties; not huge, but no postage stamp yards either) to get to the park grounds.  I get nervous walking both kids there by myself because we have just small ditches, no shoulder and the speed limit is 50!  We do have several regular walkers who come up and down the street too.  

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I feel the same way. I live out in the country and I would love to be able to take my daughter for walks but people come speeding down the road and I'm terrified she will get hit. People told me to put her in a baby carrier and walk with her that way, but if I got hit, it could still hurt her. People walk on my street all the time too.

Winchester said:

 
It didn't hit me until later on last night just how lucky I was. Just another couple of inches and......well, it really could have been ugly. And then I started to shake pretty badly.  I am one lucky, lucky lady. 

 

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Yes you are!  One of my cousin's was hit a few years ago while walking down her road (also a country road).  Little old lady with huge glasses who couldn't see over the steering wheel.  I'm not sure how fast she was going; but it left her with some nasty injuries.  I forget how long it took for the swelling to go down around one eye so she could see out of it properly.  For a while it was swollen completely shut.  I think her shoulder took the worst of it though.     

Good news!

Oh my gosh, I'm glad it wasn't TOO bad!  And kudos to your husband for calling the police. How scary! Best wishes for a rapid recovery. 

OMG! I'm glad you weren't seriously injured!  Getting hit hard enough to break a side mirror, you must have been hit pretty hard! 

I'm so glad you're ok.  There is so many distracted drivers now.  He probably didn't have his attention on the road.

You were extremely lucky! My parents had one of their cats because Ginger's original owner was hit by a truck and killed while out for her regular evening jog. Our elderly next-door neighbor was bedridden for an entire year because of a reckless driver who ran a red light and hit her while she was using a pedestrian crossing.

A lot of drivers seem to think nobody has any business to be out walking.

I'm glad you're okay and hope that your arm heals quickly and doesn't get too sore over the next few days!

Pam, what a scare that must have been. Thank goodness there were no more injuries. I'd be sure to see that he pays all your medical expenses. He's lucky you're as nice as you are. Somebody else would have tried to make a big case out of it and sue him. Maybe that's something he deserves and will teach him a lesson

Just take care of yourself and let us know how you are doing tomorrow.

Thanks guys. I'm fine, really I am. But I'm a little more shaken-up than I thought. I'm having "issues" getting back out on the road to walk. It scares the crap out of me, to be honest. It just does. And I don't know what to do about it. I was so lucky that it's not worse than it is (my arm, I mean) and the fact that I was so far over on the berm of the road and still got hit, well, it just scares me.

The police haven't gotten back to me since they took my statement on Thursday night, so I have no idea what's going on. They were going to call the guy who hit me and they also took my doctor's phone number, so I imagine they were going to call her to make sure I went to have the arm checked-out. So I have no idea what's going on at this point.

I don't know if it's going to make the newspaper or not....god, I hope not. You know, those police blotter type things in the paper. Rick's mom called on Friday, just to see how we were and Rick figured he'd better tell her what happened, just in case it does make the paper. Well, she almost had a heart attack, she flipped out that bad. We kept telling her that I'm fine, I'm OK, but all she kept saying, "OMG, Pam, you were so lucky!" And yeah, I'm know that. Which is why I'm now having trouble going back out on the road.

Rick isn't here. He left for Oregon yesterday morning and he drove to Seattle last night....he and a union buddy are checking out Seattle today and tomorrow before heading back to Portland for their meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday. He told me NOT to go back out on the road until he gets back home. I won't get on the treadmill at 5:00 in the morning because it's still dark outside (and yeah, I'm a wuss....I don't like being in the basement by myself if I'm the only one in the house and it's dark outside). He suggests that I hit the treadmill once it gets light in the morning while I'm off work and then go back to the treadmill at night before it gets dark again. Once I go back to work on Wednesday (I took vacation days this Monday and Tuesday), I can start walking outside at lunch time again in my old neighborhood and see how that goes. And then after I get home from work and fed the cats, then I should go back down to the treadmill before it gets dark. He's not too worried if I don't get back out on our road because once the days get really short, I won't be able to walk outside here anyway....it will be way too dark til I even get home from work. So I'll be walking over lunch at work again.

This whole thing just bites. I need to get back outside and soon. 

I was worried that you'd be afraid to walk out there again, but I wanted to wait to see how things went with that before saying anything. Yes, you were very lucky.  However (some "tough love" here, please don't take this the wrong way, Pam!), you need to put that behind you, and realize that this was a freak thing.  It probably won't happen again. I certainly can understand how you feel; I'd be inclined to do so myself. But, take it from the Queen of the Phobias herself, YOU NEED TO NIP THE FEAR IN THE BUD NOW. I'd hate to see you be afraid of walking alongside a road, etc. I say this because I know what it's like to be afraid of simple things, and how easy it is to become that way after a traumatic incident. Now, I'm not recommending that you walk in the dark/dusk, but you may want to start back up in the Spring.

About the basement: are you afraid because you think someone could be lurking down there? Is it a walk-out basement (i.e., have a door)?   If so, when Rick's not there, could you put a few floor lamps, etc. down there, that you could turn on easily before entering, so you can make sure that no one's there, and then walk to the door to show yourself that it's locked? Would all of this make you feel safer?

Take care of yourself, sweetie!

Is it the lack of light that creeps you out in the basement? Maybe everyone here can come up with ideas to help make the area better to work out in.

How long have you walked that road? Has there ever been any other incidents since you've lived there? Or close calls?