How I "Caught" Fibromyalgia Part 2

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And so the "saga" continues...


Where was I?

Oh yeah! The next event that was a big tipping point.

Fair warning: I have included some photos at the end that might bother some people. If picture of broken cars with dried blood on them bother you then you may want to skip this entry or, at the very least, the photos.

As you can tell by my last comment a car wreck was my next step on the Fibro journey. Suffice it to say that I never saw it coming. To this day I second guess myself and wonder if there was any way I could have prevented it. I know that is useless. There really was no way to see the future so I am stuck with what happened. A bad reaction to an antibiotic I was taking for a slice into the joint of my thumb was what caused it. I never could get anyone to say so in court, of course, because they were scared to death I would sue, but that is what it all came down to after months of testing.

 I was in a car accident. I was ejected from the driver's side of my car, took out the console in the center with my rib cage and I ended up on the passenger side of the vehicle where my head broke the door. Yup. You read that right. My head broke the door. I was banged up pretty good. There were no broken bones. There was, however, a traumatic brain injury, a split open skull that was gushing blood and trauma to my neck, ribs, shoulder, arm, legs...you get the picture.

Of course I had purchased brand new tires for this baby the week before the accident

The console I ripped out with my body. One policeman wanted to know if I was filing my nails when he saw the file on the floor and could not believe that it had just come out of the console.

I was taken to the hospital by ambulance, a ride I do not remember at all, where I spent 4 days in the ICU. I went home after that time and my husband made lots of appointments for me with my regular physician, the orthopedic doctor and the head of neurology at Hartford Hospital. There were other appointments too. I can't really remember all of them. What I do remember was the headache, the body aches and the bewilderment.

The brain is a funny organ. It is in charge of so much. When it gets injured it is amazing how many little things it did that we took for granted that it suddenly can't or won't do anymore. 

I was always a pretty bright gal, if I do say so myself. I was not proud of too much but I was proud of the fact that I was a smart cookie and could do anything I felt like doing by just reading up on it a little. I had taught myself a multitude of things and they all came to me easily. After the accident it was not the same. Not even close. I felt completely stupid and entirely incompetent after my injury. And I hated it.

I hated my brain for failing me, I hated the doctors who could not tell me if or when it would get better, I hated that this happened to me because I did not deserve it and I hated that I had to try to figure out how to remember things in my daily life with tricks because there was no other way for me to do so.

I no longer remembered the day, the time of day or I often got out of the shower to find I had not shaved one leg or arm pit. Sometimes they still had soap on them. Or I would start to comb my hair to find conditioner oozing between the teeth on the comb because I forgot to rinse it out. I would go get the mail and not know I already had done that today. Or I might brush my teeth for the 4th time and not know until my husband would ask what the heck I was doing? 

And then there was the headache. The never ending, blinding headache that made it impossible to read, to watch television, to make dinner or to even turn my head. It was resounding. It was excruciating. It was often enough to make me nauseated. And perhaps worst of all, it did....not....end....not in the morning, not in the afternoon, not even when I slept. I would start to turn over in my sleep and would awaken with a jolt feeling as if an evil monkey had slammed a hatchet into my head.

My head hit where the lock is-on the inside

 

The outside is what bent from my head-not inside

If you missed part one you can find it HERE