When it Rains, It Pours

What a ridiculous 24 hours we have had.  It all started on as a typical Sunday; church in the morning, nap for the kids in the afternoon for the 2 younger boys and my wife took Zachary to find a Pokemon shirt for his first day of school.  Note to parents everywhere: No one sells Pokemon shirts anywhere.  Because my wife looked and the closest she could find was adult size Pokemon shirts at Hot Topic.  So if you are a 40 year old man living in your parents basement and watch Anime all day and play dungeons and dragons all night, Hot Topic has a shirt for you.  Anyway, she was driving home and while driving straight on this road to our house, an SUV stopped at a stop sign pulled out in front of her and hit my Civic she was driving.  It was a corner to corner hit but SUV vs Civic, it was more, the SUV "monster-trucked" on top of my Civic slightly bending the SUV's front bumper and totally demolishing the Civic's hood, headlight, front panel and everything on the inside by the engine.  Lindsey had some neck and back pain and Zachary had neck burns from the seat belt and a head ache with some back pain as well.  The paramedics checked him on scene and released him there.  The other driver was not hurt.  The Sheriff cited the other driver for failure to yield at a stop sign.  So I had my civic towed to a body shop because it was deemed "un-drivable" on scene but the SUV was allowed to drive away and received an invitation to the next Thunder Nationals Monster Truck Rally, "SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY, COME MEET THE PINK POWER RANGER!  IF YOU'RE NOT THERE YOU'D BETTER BE DEAD AND IF YOU"RE IN JAIL....BREAK OUT!!!" Anyway, the next day we find out from the adjuster that the insurance company is going to total my car.  Now this car was paid off and supposed to last another 5 years being a Honda.  So "Hello, car payment!" 

That evening after dealing with the insurance company all day, I was in the basement playing with the 2 older boys and Lindsey was upstairs.  I did not see the 2 year old for 5 minutes, but when I did, he walked down stairs holding his neck saying his neck hurt.  I picked him up and comforted him not thinking too much of it since he walked down the basement steps on his own.  But when Lindsey came down he kept complaining of his neck pain and would not stand on his own.  When I tried to put him down he really started whimpering and wouldn't put weight on his legs and kept shrugging his shoulders and holding his neck guarding it.  So we called the Pediatrician and took him right away for an evaluation.  When we got there, he would not pick his head off my chest and wouldn't let the pediatrician touch his neck.  Nate then told me at the office that he had fallen down the stairs but Lindsey nor I had seen it happen.  So after consulting with another doctor they thought the best course of action was to squad him down to Children's for an X-ray.  Squad because they wanted to stabilize his neck for the ride down.  Well, back boarding a 2 year old was one of the worst parenting experiences ever.  He was screaming, we were crying and trying to console him.  But in the midst of the torture, my wife tries to lighten the mood and says "He looks just like Baby Jessica."  I laughed later.  We got him down to Childrens and the ER staff was wonderful.  They took X-rays and thankfully no fractures.  He was still in the child neck collar the whole time but at least he was out of the neck brace.  When all was calm and we knew we were out of immediate danger, we were able to relax and he was loving the one on one time with both his parents and the hospital TV.  The ER doctor told us to keep the neck brace on and consult neurosurgery for a follow-up because after neck trauma he is still at risk for the weak ligaments around the spine to re-injury the neck.  So he is to keep the brace on 24/7 even bath and bedtime. 

After we were out of the "high risk" woods, my wife and I started talking about these past 24 hours and how expensive 1 day can get.  The best thing is that despite all these things, everyone was OK.  But I was telling Lindsey, that Childrens is so good to us because our name is on this wing of the hospital because of all the money we have had to pay to them over the past 7 years.  I mean we just finished paying Drew off from his birth.  He is officially ours now and wont get repo'ed.  Although some days I think about re-financing him.  And we were at Childrens 8 months ago, when this same neck brace boy had broken his leg at Christmas.  So Childrens was very good to us because we pay their salary.  That new building at Columbus Children's Hospital...You're welcome.  So while we were getting ready to leave, the registration girl comes in a tells us we have a $100 ER visit co-pay.  I tell her to add it to our running tab w have Childrens.  She told us she could bill us later.  Why pay today what you can pay tomorrow, its the American way.  So while we are driving home I start thinking of the ER co-pay and the x-ray and ER room charges, I think of the totaling of my car and the new car payment, and the insurance deductible and I start laughing.  Well Lindsey looks over at me and her first thought is "He's lost it.  It was too much for him and he has finally cracked."  She asks me why I am laughing and I tell her, "We are out of gas."  To which we both start laughing because what else can you do.  We now have one car and one 2 year old in a neck brace for the next 2 weeks.  When a friend was asking me about how Nate was injured in the car accident, I had to tell him, "No, those were 2 separate events but the same 24 hours."  At least our boys have been wonderful with little Natey and his new "neck shield."  There are no superheroes with neck braces he could relate to so we call it his "neck shield" like Captain America...if he broke his neck.

When it rains, It pours. I only wish it would pour money,
The Joyful and Tired Dad