Car Accident

On August 19th at 1 am in the morning we were driving back from a friend's house. My friend Rena was driving. She has a permit and is pretty much ready to take her driving test. We went around a corner at 45 mph (the speed limit) and there was a skunk in the road. She swerved to miss it, went off the road but corrected and would have gotten us up back on the road if the electrical pole had been about eighteen inches to the right. As it was it buried itself into the passenger side hood with a spare foot and a half between it and the windshield and, by default since I was the passenger, my face.

The air bags went off. We both had our seat belts on, thank god or I would be dead right now. We had both lost our glasses. Rena was really traumatized so I called 911 and gave them the information I could. A couple of people came by and left when they realized we'd called 911. A couple of other people stayed and waited with us and were annoyed that the other people had left us alone.

The official people showed up and got Rena out of the car. I was another matter however. They couldn't open my door far enough to get me out that way and my side was a steep hill down to a bunch of trees. They seemed a bit worried about that. They also seemed a bit worried that the power lines might end up dropping on us, so they wanted me out quickly. They kept talking about it and I kept telling them I would prefer they not talk about scary things around me. They put a neck brace on me and ended up getting me onto a backboard and pulling me out of the driver side door.

Back boards do not feel stable. Neither do gurneys on uneven roads. They tied me down to the board, which actually felt reassuring since I felt so unstable on the thing and then got me into the ambulance. Rena and I got to go in the same ambulance. The EMT taped our heads down to our boards. Rough roads when you are strapped down to a back board are quite unpleasant and the ride to the hospital was close to 30 minutes long. We weren't bad off enough for sirens. Rena seemed to be doing ok. She was joking with the EMT and that made me feel better. I was trying to keep conscious, but it wasn't easy.

We got to be in the same room at the hospital as well. A doctor took a look at us and told me I needed x-rays and CT scans because I might have broken ribs, a broken sternum, or broken clavicle and internal bleeding. I was pretty far along the road to a full blown panic attack at this point. I have anxiety issues, have had panic attacks, and have a severe phobia of hospitals, doctors and needles. In fact most of my panic attacks have been caused by one or more of those phobias.

Shortly after the doctor left one of the nurses told me he was going to start an IV. I told him no he wasn't. Well actually it was more like I just started wailing NO NO NO NO NO. Hello full blown panic attack. Now, I had told them that I had anxiety issues and phobias so they should have realized what was happening and dealt with it professionally. Fat chance. Ever wonder WHY I have the phobias I have? He just roughly said that I had to have an IV and I had better just calm down and deal with it. He might as well have told a diabetic to not be diabetic while shoving sugar down their throat. There is no way I can control a panic attack when it gets full blown. It's a fight against the fight or flight reflex and huge rushes of adrenaline. Someone finally let Dragon in there to try and help calm me down. He had brought two of my special stuffed animals to help me get through it.

I finally managed to hold one of my arms still so that he could try to start the IV. He was horrible at it. He tried twice, fishing around in my arm with the needle both times. I was pouring sweat and browning out, my normal reaction to needles, but worse since he was totally screwing it up. On top of that he was blaming ME for him sucking at his job. I was staying perfectly still and he said it was my fault because I was tense. Ok, I was having a panic attack but managing to stay perfectly still for him to do something horribly torturous to me and it was MY fault? Yah right. I told him to stop and that I wanted someone else to do it if they were going to try again. They finally got someone else who listened to Dragon and put the IV port in my hand on the first try with no problems.

They took Rena for x-rays and when she got back she got to get off of her back board. By this point both of our butts were numb and my lower back was in a lot of pain as was the back of my head where it was being pressed against the backboard. I was really starting to panic even more because I couldn't move and my back was spasming. My right leg was convulsing and there was nothing I could do about it. They finally took me to x-ray and took at least five of them. I kept asking if I could have some pain meds or water. They kept telling me I could have more pain meds later. The problem was that no one had given me ANY pain medication up to that point. I tried to explain that, but they ignored me. Eventually I got to go back to the room. I thought I would be allowed to get off the back board, but they still needed to do CT scans and wouldn't let me move or tell me the results of the x-rays.

I tried to shift a little to relieve the pain in my back and I was told to stop moving. I told them I understood why I wasn't supposed to move, but that my back was in a lot of pain because the muscles were cramping. They just tightened the lower straps which made me yelp since it tightened the top a bit as well. The top strap went over my right sternum and clavicle and shoulder, exactly where the doctor was concerned I had broken bones. I asked the nurse to loosen it since it hurt so badly. Her response was to grab the upper strap and YANK it as tight as she could. I screamed and begged her to loosen it. Her response was to say, "Fine, I won't touch you anymore" and leave it like that as I cried and whimpered. Dragon was speechless and Rena wanted to deck her (I found out later).

They finally gave me some pain medication and an anti-nausea drug through the IV and untied me from the back board. After that they took me to get the CT scans done. That wasn't too bad since the pain meds were kicking in and I could actually move so that my back wasn't screaming in pain. They took four CT scans and gave me this weird stuff that would make my blood show up in the scan. I was really cold as it went in, but then made my whole body feel weirdly warm and tingly.

We spent quite a bit more time in the room waiting for the doctor to ok us to leave. I still didn't have my glasses. No one had found them at the accident site. That didn't help my mood at all since I can't see without them and have no depth perception. I was finally given some water to drink.

By the time we left it was nearly 6 am, but it was just bruises and scrapes, not broken bones or internal injuries. I could so easily have been dead. Seat belts really do save lives.

Shard Review

If you don't already know this, Dragon owns a gaming store and gaming is pretty much a part of our everyday life. The bonus to this is that I get to hear about and try out a bunch of new games. The most recent one I've gotten the chance to play is a role playing game called Shard. I have played a ton of different systems over the years, but I think Shard already ranks up there as one of my favorites.

The system is very role-playing oriented which is a wonderful change, although the combat system is well thought out and plays very intuitively once you get the hang of it. The magic system is a big shift from the classic fireball style one, being based in ceremonies and a sort of astral type dream realm, but it really gives people the chance to do what they want without having to worry about specific spells and doesn't seem like it will get overpowered too easily. Everything basically comes down to descriptions, cinematics and dice rolls, pretty much in that order.

By far the biggest differences between Shard and the other games I have played are the characters and the world. It is a truly unique gaming universe and that is something that is hard to find. The characters are called Zoics and are basically anthropomorphic creatures. You won't find people playing dragons though, it's all based on actual living animals so researching your character type is really simple and you don't have to go with a flat template. Character building is a points based system that makes it very easy to get a character with the animal type you like, the skills you want, and some fun advantages and drawbacks to go along with all of it.

The world is simply amazing and unbelievably well thought out. There is a complete history, mythology, and social and political structure. Rather than being the same old castles and knights or sci-fi setting, Dardunah (the world) has more of an Eastern feel and a very distinct class system that is built into character creation. Rather than animals the creatures that inhabit the world are insectoid. All in all it is perfect for a GM with a good imagination to go nuts with.

I love the fact that the system lends itself so well to detailed role playing instead of hack and slash. Not that you can't find things to chop a part if you want to, there's just so much more to it than that.

The broken foot that never ends

So after six weeks in a cast, it finally came off and I was told I would have to wear a walking cast for six more weeks. Not only that, but I can't actually walk on it, only stump along on my heel. Oh and instead of getting a final response on whether or not it will need surgery, I have to wait till the walking cast comes off to find that out. It seems the bone isn't healing well and my bones are shaped a bit weirdly just to make it worse. Positive thoughts are appreciated.