Car Accident

I don't like being stuck in bed. I'm so bored, and I can't believe I actually want to go back to work. I had a four day weekend recently, but spent three of those days sick. Yesterday, I was hoping that going back to work would help me fight my cold. I believe that if I am busy not thinking about being sick, I heal faster.

So here's what happened to me on the way to work. I was driving into Fallbrook, north on Mission Road, when I approached a man and a dog on the side of the road. I slowed down once I realized the dog wasn't on a leash. Suddenly the dog decided to run into the road. Since I had already slowed down, it wasn't hard to stop and not hit the dog. As the dog ran in front of me and across into the opposite lane of traffic, I hoped that the other cars would stop for it, and they did. But right at that moment, my car was hit from behind very hard. I lurched forward and, after coming out of the shock of being hit, pulled my car over. After I pulled over and got out of the car, I noticed lots of other cars stopping but none of them with any damage to the fronts of their cars. They all started running to a densely vegitated ditch on the side of the road. That's when I realized the person that hit me was down there with their car. I almost lost it, but the lady in the car managed to get out. Apparently, she hadn't seen that I had put on my breaks until she was almost to me. When she noticed I was stopped, she slammed on her breaks and turned the wheel to the right. It wasn't enough time, because she hit the back of my car on the passenger's side, flipped, and then landed in the ditch. The witness behind her, who is a nurse, comforted me and told me that she seemed fine and was an older lady that must have not had a fast enough reaction time. She did have a lot of time to react since she was way behind me. The nurse had noticed that I was stopped and that the car behind me wasn't breaking. It is fortunate that she was fine enough to get out of the car. We both had head and back pain, but I declined the ride in the ambulance. I called Gary who came to pick me up and take me to Urgent Care. My car (a very sturdy 4Runner, thank goodness!) was not drivable, so it was towed to the body shop. I thought it would be a total loss, but they called later and said it could be fixed in 20-25 days. After going to Urgent Care and taking x-rays, I was diagnosed with only muscle spasms in my upper back. I had a really bad headache, but the pain pills they prescribed me easily fixed that. It doesn't help being sick either. The doctor recommended me to a chiropractor and wrote a request that I don't return to work until Monday. So here I am in bed and not at work.

It's hard to miss work as a teacher. It involves a lot of preparation for the substitute. The substitute they found for me yesterday had no sub plans. Nothing. I later heard she was new to the district but did fine. There is a teacher I work with who has a daughter that substitutes all the time. I requested her and talked to her on the phone. We put together some type of plan for the next few days. I feel bad because there is a whole county earthquake drill today and I have a new student that is supposed to start. I know everything will be alright, but I still feel bad. Even if I wanted to be there, I couldn't. I'm supposed to stay here in bed with ice. It is hard for me to turn my head. Everyone I talked to said the next two days after an accident are the worst.