Crash

These are the words I heard in a span of about 20 minutes as we left Children's hospital to go pick Mary Lawrence up from school:

"She has instability in her neck"..."probably going to need spinal fusion..."..."Lee, it's almost noon don't we need to get Mary Lawrence?" ..."Let's just put Maggie's brace on when we get home"..."We need to tighten the car seat straps when we stop next- they're too loose without the brace"..."That man isn't even looking; he's on his cell phone! Oh noooo!!!" ....Smash, crumple, spin in slow motion.... "Ma'am are y'all ok??? We called an ambulance. Stay where you are..." Child screaming, siren blaring, body shaking...

Car accidents can jolt you out of your security on the road in less than one second. This was no different. If Maggie had been on the passenger side or had ML been in the car in her normal seat, things could have been a lot worse.

Maggie is okay, but the neurosurgeon was clearly unhappy that I didn't have her brace on. (The "we had taken it off for another doctor and were running late" excuse was not good enough for me either.) Thankfully her MRI is on Wednesday so we'll know for sure. But having just heard about this new instability in her neck five minutes prior, I was very upset. Now I'm just sick to my stomach thinking about what further harm the crash may have caused. That's on top of the constant headache I've had since. (Jessica was okay, too, after an afternoon at the hospital, poor thing!).

We moms think we are okay in our big, safe SUVs and that nothing can harm us when we're going 35 mph on a city street. But that's a myth. Always make sure your children are securely strapped into their seats, even if you're only going a mile down the road. Know that even though you are a good driver, the person two cars away from you may be texting, talking on their phone, drunk, or just plain not paying attention...

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