Mike fights with truck. Truck wins.

It's strange how most every day starts out as an ordinary day but it doesn't always end ordinary. Yesterday was just like any other day. Mike and I got up early to finish some homework , went to 4 classes, and headed home to catch up on all our homework, cleaning and studying for our 2 tests this week that we missed out on over the weekend. After class at about 1 pm we were headed home for lunch. I'm pretty sure we were probably talking about what we were having for lunch or what we were doing for FHE that night when the light turned white and we started to walk across the crosswalk. About 10 feet into the crosswalk I turned and saw a truck grill probably like 1 foot away from hitting me so I screamed and jumped back. I watched as it hit Michael and carried him another 15 or 20 yards. All I could see after I saw him fold over the hood were his glasses and phone flying through the air in opposite directions and landing about 10 feet away. When the truck finally came to a stop I screamed and ran over to the front of the truck where I saw my sweet husband laying on the ground right under the bumper clutching his ribs. I knelt down and grabbed his hand and immediately started asking if he felt ok or if he was hurting anywhere. He said it was his leg that was hurting the most. His nose was a little bloody on the bridge which I imagine was from his glasses. It was getting swollen and bruised because he hit his face on the hood. The driver, a man about 60 years old, jumped out and knelt down beside us and was apologizing over and over again. I couldn't say anything because I was just trying to hold back my tears and make sure that Mike was ok. When the driver knelt and asked if Mike was ok he said yeah I think so and tried to stand up but I said umm no honey I don't think you are. A few people stopped and called the police. I heard them saying "yes, he's responding" and "he says his leg hurts the most."

He decided that he felt well enough to move off the road so the driver and I helped him up and helped him walked to the grass about ten yards away. All the people on the phone with the 911 operators told him not to move but he was already up haha. We laid him down and put some backpacks under his knee to hold it up. One lady that stopped said she was first aid certified and one lady told us she was a boyscout leader or something haha like that was supposed to make me feel better. There just happened to be an EMT driving by on the way to the grocery store and he felt around on his leg and checked his pulse to make sure he was ok for the moment. Then a firetruck came and blocked off the road and an ambulance and a few cop cars came. The EMTs came and cut his pants (his only pair of jeans, by the way) so they could take a closer look at his knee. They wanted to take him in the ambulance to the hospital but Michael didn't think that he needed to go. I said yes, you are going but I can take you if you want. Since we lived just on the other side of the road.

After the EMTs said he looked pretty good we sat up in the back seat of the police car while Michael filled out a report of the accident. The man who hit him stayed with us until the cop was ready to take us home. He even gave us his phone number and told us to call and let him know how Michael was doing and when he felt better him and his wife would take us out to dinner. We actually felt pretty bad for him. It was his first accident and his first ticket in over 20 years and I can't even imagine how scary it would be to hit a pedestrian. So we got in my car and I drove to the hospital just down the street but we couldn't figure out where to go since we didn't really want to go to the emergency room. We decided to go to the student health center urgent care. We waited there for about ten minutes and then she told us that it would be a mess with insurance and sent us to a different urgent care place. That place was nice though because they billed the car insurance directly so we didn't have to worry about anything. They came and got him in a wheel chair which was good because I was having to help him hobble everywhere and it was so painful for him.

When the doctor came into the room she was poking, prodding, pushing and pulling on his leg to see what hurt and if it felt broken or twisted or torn or what. As she was doing this I started to feel dizzy so I got up to get a cup of water but once I sat down my head was swimming and I felt really nauseous and hot. The doctor went to get me some juice and crackers and then had me lay on the hospital bed. Once I laid down and got some juice in me I felt much better. We must have been a sight, me laying in the hospital bed, him in a wheelchair. It was pretty funny to the nurse I'm sure. A little while later we went over across the hall to get him x-rayed. I think the x-ray technician was a little surprised to see a screw in there (Mike had surgery in the same knee his senior year of high school so he has a few artificial tendons and a screw and such) but other than that they said it looks encouraging. No breaks or fractures. He may of torn something but thats hard to see in an x-ray so they said if the swelling hasn't gone down or if it's still hard to put weight on it by the end of the week then we might need an MRI. They gave us an ice pack, an ace bandage, a knee sleeve, and some crutches to take home with us. Michael is not thrilled that he will need to use crutches to walk for awhile, especially since we go up a giant hill everyday on the way to class. We left the hospital at about 4 o'clock and went to Walgreen's to fill his prescription. Sonic was right across the seat and we figured we'd take ourselves to dinner on that man's insurance while we waited for the prescription to be filled haha. We finally got home at about 5:30. We had a little bit of homework to do so he got comfortable while we finished that up. We had a few visitors including his sister and her husband who brought us homemade cookies and chocolate milk. yummm :)

I don't think that he slept very well and he definitely did not venture getting out of bed and making it to class this morning. Which was good because it was so so so cold outside and I wanted to just run and jump back in bed with him. As of now he is just studying while icing and laying in bed since we have 2 tests that start tomorrow.. goody. Other than the bruise and swollen nose and his knee that is really stiff and painful he made it out in amazing condition. Oh, and we'll have to buy him some new jeans now.. haha.

We got so lucky yesterday in many ways. First of all, I could have got hit too and guaranteed I would have been more hurt that my husband because he is made of steel and I am not.. Second, it was a truck that hit him so the force was more spread out on his whole body than concentrated on just one area. We think that if it was a little car his legs would have a lot more damage and he probably would have gone flying a lot farther and hit the ground way harder. Third, he was wearing a thick, slippery snowboarding coat so he slid on the ground in front of the truck rather than rolling and he didn't get much more than a small scratch from the cement. And in any other coat we believe he could have rolled right under the wheel or got all torn up, both of which I don't like to think about. Fourth, the driver was so sweet and stayed there with us the whole time and really tried to make us feel better. And most of all, nothing is broken. His head didn't hit the pavement and crack open, he didn't get terrible whiplash, he didn't break any ribs, his glasses didn't even break! I consider us really lucky. I know that Heavenly Father loves us and was really watching out for us that day and I really hope that we will learn everything that He wants us to learn from this small trial in our lives.

As for me, I think I was a little more traumatized than my husband. At least he is not scared of cars or crosswalks :). And I can't get the image out of my mind with how big the truck grill was right in my face and how small my husband looked against it... But I am just so so so grateful that he is alive and well.