Wednesday June 13th, Bailey's POV

For our first post we would like to welcome you all to the adventure! We would like to introduce ourselves and begin the story that will be forever known as "Chris Smash!"
I am Bailey. I will likely be writing most of these posts. Who are we kidding? Chris only has use of one hand. But I have gotten ahead of myself. Let's start from the beginning. Today's post will be written from my point of view. Chris' version of the story will follow soon.

Chris and I were having a normal Wednesday night. We were watching Downton Abbey(a fact my husband will deny) and eating... Shit what did we have for dinner? I can't remember. Isn't that odd. Huh. Well I guess I will fill in that fact later. So we were having dinner and watching the finest British Drama since Doctor Who, and my husband decided to indulge my sweet tooth. I had been whining about wanting ice cream.

I need to stop right here and address something that will come up with that last piece of information.

Yes, I had a craving for ice cream.

No, I am NOT pregnant!

Sorry, I am glad we got that out of the way.
Chris had also hit a point where he could no longer stomach the costume drama and wanted to pick up a couple of movies from the RED BOX at the 7/11. Just .6 miles from our apartment.
Chris left ready to hunt and gather for the family. My phone rang as soon as he was out the door.

Seems my valiant champion had forgotten the reins(keys) to his stead, Isis our Ford Explorer Sport. He asked me to toss them down to him from our landing. I did so, and in that moment I had a small pain in the bottom of my stomach. I remember thinking, "Maybe we shouldn't be getting ice cream right now." I quickly shut that voice up with the desire for the Ben and Jerry's or Reese's Cups if they didn't have a flavor Chris thought I might like.

After I closed the front door I quickly did a post-dinner clean up of the living room. I was trying desperately to keep the house in somewhat decent condition since we are expecting guests early next week for the 3rd time in our relatively new location.

I put our dishes into the sink and cleaned up whatever meal it was we had.

CHINESE!!! We had Chinese for dinner!
Chris made me stir fry noodles and he had fried rice. Wow. That one kind of hurt. Wow. Sorry, I digress.

I put away our dishes and picked up a bit of the living room. I didn't throw out Chris' rice because I know how he likes to have an occasional nibble after his dessert. I then headed to the restroom. I took my phone with me for some odd reason. While I was sitting on the toilet solving the worlds problems(day dreaming about ice cream) my phone began to vibrate.

It was a local unknown number. I hesitated but I answered. Not realizing the time, I assumed it was either my employer at the alteration shop or one of the various locations I have applied to in the last few weeks. It is of course neither. It is 8:50pm.

I answer the phone a lovely woman says something similar to:
"Bailey, your husband Chris has been in a car accident up here on Military Highway. He's ok, but you need to come up here."

My whole world stopped.

I took one deep breath and asked her to repeat herself. She did.
As that sank in, I wrapped up my restroom business and finished my phone call. I went into auto pilot. I quickly gathered my keys, my purse, flip flops, and a jacket. It has been rather cool at night! I stepped out the front door with the plan to run the .3 miles to the accident site.

Luckily, on my way out the door I ran into our downstairs neighbors coming home.
The girl, Stacy, caught me and asked if my husband had just been in a wreck. How she knew that I will never know. I guess she recognized our vehicle on the road. I quickly asked if she could give me a ride. The ambulance was waiting on me to ride with Chris to the ER. At this point, all I knew was Isis had flipped and Chris was OK, but being transported to Norfolk General Hospital.

We have been a one car household our entire relationship. So it was key I make it to the ambulance before they left the scene or else be on my own for transportation.

Stacy quickly drove me up the road and let me out at the intersection of Longdale Dr and Military Highway. The 4 lanes(plus one center turn lane) were all shut down. There were a number of police and emergency vehicles. The lights and sounds were all a blur as I looked for the closest officer to approach.

I called out to the nearest officer in the calmest voice I could manage. I felt cool as a cucumber. I felt like I was in super crisis mode with tuned in senses and reactions. Apparently that is not the actual state I was in.
This nice officer quickly escorted me closer to the accident. Isis was upside down facing South on the North bound shoulder of the road.

I took it all in. The smashed windshield. The crushed window frames. The countless number of personal items strewn about the road.
A man in a light blue polo called out to me. I couldn't hear him over the sounds of sirens.
The officer who took me closer instructed me to stay put while he checked to see if I could see Chris inside the ambulance. The place where I was instructed to "stay put" was on one set of yellow lines in the middle of this highway.

I was standing there, all alone with a swirl of sounds and lights. Another woman on the roadside called out to me. Her voice sounded familiar. I am fairly certain this was my mystery toilet caller.
Again, I couldn't place her words. I just heard sounds. The officer came back and escorted me to the ambulance.
He said "Your husband looks fine. Do not run!"
OK. I thought, Do I look like I am running anywhere? I am in flip flops and my jam jams.

I crawled into the ambulance where Chris was strapped to a stretcher. I looked him over from head to foot. He had a strap across his forehead, a neck brace that looked very uncomfortable. his glasses were a bit askew on his face. There was sweat across his brow and just under his eyes. His left arm was draped across the front of his body with lots of road rash and some very swollen fingers. I also noticed his wedding ring was no longer on his ring finger. His right arm was down by his side with not a single scratch on it. His shirt was in tact and his pants too. His legs were both fine and his slide on Birkenstocks still on both feet.

We spoke but the details are a bit fuzzy. He said he felt fine except for his left hand. He asked me to hold his wedding ring. He had thought to slip it off in all the commotion.
When we picked out these titanium wedding bands we read many tips that said if you should injure your hand the ring should be removed as soon as possible. They are very difficult to remove because the metal is so strong. There are horror stories of people losing their ring fingers!

The ride to the ER was bumpy and felt much longer than it actually was, I am sure. Chris was in a good amount of pain. On the ride, he asked me to take his glasses and wallet. I asked him to hand me his phone. I knew once we got to the ER there would be phone calls to make. My phone was very low on battery. That's when he said that his phone WAS in the front seat of the car. Whoops.

Once we got to the ER, Chris was loaded out the back of the ambulance and I was escorted to the waiting room. I checked in with the security officer on duty and took my seat. The waiting room was not crowded but a fair amount of people were scattered around. One man was wearing one of those blue masks. You know the ones they give to people who have the airborne zombie virus.
This would be a good time to mention we have been watching The Walking Dead. So please remember that is all going down in the back of my head!! Zombies, EVERYWHERE!!!

30 mins. go by. I made phone calls to the mothers. I sent frantic texts to my sister and managed to text a local friend about a ride home when this was all over. It was hard to imagine this part would ever be over.

I finally got to go back and be with Chris around 10pm(all times from here until 4am are approximate). He was in a room on an actual hospital bed with an IV in his right arm and two packs of ice on his left hand. His nurse was very sweet and took very good care of him. The doctor came and told us the XRAYS showed a Boxer's Fracture of the fifth metacarpal. The doctor stated that it could have been much worse.

Officer Lawson(the first responder) came to the hospital to return Chris his drivers licence and give us the information for the tow lot where our car was being transported to. He is one of the most kind and caring police officers I have ever met. He gave us some information about the next steps of this process. He reminded Chris that he was lucky to walk away from that wreck and to take it easy.
"It's ok to take things slow for a while." He said with reassuring smile from ear to ear.

When the ER doctor came back he informed us he was referring Chris to a hand surgeon, one he had actually used himself. Tonight he was going to get Chris a prescription for pain meds and put his hand into a splint. We were instructed to ice it every 20 min, keep it elevated, and call the surgeon's office first thing at 8am.

What sounded like a quick release translated into 3.5 hours, two splints, two bags of IV fluids, two pushes of IV pain medication and 3 trips to the restroom for myself. There weren't any complications or anything. It was just a busy night for the staff of Norfolk General.

Mary Elizabeth, a friend of ours who lives in Virginia Beach, drove 30 min to give us a ride home. She arrived just before we were released and enjoyed an episode of That 70's Show in the waiting room. We haven't known Mary Elizabeth and her husband, Tino, for long. We are so thankful that she was able to come and rescue us! She kindly took us to fill Chris' prescription. While waiting in Walgreen's, we decided we would have that ice cream that started this whole mess! We gathered some provisions and the meds and headed home.

Mary Elizabeth dropped us off at Cole Manor just after 2 am. The dogs were very confused. I had left without a single word to them. I usually tell them to take care of each other and don't have any friends over. They were also confused about the state of their Papa. Chris was coming down off of the IV pain meds and adrenaline from the accident and his body was beginning to ache all over. He was walking very slowly and had 4 large open dirty scrapes and a clunky splint on his left arm. Matty sniffed him and ran away and Lucy plopped down next his chair to keep watch.

Neither of us were very sleepy. We were too worked up from the last 5 hours. Chris took his pain meds and we settled in. The next few hours were spent reflecting and reliving the evening. Our emotions were all over the place. We were and are thankful that things could have been, and likely should have been, a lot worse.

We both fell asleep some time after 4 am. Chris in his chair and me on the couch.

We want to thank our family and friends, who have been so supportive during this difficult time. We are planning to keep this blog up to date with information about Chris' healing and our process replacing Isis, the wonder vehicle.

Tune in next time to hear this whole story from Chris' point of view.