The Wrinkled Runner
The Wrinkled Runner
Surviving Impact: My "Hit by a Car" Story
Hey Running Friends!
I share the harrowing experience of being hit by a car while running on a sidewalk two years ago and my ongoing journey to recovery both physically and mentally.
If running is something you truly have passion for, seek out every avenue to keep it in your life after setbacks. The people who can help you get back to what you love - doctors, physical therapists, counselors - are worth investing in.
If you are looking for a coach to help you reach your running goals, even if it's just to start to run, take a look at my Coaching Services page on the website. I do virtual, in-person (Buffalo, NY area) and also offer single zoom sessions for those would just like to chat with a coach one time.
I am also a Personal Trainer, and offer virtual training as well, in addition to Nutrition Coaching.
Find my additional outlets over at the YouTube channel and at wrinkledrunner.com. Sign up over on the blog for the once-a-month newsletter! If you would like information on utilizing a running coach, check out what I can do for you here.
If you have any running-related questions, please send an email to sherry@wrinkledrunner.com…I answer every one.
Hey there and welcome back to the Wrinkled Runner podcast. Today I'm going to be telling a story, actually about the time I was hit by a car, which was in April of 2023. So it's been two years, over two years, and I'm still trying to figure out the things that are kind of going on in my body, if they're age or there are some things going on that I do think is a result of the car accident and how I landed. So to go back to the day, it was actually the first warm day that I was wearing a short sleeve shirt. I was wearing a brand new short sleeve shirt and I was going out for a nine mile run. Now I had already signed up for the Charlotte Marathon, but that wasn't going to be until the first week of November of that year. So this was just kind of like building up to the build up to the marathon, training kind of thing.
Speaker 1:I was running along, I was on the sidewalk and I saw a car that was speeding and it was coming down the street under a viaduct near where I live and I was only like three miles into the run and I remember seeing a car come out really fast. He was making a left from a side street. When I saw this happening I thought, oh, this is going to be an accident, I'm going to see this accident happen and I'm going to have to stop because A I am first aid CPR trained and also as a witness to the accident. But what actually happened was when the car came out of the side street to go across and then the other car that was speeding hit that car. The car came out of the side street to go across and then the other car that was speeding hit that car. The car actually spun and headed straight for me. So what I remember was I remember thinking, oh my gosh, dave is going to be so upset that I'm dead.
Speaker 1:And then I remember the car just just coming towards me and I actually have a video of the accident because it was right in front of an apartment apartment complex that had cameras. I kind of jumped a little bit out of the way, but it still. It still hit me straight on and I went flying. This I don't remember Watching the video. I landed on my butt and but my head went back and I didn't. I don't remember any of this, so I thought I had been blacked out for a while. But looking at the video it looks like I sat up rather quickly and then when I did sit up, I I could not believe how many people were suddenly there.
Speaker 1:Like when I was running it didn't seem like there was anybody around and as soon as I got hit there were just people coming out of the woodwork and I remember them making me lie down and holding there was a somebody that was holding my head, trying to keep it in place. So the car when it hit me, after it hit me, flipped onto its side and slid and then stopped. And thank goodness when I was hit, you know it didn't like drag me under, because I definitely would not be here right now if it had dragged me under. It just slid on its side. I don't know I'm bad with like feet and stuff, but probably 10 feet, something like that 10, 15 feet. And because of it being on its side like this, I could see the gas or some fluid leaking out of the car and I remember telling all the people taking care of me can we like move back away from this car? And there was.
Speaker 1:My Garmin had flown off me and my phone went flying, but there was a guy there who took my phone and asked me if he could call somebody. I gave him some gibberish phone number that had nothing to do with my husband's phone number. I still don't know where I pulled that number out of, but it wasn't Dave and they were also asking me like what year it was, which I did not know. Things like that. I don't remember how he got to because my face wouldn't work. My face was so banged up it wouldn't work for them to unlock my phone. I think in my ice emergency thing that you have on your phone, I actually did fill out all the information and so I think that's how they found him and called him.
Speaker 1:Some of the people around thought that I had been ejected from one of the cars, but then someone had actually seen the accident happen and they're like no, she was on the sidewalk when it happened. I think what made the car flip was it wasn't even like a driveway I was hit in, it was just like full on sidewalk and I think they hit the curb and then hit me and then flipped. Then I remember the police were there, but the by then the ambulance had gotten there as well and, you know, loaded me up in the back of the ambulance. They had to cut everything off of me, and so I also remember being very annoyed that I was only able to wear this shirt once, and now it was going to be cut. I would never be able to wear it again.
Speaker 1:They were asking me again you know what year it was? Well, here's the thing, because I already knew when they asked me before and I got it wrong. And then they kept kind of prompting I knew the answer to that question, prompting I knew the answer to that question, and then they asked me again at the hospital what you know, what year it was. And so in my thinking, I'm like you know, there should be different questions as you go through the system, right, like so, if you're a first responder in an ambulance, whatever, this is your, this is a question you can ask to assess, you know what's going on, and then, once you get to the hospital, ask a different question, because I have no idea if I would have known what year it was by the time I got to the hospital or not. I just had already known the answer because I was told what the answer was back at the scene. So anyway, just a little side note. If you happen to be in the medical profession, that might be something interesting to study or look at. So I just remember seeing out the window driving really fast and getting me to the hospital.
Speaker 1:Once I got there, it was just a mad rush of a full body scan and CTs and you know all this, all this stuff. So finally I was in my emergency room bed and Dave actually had gotten there already. He had gotten the phone call that I was in a car accident and, because of of how it was worded, I didn't have a car at that time, but my daughter-in-law and son were living with us, and so he thought maybe it was my daughter-in-law and my grandson. You know he's wondering where they are in all of this. And then, but finally he learned that I was actually hit by a car as a pedestrian, but for some reason he was out there for a long time. They finally he finally asked, and then they let him come back in the emergency room and I had a broken nose, there was a huge bruise on my one hip, and then I also got an air embolism around my heart, an air embolism around my heart, and so I had to be on oxygen, for I think it was. I think it must have been 24 hours.
Speaker 1:I was on oxygen for a long time and it was so annoying because it was. I hate the feeling of that little tiny tube inside your nose. It feels like it's like going right up to your brain. The air was just blowing into my ears.
Speaker 1:At the same time, the pain nurse came in and what I thought she asked me was how long it had been since I had taken anything like Oxycontin. What I think she actually asked me was did I ever have a problem with it, like got addicted to it? And my answer was, oh, not for 20 years. So you know they wouldn't give me it for the rest of the time and I couldn't. They didn't give me a prescription or anything. And then, looking back on what I thought she said versus what I think she actually said, it explains why I was only getting like Tylenol. So hopefully in my record somewhere there isn't like this declaration that I ever had a problem with Oxycontin. Actually, I have the opposite problem I don't like taking it, and so usually when I was prescribed it I barely took any.
Speaker 1:So anyway, I was in the emergency room till late that night and then they took me into a regular room and it was such a nice room. So where they, where I had gone, was ECMC, which is the county hospital, and you know if you're in Buffalo you know it doesn't have a great reputation, but this room was great. It had it was a private room. It had a desk person that had been holding my head when I got hit by the car so she had seen the accident from the window. She lived in the apartments at where this had happened and she was asking if she could come and talk to me and come see me, and it was just so cool to be able to meet someone that was involved in helping me. When I first went down I was so grateful. It was great to be able to thank her properly and just talk to her, and that was really cool. I thought that was great.
Speaker 1:The other thing that I thought was nice two things actually they now have in the hospital and this might be TMI, but they have these little vacuum things instead of putting a catheter in. Catheters are the bane of my existence. I had to have one with each of my kids because I had C-sections for all five of them and my urethra is apparently short. So when I have a catheter it just feels like I have to go to the bathroom all the time. It's awful, but these little vacuum things just stay there and you can just go to the bathroom and it just sucks it all away. It's great If you if you ever hospitalized and you have that option take the option, because it's so much more comfortable and I didn't have any accidents with it. It was super cool. So hopefully, if you take my advice, you don't either. But the other thing that was really cool was, instead of being attached to a big pole that has all of your vitals to it, it it was just this compact little the size of like a phone that had everything plugged into it. So instead of having to sleep like on my back, which I never do, I was able to sleep on my side because of this, this little pack that had all the vitals going on on that. So that was another thing that I thought was really really cool. So when Dave came to visit me, he was.
Speaker 1:I wanted to see if my garment was had been broken, because it had flown off and it was still running. Six hours later it was still running. So it was saying that it took me six hours to do three miles. So, needless to say, I discarded that workout. What I? What was crazy to me is it flew off of my wrist when I got hit but didn't like record. You know how it has that emergency thing, like I have clapped my hands and it'll start the emergency countdown where, if you don't, if you don't tell it to stop, it's going to make those emergency phone calls just clapping my hands. I actually do get hit by a car and the thing runs for six more hours and doesn't say that I had gotten into this accident. You know there was no abrupt stop. So anyway, that was crazy. So I was in the hospital for three days. It could have been two, but I failed the walking test where I wasn't going to fall over, so I had to stay in there overnight for another day.
Speaker 1:The recovery from that was, you know, I couldn't run for three weeks. My hip was bruised, my nose felt awful. I could not get all the blood out of my nose. For days. Face was just just black and blue under my eyes. I mean, everything was just a mess. I was wearing masks and had lots of makeup and the parts that could show just for at least two weeks. It was just crazy. And then when I started running again, you know I had to go very, very slow, I had to be very careful. I went to the chiropractor, I want to say for eight months, because when I landed I really shoved a lot of things out of place and now my issues are a lot of hip issues, piriformis issues, a groin issue which I never had felt my groin before ever, and all these things I think are because of how I landed on my, the way I landed on my back and butt area, on my, the way I landed on my back and butt area. So you know, you can do all the right things run on the sidewalk, you know, not cross the street unless it's out of light, all the safety things, and still things can happen that just can come out of the clear blue sky. I think the fact that I'm a runner saved me, you know, allowed me to have the reflexes and the fitness to jump enough out of the way that it wasn't fatal. But well, on the other hand, you know I was out for a run. So being a runner did also contribute to being in the accident.
Speaker 1:Being in the accident, of course you know, after even it was about a year, after almost a year, I still could not cross streets without panicking. I could not be in a car, especially on the thruway, without thinking that a car was going to just come ramming into the car. It was pretty severe PTSD and it just ended up getting worse and worse. I could run, but it was terrifying just crossing streets and so I ended up having to see a counselor. For about that was probably eight months that I saw the counselor and we worked on trying to visualize that people are trying to be safe, trying to get me to just think about other things, be distracted. You know we tried a bunch of stuff and I did start feeling better about being in the car. I still will have some of that when we're in a car, especially on the thruway.
Speaker 1:I do not like the three lanes really get to me, especially if we're on a outside lane and we're going to move into the middle lane. I get very panicked that the people in the opposite outer lane are going to also come over at the same time. I don't know that that's ever going to go away, but through ways are very, very tough for me. Running, not so much running. I really I'm okay with that. Now I can cross the street and not fear that you know that a car is just going to come out of nowhere. I am starting marathon training. I'm working on just the groin stuff and the hip stuff.
Speaker 1:One thing that's interesting is I found out that when I was running the buildup not the actual training, but the buildup to it I was getting severe groin pain and hip pain where I couldn't run and I'd have to take multiple rest days, and it was really discouraging. Just a couple weeks ago, I decided not to take my phone on a run with me, with my husband. It was just going to be three miles. It was 530 in the morning, so you know who's going to text me then. So we went for the run and I didn't feel any pain. It was, it was nice, I felt nothing.
Speaker 1:And then I was walking over to my son's house and I use a flip belt that I can store my phone in, and as I'm walking I'm starting to get really bad groin pain again and I'm like that's so weird that I would have it now when I'm just walking instead of running. And so I took the belt off and the pain started being alleviated so now. So I was like I'm going to not run with that belt and see if that's causing this pain, and so I didn't run with it then, and I really believe that I had gotten a new phone. It's it's bigger than my other one and heavier, and I really think it is when I wear that belt and have the phone on my back that there must be part of it that's pushing on some kind of nerve, bundle or muscle or something that is referring this pain into my groin, because when I don't run, when I run without that, I'm fine. So now I have to figure out, you know what. Am I going to run with a lightweight vest? Am I going to get an armband for my phone? Am I going to do a handheld water bottle, which I absolutely hate, hate, hate, hate. So but it's just interesting, because I was all ready to go to the session for PT to figure out what, you know, what I could do for this pain, and if I had continued to wear the belt, I don't know that the exercises and the things that they would have me do would actually have made a difference.
Speaker 1:So it's, it's annoying, you know that, that these things happen that are out of your control, that just affect your life and affect what you do. You know wearing I talked about wearing a lightweight vest. I was trying to wear a hydration vest and the pressure on my back, in between my shoulder blades, just since the accident I just really I can't do that or I have to have much less water in the bladder than I would like. These setbacks and these things that happen can really get you discouraged. But you know I stuck with the PTSD stuff and going to the chiropractor. I got through the marathon in November. It was, you know, my slowest, but I got through it.
Speaker 1:Rather than quit and let that take over my life, I absolutely did want to get back to the running. Whatever happens, if running is still a possibility, I would really encourage you to do what you need to do to get back. You know, use your doctors, use physical therapists, use counselors and make sure that you do everything that you can to get back. It might not be the same, it might look a little different than it did before an illness or an accident or some other setback in your life that you may have.
Speaker 1:But if running is something that you really, really, really have a passion for, then seek out the avenues in order to keep that in your life, because once you're on the other side, you're going to be very, very happy that you did that, and the sooner you get those people on your side that can help you get to that point, the better you know you don't want to be in the cycle where you just stop running and then it just gets so hard to start up again.
Speaker 1:Then you get discouraged because you have so much more to go before you reach fitness again. Don't compare yourself to how you were pre-accident. I'm always still hopeful that I will be able to PR a marathon. If that doesn't happen, then it's also okay, because I'm still running marathons and I'm still here. If you look at the video, you can see that if I was over another few inches I probably would not be here and I certainly would not be here in the same capacity as I was pre-accident. Just an encouragement to keep on keeping on and keep doing the things that you need to get back to running.