Oh What A Night, And Not In A Good Way.

     I was just settling down from the day. I was beginning to think about just what I was going to write last night, and I had quite a bit of material to pull from, but then I got a call. The ID read that it was from Elie Wolf, but when I answered, it was a man at the other end. He identified himself as an EMT and that Elie had been in a serious motorcycle accident. My heart sank. I asked him if there was any information on her condition. He said that she was conscious and speaking to him, and that they were going to ORMC. That is Orlando Regional Medical Center. It is a Trauma hospital, which means the worst of the worst goes there. I left the house at 9 o'clock and made it there shortly after 10

     I found a parking space along the road and hurried inside. When I was at the desk asking about Elie, it turns out that another friend of hers was standing right there and had just asked about her as well. She was undergoing tests and as soon as there was a gap of time, they were going to get us and take us back to see her. We waited for hours. One of Elie's friends had called me but I missed the call because my phone was in "do not disturb" mode. I listened to the voicemail and called her back. She somehow had some really great information for us. Elie had been admitted as a Jane Doe, so we needed the Doe name that they gave her (that was something I didn't know about) and a security code that would let the admissions people know that we were cool to learn information about her.

     At around 1:00 I walked up with the new information and 10 minutes later we were being walked back into the Trauma Care Unit to see her.  It wasn't pretty. She had all kinds of wires hanging from her, a neck brace, arms wrapped and bandaged, and a giant lego around one of her arms. That lego piece led to some fun jokes and laughter from her later on. I'll get to that. We quickly learned the true extent of her injuries. She had broke both of her arms at the wrist, one of them had been as the doctor said, completely broken from her arm. It was only held on by the skin and muscle that remained intact. She had also shattered her pelvis. You know how a pelvis has those two large holes at the top, well her's were shattered into multiple pieces. I even heard some talk about a chest fracture, but that was very minimal and she probably wouldn't have even noticed it if there were no other problems.

     A few more hours passed, during that time, I made a few calls and contacted people for Elie to let them know that she was ok. She had multiple x-ray sessions. They were just being thorough and making sure that they didn't miss anything. About 3:30 in the morning we were making our way to her room. I had to wait until they checked her in. About 4:30 in the morning I was called back in. One of her doctors was there doing some final adjusting of her right wrist. They still needed to realign it so that it had a good chance of healing properly, and make it easier when they went in for surgery. Also, she had some slight nerve damage, that they believed was caused by the bone rubbing against the nerve. It was basically pushing the nerve out of place an putting stress on it. They made me leave the room one more time so that they could do the final yanking and pulling to get that bone back in place. After about 15 minutes they said it was clear to go back in. They were doing some final tests for feeling in her fingers, and things were improving. That was a very good sign. She's going to have a long road back but from the looks of it, she should completely recover.

     Ok, so here is the picture I took that she wanted to share of her new lego arms. I kept calling her lego Batman, and she was joking that she was a Transformer. I was happy that she was able to joke about the situation she was in. It's not the prettiest picture of her, and that is a smile on her face, but believe me when I tell you, that is a hundred times better than she looked when I first walked into that emergency room. 

     As I was writing this, I got a call from one of Elie's friends, informing me that she had just gone into surgery. The delay was caused by her needing a blood transfusion. She had lost a lot of blood laying on that road, so that is completely understandable.

     Now for what happened. I had the chance to ask her what she could remember of the accident. She never lost consciousness so she had a lot of details. I'm the one missing the finer points. I did make a little video that is currently posting to YouTube right now, explaining what happened. I'll post it with the Sunday post, but here are the details that she told me that I remember. She was riding home from work between 8 & 9 o'clock. She had a green light through an intersection. She noticed a truck (I believe she said a large pick-up truck, but I can't remember). It had started through the intersection against a red light and hesitated like he had seen her and stopped, but then at the very last second, he gunned it and drove directly into her. He t-boned her with the full brunt of the grill of the truck. She was knocked forward and clear of the truck, but her motorcycle Opie was crushed under the truck. She had many fears run through her mind. The first being the realization of the coming impact, then the pain of the impact and her thinking that this is the most painful thing she had ever felt, and that she was going to die. Then when she realized she was alive, she began to assess her pains and aches. She felt like her legs were locked in the riding position, and that she couldn't move them at all. That is when she was worried that she might be paralyzed. Fortunately it seems that none of that is the result. I saw her move her legs and wiggle her toes in the ER. She had feeling in all of her toes, bottom of her feet, and tops of her feet. 

     She was wearing her gloves and helmet. That helmet, I truly believe, saved her life. It did it's job and protected her head. Yes, she has a slight bruise on her chin and a small fat lip, but other than that, her noggin is fine. She did bite her tongue on impact, but it was nothing severe. She was talking fine when I finally left at some time after 5 in the morning. It was a long night, and one that I would gladly not relive again, but if I had to, I would hope that it would turn out exactly the same way. My friend is alive, and going to recover. It's bad, but she is one of the toughest people I know, and she will come out on the other side of this.

     In the video that you will see on Sunday night. I added a couple of things. One of which was a Gypsy update. I rode to the humane society to find out any information about her. There is an update on that update, and you get to hear that before watching the video, unless you want to go on YouTube and check it out right now. After visiting them, I got a call from them. It was the call list call I was

 hoping for. Gypsy is better. I will get to go see her tomorrow morning when they open, and add to our first meeting. I'll fill you in on all the details about that, and what else I learned in that phone call on Sunday.

     I also mentioned that the Adventure Time Series is at the very least postponed for this week. I'll be spending tomorrow, meeting with Gypsy and then heading to Orlando to do a few things for Elie. I'm meeting with her dog sitter, so that I can see her dog Gandi (the teacup polar bear) and get a key to the house. I'm also going to visit Elie if at all possible and get her a key to her house. That is one of the victims of the accident. Her keys were lost. They were either knocked off her on impact or they were misplaced when the EMT's cut everything off of her. She's going to need a way to get in her house when she is finally able to leave the hospital. 

I'll see you on Sunday. Peace in and goodnight.