A car crash teaches me important lessons...about life.
- O Institute
- 6 days ago
- 10 min read
A couple weeks ago I was involved in a car accident.
I'm okay.
I was driving home, when suddenly there was a car in front of me.
It was like a movie.
A car flying sideways in front of you and it's just a blur. That blur was the last thing I saw before there is a BANG!
Impact.
Explosion of airbags.
Something smells terrible.
"What is that smell?
Am I okay? Is there anything broken?"
My fingers and toes move. No sharp, excruciating pain anywhere.
My nose hurts.
"Am I bleeding?"
Whew! No blood.
I look around and notice that all the airbags have deployed. The hazard lights are automatically on. My brake pedal is completely collapsed and the gear shift doesn't move. Weird.
The car is demolished.
I'm okay... and I realize I need help.
I call a friend, call my wife to let her know I was in an accident and I am okay.
Then I call 911.
Help is on the way.
The smell is becoming unbearable.
The steering wheel airbag is starting to deflate but with that, the disgusting smell is getting worse. I need to get out of this car.
Is it safe?
I decide to chance it because you can't stay in a car that smells this bad. But the side impact airbags do NOT deflate.
Nice.
"How do I get out?"
It takes a little bit of contortionist flexibility but I make it out. As I am twisting out, I notice the bits that hurt but I also think...."If someone is not as flexible as me, how do they get out of a car when the airbags go off?" What a weird thing to think.
As I exit the car and get my bearings, I notice that the other car is facing the wrong way but they seem to be trying to move that car over to the side. I guess they are okay too.
And... here comes the adrenaline dump.
I am starting to shake.
Right then, the police show up.
The policeman takes my information and calls a tow truck. He tries to have me move my car but the car is totally immobilized from the accident and cannot even shift into neutral, let alone drive.
I stand there shaking and a little confused as the adrenaline is starting to settle and the pain is starting to show up. First, its a dullness in the back and neck. Then I start to feel the pain in my chest. I am sure it's just from the seatbelt but it unsettles me just the same. "Why is it like that?"
"Why does anything with your chest or heart make you immediately feel a sense of panic?"
As I am talking with the officer on the side of the road, I ask him if the other driver was able to explain what happened. He doesn't have that information. (I would not find out what actually happened, just that he lost control and ended up jumping over the median to the opposite side of traffic).
It's about 5:30 so there are alot of cars. Traffic is at a crawl because my car is in the middle of the road.
You know what really sucked about this whole thing?
Not a single person stopped to check on us. NOBODY.
During rush hour, tons of people on the road driving, probably saw the crash and nobody stopped.
Sad.
Lesson #1- If you witness a car accident, especially something serious, be a good human and see if the people are okay.
My friends come to pick me up.
I ask to go get treatment immediately. I am anticipating a rough night if I let the damage continue to progress without treatment of some sort. I am lucky I know this. There are many things I am lucky for but especially the things related to care for injuries.
On the drive, my glasses break and I realize how hard I was hit. No wonder I thought my nose might be bleeding. Lucky I have a back up pair at home.
I get treated, very gentle and conservative since we have no real information about the severity of my injuries, and I head for home.
By the time I get home, the adrenaline has reduced quite a bit and the pain is everywhere. There is also a dull headache and I'm starting to feel a sense of anxiety.
Hmmm. That's strange...feeling anxious.
In fact, this anxiety I am feeling is starting to get worse and I am starting to feel like I am about to go into a full blown panic attack.
"Is that weird?"
Despite the fact that I have worked with literally thousands of patients on how stress impacts them, and I fully understand that this is just the stress response showing up, I can't control this upwelling of panic.
I take a deep breath.
Let out a long exhale and remind myself that this is a normal, natural response to acute injury.
It's okay.
I'm okay.
The self talk is helping and I start to push the panic to the back of my head. It's still there but I am not about to fall into it and allow it to fully manifest.
Then it dawns on me. This could have been so much worse. Myself and the people in the other car could have been significantly injured. If their car was bigger. If my car was bigger. I could have been hit again immediately after I hit their car. Their car was facing the wrong way and could have easily been hit again.
We were so lucky.
My buddy asks me, "What does this accident mean at a spiritual level?"
"I was thinking the same thing...if it wasn't me, I would say that the Universe is telling them to stop or change directions."
"But change directions from what?"
I felt like the direction I had decided to go was perfectly in alignment.
"Was I wrong?"
I had decided that this year was going to be the year I pushed. I have been working with a couple young doctors and I decided that this year I would push them and myself. To work harder. To work more. To show them what they could accomplish and have them experience a different level of success. That felt totally right at the time.
"What was I missing?"
Well, I wouldn't figure it out tonight. I needed rest. But I was afraid to sleep. I was afraid of how much pain I was going to be in.
I was given Fish oil and turmeric to take for the pain and inflammation. I took them before bed. And to my great surprise, I actually slept okay. Sure my body was sore and achy but no spastic sharp pain and what a blessing to be able to get some sleep after that.
The next morning I have to decide what I need to do about work. About not having a car. I have to call my insurance company. I need to get X-rays taken. I need to get all my stuff out of my car.
"Where did they take it?"
So much to do and I am feeling overwhelmed.
Geez... my brain is not working and this all seems like a lot to tackle.
And then I remember that I have a friend who is a paralegal.
Let's call her.
15 minutes later:
out of office emails, sent
insurance company will be contacted
rental car company will contact me later
ready to go to tow truck shop to get my stuff out of the car
appointment for X-rays sorted
Thank God for my friend, Jimi, and her law firm. They are going to take care of all this on my behalf and all I need to do is take care of my stuff and my health.
Lesson #2- If you are in a car accident, HIRE AN ATTORNEY.
This is not an advertisement.
This is my personal recommendation. When you are injured and you understand the overwhelming load required of you, you NEED help. There is so much you do not know. So much you are worried about doing wrong.
I know some of these injury law groups seem like scams. They are not.
There is NO upfront cost to you.
And despite what you think, your own insurance company is not necessarily on your side.
The peace of mind you get from working with an expert attorney is priceless.
After I got my rental car, I had to purchase a new car since my old car was obviously going to be a total loss.
Luckily, I have a friend that has been selling me cars forever, He works at Toyota in Tri-Cities. Yes, eastern Washington. THAT tri-cities.
I told him what happened and that I needed to get a new car. He told me that he would get back to me in a couple days with something.
A couple days later he called me and asked which color Prius did I want?
He sent over some pictures,
I told him to talk to my wife to choose and handle the details.
And a few hours later, my wife said, "Congratulations! You are going to get a silver Prius."
The best part?
I did not have to drive to Tri-cities.
They would deliver it to my house that weekend.
And just like that, Saturday morning I had my new car.
I am so lucky to know such an amazing person like Paul.
If you want a Toyota of any kind, please call him a Toyota of Tri-cities.
He just makes your life easier.
Medical Care
I am extremely lucky to be in this field.
In the past, I used to see a lot of car accident patients. I gave it up about 15 years ago because honestly, it was a hassle.
Too much paperwork.
The hassle of dealing with insurance companies.
Non-compliant patients.
Not to mention, they were taking up a lot of appointment times for the regular patients we were trying to help.
But being on the other side, I realized something very clearly. The average person has NO idea what to do in the event they get into an accident and are injured.
"Who do I see?"
"What is the process?"
"How long will this take?"
"How do I pay for all the visits to different providers?"
So. Many. Questions.
Lesson #2- if you are injured in a car accident, GO SEE A CHIROPRACTOR!
This again is not an advertisement. Although it sounds suspiciously like one.
If you are hurting and did not go to the emergency room or urgent care, who do you see?
Well most people would go see their family doctor. Unfortunately, your family doctor doesn't know the first thing about how to evaluate and treat these kinds of soft tissue injuries. They will prescribe pain medication and maybe some muscle relaxants and tell you to take it easy for a few weeks.
If your family doctor is better, they will refer you to a physical therapist. (exercising damaged soft tissue? I don't think so).
And maybe, if your family doctor has some experience with this, they will also refer you to a massage therapist.
But I will tell you plainly, the BEST doctors for this sort of injury are chiropractors.
They have the proper training, experience, and the network to be able to refer you to the right people to support your recovery.
And your recovery is going to be long.
Especially if you were in something as severe as mine. Think 6-18 months! I know.
Why?
Because there is no scenario in your every day life where your body is subjected to this sort of trauma. When I was treating accidents, there were several studies showing how a rear-end collision at just 10-15 mph would put up to 10G of force on your head and neck.
10G's!
This article/blog does a better job of explaining the details than I could ever do.
If you are interested: link
For me, it was even more complicated because I had chest pain, dull headache, brain fog and that strange anxiety I told you about.
The chest pain was due to the seat belt, with bruises to prove it. lol.
The head and mood symptoms? Concussion, probably.
My buddy Scott, who works at Evergreen hospital in Monroe was kind enough to check me out. (I know, having friends like this really makes my life so much better. This is not me bragging, it's just stating the need to have some support and guidance on what to do).
So, he tells me that I need an MRI to make sure.
I'll let you know what the results are. But at the time of writing this, they did not have an appointment until March 6!
Seriously?!
Imagine if I had severe concussion symptoms and being told I couldn't even get a scan for a month and a half!?
And what is the standard medical treatment for concussions you ask?
Nothing.
Just rest.
Well, I was not going to be okay with that.
So I asked some people and I am taking a couple supplements to help support my healing.
My supplement support for injury & mild concussion
This is not a cure or diagnosis for injury or concussion but we have found that these supplements support improvement.
My healing is progressing well.
I find myself repeatedly saying, I'm lucky.
One of the doctors I'm working with asked me if I was ever in a major accident like this before, to which I replied, "Yes, about 30 plus years ago."
"What happened then?"
" I got smashed into the center divider by another car on the freeway and destroyed my car. I was lucky. God loves me."
I said this as a joke... but then I realized just how lucky I had really been.
I need to reframe my life.
Then my daughter randomly texts me out of the blue and asks,
"How are your intestines?"
Totally lost, I respond "Fine, I guess."
"Oh good. My friends grandfather's intestines exploded and he died."
"WHAT?!... shouldn't you be talking to grandpa then? Why are you asking me?
"Well, he got into a car accident and his intestines exploded."
"OH! You probably should have led with that... wait, What? the accident caused his intestines to explode?"
"Yeah."
Wow, I was lucky.
And then, a patient tells me a story the next week about how a coworker of hers got into a car accident and tore her intestines! She lived but had to have multiple surgeries.
In my past career, I treated hundreds of car accident victims and I never even heard of people tearing their intestines!
Lucky.
The Primary Lesson- LIFE IS GRATITUDE.
We are too busy doing stuff, planning stuff, buying stuff, wanting stuff.
I realized that all the stuff you want to have, all the things you want to do, and all the versions of yourself you want to be are going to probably happen.
But the reality is that none of that matters.
What matters is that you pause and take a moment to be grateful that you have this life. You can be grateful for the people, the work, whatever..just realize how lucky we all are to have this life.
These are all things we hear all the time.
And for me, it was something I spent a lot of time learning and trying to live my life by.
But somewhere along the way , I got caught up in the whirlwind of life.
It took a car crash to help me re-orient.
I guess I got lucky.
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