Accident Stories and Laying Low

I wore a sling at work today.  That drew quite a lot of attention to the fact that I'd had an accident yesterday, meaning I told the story of what had happened over and over and over.  I now officially don't ever want to tell it again.

I've discovered, too, that when you are hurting from a car accident, everyone on the planet suddenly has advice for you, or a horror story about some injury or other that got missed because the person "thought they were ok".  This was rather disconcerting.  I spoke briefly with EMS at the accident scene yesterday, and saw my mom (who is a natural health practioner) and was feeling pretty good about the decision to not see a doctor.  I was quite confident that I was ok.

Until I heard all the stories.   And the many incredulous, "you didn't see a doctor's??"

I came home at noon, slept for a couple of hours on an ice pack, and then phoned my mom to discuss the situation, feeling rattled and generally exhausted.  We agreed that if for nothing more than my peace of mind, it would probably be a good idea for me to get checked out, and then spent the next 20 minutes calling each other back and forth while we tried to locate a walk-in clinic where I wouldn't have to wait for hours. (My family doctor now does mostly maternity care, and is notoriously hard to get hold of, and get an appointment with, so we decided that rather than wait until almost a week post accident - Monday being likely the earliest I could get in - I'd just go to a clinic, giving me peace of mind much sooner.)

She picked me up around supper time, dropped me at the clinic, and a few hours later, when I was finished, I called home and my dad picked me up from the clinic and drove me home.

The doctor informs me that nothing is broken, that I will hurt for 5-6 days or more, that I likely don't have a concussion, but that those can take up to 6 weeks to appear, so just keep an eye on things and get myself to a hospital if I start having weird symptoms.  He wrote me a presciption for painkillers if I need them, and a referral for physio if I need that, and informed me that if I was smart, I'd stay home from work for the rest of the week (he gave me a note for that as well) and just lay low.  His exact instructions for tomorrow were to "sleep all day."

If you had told me last night that I needed to stay home for the rest of the week, I'd have laughed at you, and told you that I was just a bit sore, and would tough it out.  After the half day today, I was more than a little relieved to hear that I had medical permission to just lay low, not move too much, and take care of myself for a few days.

So, that's the plan.  Sleep, ice, maybe a little swimming in a couple of days (the doc recommended swimming a bit if I'm feeling up to it, just to gently move the sore muscles).  A treatment from my natural health guy on Saturday, and then I'll head back to work on Monday.  At this point, that plan is such a relief, and I'm also feeling much better knowing I'm not needing (thanks to all the "horror" stories I heard) to obsess about random undetected serious injuries.  It's like I thought - I'm sore and will be for a while, but nothing is broken, and I'll recover.  And for those blessings, I'm thankful.