and then I got run over by a car...the summary

Okay, so here's what happened. Dale and I have only one vehicle, and I had a meeting before YW at the church at 5:30. Sarah and Rebecca have activity day girls at 7:00, and there was a pediatric diabetes support group meeting at 6:30. We worked it out so that I would bike to the church at 5:30, Dale would drop the kids off at the church, and then he would head over to the support group at 6:30. Then he would come back to the church, switch the van for his bike, and go to his night job at 8:00.

So much for carefully laid plans. Dale made it to neither his meeting or work. I snapped on myh helmet cruised out of our neighborhood and pedaled to Lake Otis, which is a major street here in Anchorage. I approached a side street, and a car pulled out past the sidewalk attempting to turn right. I was traveling at a slow pace because Dale got in an accident about a year ago in a similar scenario. The car came to a complete stop, and I thought she saw me. Clearly she didn't, because when I was about a yard away from the intersection, she started to go. I braked hard with both hand breaks and flew over the top of the bike. It was so surreal. I kept thinking, "Oh my gosh. This same exact thing happened to Dale last year ! I really don't want to break my elbow like he did." Then the car ran over my head with the front tire and my chest with the back. I will post a picture of my helmet soon. It is unbelievable. It literally saved my life.

The whole time I was being run over, I kept thinking, "I wish this car would hurry up and finish running me over, because this really hurts." I may have been screaming; I can't remember that part. I never lost consciousness, and I think that is because the Lord knew that if I blacked out I would not have been forcing myself to breath. A lady who turned out to be a physicians assistant came running over immediately. She asked if I was ok, and I said no, call 911. I couldn't breath. There was blood running all over the pavement, but that was mostly from a bloody nose. Then a huge guy came running over and started to pick me up. I tried to protest, but I couldn't because I was struggling to even breath. The PA screamed at him for me and said not to move me. He said he just wanted to get me out of traffic and she snarled at him to go and divert traffic, then. The lady who hit me (Who turned out to be a friend of a friend) was in the background shaking and crying. It was terrible.

The fireman showed up in about 2 minutes, as I was less than 3 blocks from the hospital. The PA (who kept asking me questions to keep me awake) told the paramedics that I was 30 years old, not diabetic, and not allergic to anything. She then tries to give me a handful of twisted metal and glass. "Here's your glasses!" she said cheerfully. Then she realized how ridiculous that was (adrenaline is a funny thing!) and hastily said, "I'll just put them with your things!" The firemen cut off my backpack, helmet, and clothes and promised that they would get me covered very quickly. It's funny how the human mind works in moments of adrenaline. I'm laying naked and bleeding in the middle of the road and I couldn't care less. All I could think about was the fact that my mom gave me that outfit before she left for Mexico and I only got to wear it for about 15 minutes before it got cut off my broken bod.

The firemen were funny. They kept almost fighting with each other, like one of them would say, "We need to hurry, she's said more than once that she can't breathe!" and the other would say, "We know that! We're moving as fast as we can, okay? Give us a break!" The mother in me wanted to tell them to stop fighting, but again, my air was being used up by forced breathing and answering a billion questions.

Well, that's all for now. Typing is killer! I'll get some helmet pictures posted as soon as they get taken!

I was thinking about being on time to a meeting the other day and then I got run over by a car.