Dash Cam Video Of Crash

And a couple more pictures. In looking at the video we realized that she blew through TWO red lights at speed.  Fortunately for the people at the other light they hadn't started moving yet.  They probably were sitting there blinking in surprise.

Poor 26 year old was driving his grandfather's SUV when he took the first hit.  He kept apologizing for something completely out of his control.

The perp's car.

Amelia got off lightest because she was in a good quality car seat.  She has an abrasion on her collar bone from the strap but she says it doesn't hurt.  She was a trooper through the whole thing.  They took her out in the seat and strapped it into the ambulance jump seat.

We are so grateful for that car seat.  It was expensive but proved itself worth every penny.

Dash cam video:

If It Weren't For Bad Luck...

The brown is oil.  There was kind of a lake's worth of it in the road.

That would be my daughter being loaded on the stretcher.

Daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter were on their way to granddaughter's eye doctor appointment this morning when a woman blew through a red light just as everybody in the cross street was pulling into the intersection.  She clobbered the SUV on their left - in the dash cam video it looks like the front of the vehicle just explodes - and spun one vehicle into another until at least four cars were totaled.  They spent the afternoon in an ER with three others that were involved.  The only good thing other than the lack of serious injury was that the woman who caused the accident was in the next bay and we got to hear the responding officer chew her out when she admitted she was looking at her GPS:  "YOU PUT SIX PEOPLE IN THE ER BECAUSE YOU WEREN'T PAYING ATTENTION TO THE ROAD!!!"

And now I know about the idiocy of a no-fault state.  Despite the fact that SIL's dash cam clearly shows in a rather spectacular way that they didn't cause the accident, despite numerous witnesses who stopped and gave statements to the police, despite the fact that the driver admitted to the police that she was looking at her GPS and not at the road, this is all on my family's auto insurance.  They had one payment left on the SUV, and now the SUV is gone.  Their rates may go up because they've made a claim.  What a stupid system.  Every bit of this should be on HER insurance.  If she even has insurance - it was clearly a Middle Eastern accent.

And the day continued its downhill slide when we finally got home and discovered that the dog had gotten into the Christmas chocolate and eaten enough to send her into tachycardia.  Pancake is now in the emergency vet hospital connected to an iv trying to slow her heart down.

There aren't enough swear words in the world to express my opinion of 2018.

What Scares You?

Day 7 of the tragedy of a "government shut down."  On Wednesday, the essential workers who were not on duty through Saturday, Sunday, Monday (holiday), and Tuesday (holiday) reported for duty.  Which means that more government employees were on  duty Wednesday, Thursday, and today than had been or will be this coming Saturday and Sunday.  During this catastrophe my retirement check was deposited in my bank account as usual this morning and the funds are available. Businesses and restaurants are open as usual.  It's obvious that the people who make it possible for the self centered D.C. bubble to exist just do not understand that their lives and businesses are supposed to grind to a halt because they can't function normally with just 80% of the federal government open.  Maybe they need another lecture from Maizi Hirono about how much smarter the dems are than them.

Woot!

I'm free I'm free I'm free at last!  And on my way to Detroit.

May all of you have a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Well, That Was Fun - Update

Chemo gives all sorts of gifts.  Recently, one of the gifts has been fluid in my feet and legs.  Talked to the oncologist - he prescibed Lasik if it began causing problems.  Last week it started getting worse.  Took Lasik.  No help.  Increased the dosage.  Still no help.  Of course, I'm still dragging from chemo and the infection.  And trying to get ready to head for the kid's for Christmas.  I headed out yesterday, and 4 hrs of driving did not help my legs at all.  Fortunately, because I didn't trust my strength enough yet to do Detroit in one shot, I had reserved a hotel room at the half-way point north of Pittsburg.  I was checked in by 5 pm, dropped my bag on the bed, and thought I might as well stop at the local urgent care and see if they could give me a different diuretic or at least some advice.  Of course, particularly given my recent medical history, they weren't going to do anything without blood work, to be performed at the ER down the road.  And there's where everything went sideways.  Somewhere around 9 the ER doc walked in and I asked if I was broken.   He laughed and said "Yes, but it's something that can be fixed."  "Oh, good.  So I can go get dinner."  "Well, we have to talk about that."  First thing - the fluid is building up because my protein levels have plummeted.  Protein assists in moving fluid from tissue into the veins.  Without it, the fluid just builds up.  Second, and more importantly, my potassium levels are at a dangerously low level (severe hypokalemia) and I'm at serious risk for my heart going fluey.  At which point he dated both of us:  "It's the same condition that killed Karen Carpenter."  I get to be wired to a heart monitor and pumped full of potassium - nasty orange drink (No, no, that does NOT taste like Tang! Liar!), two IV rounds, and horse pills.  I ain't seeing that hotel room until I'm out of the danger zone.  So, here it is, 4 pm the next day, and a blood draw at 6 will tell me if I'll be kicked loose.  I won't be heading on to MI tonight.  My bag is in the hotel office and I'll just pick it up, check back in, and hopefully actually get some rest tonight.  Hospitals are not restful.

At least the food is decent.  I'm good with salisbury steak for dinner.  And I'll be really focused on nutrition from here on out.

Update:  No joy.  The potassium is coming up but somehow since last night I've become anemic.  Apparently my system is having a hissy fit.

Did I Hear That Right?

I haven't been keeping up much with details of the news.  Just haven't felt up to it.  But a couple things caught my attention over the last couple weeks.  They made me go "Huh?"

The first, of course, is that the media and never-Trumpers, in their never-ending quest to overturn the 2016 election, are hyperventilating that Trump is going down for campaign finance violations.  But it's for a payment made out of his own pocket, not campaign funds, as part of a non-disclosure agreement.  Which the other party has flagrantly broken.  So, 1)  Why isn't the party that broke the NDA in court for breaking the NDA?  2) How can it be a campaign finance violation if it was Trump's own money that paid for it?   And, finally, 3) How can the same people who told us "It was just sex" when Bill Clinton was disgracing the Oval Office look any Trump voter in the eye and use Stormy Daniels as an example of Trump's corruption?  (I'm talking directly to YOU, George Steponallofus, as an example). Guess what, folks, Trump voters knew what they were getting when they voted for him, and we did EXACTLY what YOU told us to do when it was a dem:  we got over it, we ignored it because it was "just sex".  In other words, we treated Trump just like YOU treated Bill Clinton.  Oh, never mind, it's the same people who wail about pedophile priests while advocating homosexual scout masters.  They are good at not bothering to think.  It's the "superiority 'r us" crowd.

The other is the caravan of rather demanding migrants at our door.  I only heard bits and pieces the other day while I was cooking, but it made me blink.  A written demand that the US speed up the asylum process OR give them $50,000 apiece to go home.  To begin with, we don't HAVE to give ANY of them asylum - Mexico offered, they declined.  They can just stay in Mexico if we decide not to grant them entry.  Except Mexico wants them to go home.  Then there's the little issue of ASYLUM supposing to be for those who are in fear of their lives.  If they are given $50,000 and go home, how are their lives in less danger?  If Jewish refugees had been given $50,000 and they went home to Germany would THEIR lives been in any less danger?   And then there was the kicker: the money is for reparations for US interference in Central America.  That would be one thing, but the complaints about US interference are FOLLOWED by a demand for, get this, the US to go in and remove the current Honduran president, Juan Hernández.   Huh?  You want us to pay reparations for interfering AND interfer? If I heard that right, that's a head scratcher, that is.           

That Was Icky, But Things Are Much Better

So Urgent Care put me on 2 different antibiotics for my infected toe and said to see a podiatrist.  I was amazed at how much better I felt physically after just a couple doses of antibiotics.   There's always been 4 or 5 days of hell after chemo, then I start pulling out of it.  This time I only stepped up from hell to serious purgatory and just stuck there.  Cue the antibiotics and I bounced right into normal post-chemo recovery.  I think what I was blaming on the chemo was the effects of the infection on a run down body.

I was fortunate enough to get into see a podiatrist yesterday afternoon.  At least I thought I was fortunate until she took one look and said "OK, let's clean that up and see if I need to take all or just part of the toenail off."  WHAT!?  TAKE THE TOENAIL OFF?!  OH EW OH ICK OH YUCK!!!!"

You have to understand - I have this strong reaction to nail things.  Snagging one, bending it back, even if it's not enough to hurt, makes me queasy.  And it makes me jump around while saying "Ew ew ew ew!"  As it was, my foot was twitching, and that toe had a force field of pain around it that caused even air to hurt.  The idea of the toenail being taken off made me want to throw up.

But it had leaked nasty stuff and had to be cleaned out. The blankety blank anesthetic injection hurt like the devil, but she then pulled a makeshift screen around so I didn't have to watch the rest.  And then the nail basically fell off when she touched it - it was already completely detatched from the nail bed.

Today that toe was really, really angry about being fooled with but even hobbled I have felt so much better and stronger that I was more mobile than I have been in weeks.  I've spent the time cooking from scratch - nothing tastes right but I'm no longer having to force myself to eat and so I can concentrate on nutrition.  Not to mention that there's nothing wrong with my sense of smell and good food cooking all day makes a house smell lovely.

Owned

And folded, spindled, and mutilated.

The media is trying to spin Trump's meeting with Pelosi and Schumer every which way but the way it happened.  Trump was loaded for bear when Schumer and Pelosi walked into the White House and he wasn't going to be rolled by those two.  My favorite pic I've seen from that encounter:

Yes, Chucky, elections have consequences, and Donald Trump was elected president.  Not you.  So don't lecture him on the subject, 'K?  Even if you and your disgusting and contemptible party HAVE worked for two years to deny us our 2016 vote.

And oh, by the way, didn't Pelosi announce that they were going to have a transparent House?  If so, then why did she and Schumer demand that the debate over the wall funding be off camera?

Chicago Jesus found $150 billion to give to Iran so they could develop the nuclear capibility to eradicate Israel.  You were fine with that, democrats.  So you can find $25 billion just as easily as he did.

It's Probably Not A Good Thing...

...when the urgent care staff starts recognizing you.

One infection, one afternoon spent in urgent care dripping sticky, stinky ooze on their table, 3 new medications because the infection is both fungal AND bacterial.

And then I managed to drop my cell phone, edge down, right on the nail.  Bellowing was involved, followed by contemplation of crying. When I could breathe again.

No Matter How Bad A Day It Is...

...it's still better than having an eel stuck in your nose.

Dante Was Wrong

There are 10 circles of hell, not nine, and the 10th circle is full of chemo patients.