Why In The World Am I Blogging?

So others might learn from my experience.
 
This fall it will be two years since my involvement in an auto accident.  Sometimes it feels like so much more time has passed because it doesn't seem possible that so much has happened in that length of time.
 
My journey started on a bright afternoon in early October 2008, as I was driving to the store to pick up lunch supplies for my son for the coming week. 

Looking back, it's easy to say, gosh-if I'd just left two minutes earlier. Or two minutes later. If I'd taken a different route. If I'd done any of a number of other things, I wouldn't be sharing what I've learned with you now.
 
But I didn't. 

And that placed me at a red light where a 'back road' crossed a busy highway. When my light turned green, I looked, saw a car stopped and stepped on my gas pedal. I don't think I made it as far as the light when I saw a white car flying toward me...and a split second later he hit the front of my van. 
 
I've often wondered if the sound I heard was the impact of the car hitting my van, or if it was the sound my head made when it-and the left side of my body-slammed against the driver's side door. I lost consciousness for a short time and wasn't aware that, somehow, the guy managed to hit the van a second time, causing more damage then than he did with the initial hit.
 
There are things I don't recall immediately afterward, but some things stand out. Like getting out of the van and trying to assess the damage to my vehicle. I wasn't very steady on my feet and witnesses insisted I get back in the van. I also remember the officer at the scene trying to get me to get in the ambulance and I kept saying no, that he needed to call my mom so she could take me to the hospital. 
 
Why wouldn't I ride in the ambulance? Because I hadn't shaved my legs. Stupid reason? Sure was. But when you've hit your head hard enough to be knocked out, you don't exactly think or reason as clearly as you otherwise might. 

Not that the 'other side' will see it that way. Trust me, that line of muddled reasoning came back to bite me in the butt a few weeks ago. But that's a subject for another day.
 
So now you know the basics of what happened then. It's everything that's happened since that I'd like to share with you. So if you're going through something similar, you might be surprised at some the things I've learned. And let me tell you, I've learned far more than I ever wanted to know.

My very first lesson, which I discovered early in the game is this....under no circumstances should you trust anyone following an accident.  I'll cover the reasons why in my next post.