When life hands you scissors

“I’m going to tie my scarf together to make myself a sling.”

I’m pretty sure I heard laughter the moment I said those words, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I had intense pain in my right arm and I knew in order to reduce the pressure on it, I’d have to put it in a sling. And that worked. I sat up, still in horrible pain, and tried to focus on my next step: getting out of my boyfriend’s flipped car.

In other words, it wasn’t the most ideal way to celebrate New Year’s Eve.

I’m really not sure what happened exactly. I was checking Twitter when I looked up to see we had gone off of the shoulder on Hwy. 24 near Perry, KS. Except there wasn’t really a shoulder. It was gravel — and it’s how Topher lost control. I think.

Though it all must have happened in matter of seconds, I remember it all clearly. We spun out of control, slid across the highway, and I watched in faux slow-mo as my door slammed straight into a guard rail.

We talked to each other the whole time. I’m not sure what we said. But we rolled — once, twice, who really knows. And when we landed, I couldn’t move my shoulder. Neither of us blacked out and witnesses ran to our sides quickly. Topher was basically on top of me, and I knew he was terrified his massive football player frame would crush me if I wasn’t already dead. (I wasn’t. He didn’t know that yet.)

So when he busted out the window and I saw he was okay, we focused on getting me out of the car next. With the help of my scarf-sling and a quick-moving EMT, I made it into the ambulance with just a little glass in my hair and blood everywhere.

This was only the second time in my life I’d been in an ambulance, so when I saw the EMT take out scissors, I panicked.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I need to check you over. I have to cut your clothes off of you.”

I immediately started sobbing. That scarf sling was one I had picked up in Thailand; I couldn’t easily replace it. And I was wearing a brand new LuLaRoe dress I had just gotten at my friend Annie’s pop up boutique party. He didn’t care.

SNIP SNIP SNIP. Just like that, my dress, bra, and sweater were cut right off of me. He did let me remove my MacGyvered scarf, so at least I had that. And then we were off to Lawrence Memorial Hospital to determine the extent of our injuries.

Long story short, Topher is healthy, but incredibly sore. I was diagnosed with my sixth concussion — this time, a minor one. And while no bones were broken, I learned today that I had a slight dislocation and a re-separation in my shoulder.

As we see the photos, I’m fully aware we’re lucky to be alive.

What else has been wonderful is the outpouring of love we’ve received in the days after the accident. My friend Kasi Orr, one of my dear college friends who is an incredibly talented photographer in the Kansas City area, called me to tell me she was dropping off food from Eat Fit Go in one of the KC suburbs. She and her hubby drove 30 minutes to hand me vegetarian meals, chocolate, and goodies for my American bulldog, which were effortlessly destroyed in minutes. Those meals have been a blessing when I was dealing with pain and nausea.

And then… THEN! Christian, who sold me my LuLaRoe dress, happened to have the EXACT DRESS that is now just a bloody mess of material in my dryer. Without hesitation, she dropped it in the mail for me with a sweet note that said she was happy to be able to replace my dress for me.

So after that huge ordeal, I’ve since replaced my entire outfit. I’d show you what it looks like on, but as it turns out, I can’t lift my arm over my head and three-quarter sleeves don’t work well with swelling.

But in the meantime, a huge thanks to all of my friends, and to Target and ModCloth (well, technically FitFabFun, which you should definitely check out) for balancing out my outfit affordably. I obviously fell in love with LuLaRoe and would highly encourage you to consider buying from Christian Stadler — she’s amazing (and a derby friend!).

And thanks to everyone for being so wonderful and caring so much about our safety and well being. We can definitely feel the love.

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