Thursday, March 12, 2009

Injuries/crashes

The past three months have been a bad time in the Jensen household for injuries and accidents. Let's just say we've paid or will be paying thousands of dollars to take care of these problems.
First off I'll start with injuries which have all been mine:
*I tripped over my bench at the sports academy doing step aerobics and twisted my ankle. It was swollen, and bruised for a week or so, and it took several months before it felt normal again.
*I jammed my thumb one day trying to help a neighbor get his car out of a snowdrift. I wondered if it was broken, but since we have crappy health insurance, I didn't want to pay for x-rays just to be told it was sprained, so toughed it out and didn't go to the doctor. Two months later, it's still painful at times, and has definately got issues. It probably was broken, and now it's set wrong. Brother. Can I live with it?
*I slept wrong one night and had a severe case of stiff neck for about 4-5 days. I could barely move. It was so bad one day that I was CRYING about it. Now, that's bad, because I think I have a high pain thresh-hold.
*I wore a new pair of tennis shoes running and got two huge blisters on my heels. They were so big and painful, I wore flip flops for several days. It's been a week and a half and it's just barely to the point where I can wear shoes w/o it hurting.
*I started getting a toothache on a bottom molar last week. When it was so bad I woke up in the night with it aching, I went to the dentist the next day. The tooth already has a root canal and a crown on it. He refered me to our endodontist, who said the tooth is fractured, so I have to make a decision to either: have another root canal- which may or may not fix it; have surgery on it-which may or may not fix it; or have it pulled and have an implant put in. I hate all those choices! I've been in almost constant pain from it for the last three days, taking pain pills every two hours. Finally today the penicillin kicked in and I think I may survive. My cheek is so swollen it looks like I'm sucking on a jaw breaker. I have an appointment with an oral surgeon Monday to see what he would recommend. Bummer!

Now to the car problems. One night close to Christmas, Mike was driving very slowly on some extremely icy roads, but when he came to a corner he was going to turn left on, he couldn't stop, and rear ended the truck in front of him. He didn't damage that truck, but he dented the front fender of our truck, and deployed both airbags. That little incident ended up costing about $2500- $750 of which we had to pay for our high deductable. AND, we were without the truck for almost two weeks. Next, the van started leaking oil quite badly. Five days, and $1,000 later, the problem is fixed. Yesterday Mike noticed a dent and a cracked tail light on his truck. How that happened is a mystery. And last, but not least, last night Jake was driving himself and a friend to Lacrosse practice in the van (with Mike in the front seat) when out of nowhere came a deer who collided with the front of the van. It scared everyone to death, especially Jake. After the deer slid and rolled a ways, he got up and trotted off, leaving behind what you see in the picture, and lots of hair stuck to the car and all over the road! Jake didn't stop shaking for awhile after. Got the estimate today for repairs: $1500. Our deductable is $750. Curses!

Is it just me, or are we done for awhile needing any more car repairs or having any more minor health problems? In the picture, you can't really see that there's a dent to the left of the tail light
Pieces of the headlight were all over the road, and the light was dangling out of place by wires when the boys got out to investigate the damage. Those black marks below the headlight are cracks, not just marks.

7 comments:

Stacie said...

oh bummer.. Just remember it really could be a lot worse. But yes I think you should be done with health and care problems! :)

Annie said...

N-e-w-m-a-n. I can see the writing on the wall for your visit to Mesa!

Kylee said...

Wow, it seems like a ton more things than I thought when it's all put together like that!! I forgot about your poor thumb because of all your other injuries.. some of which I didn't even know about! I hope everything gets better soon. Why does it all have to happen to you?!

Haha... I just went to type in the word verification and the word is this-- "achies" which I don't think is a real word, but it fits!

Vonnie said...

That is a lot of misfortune and it takes a fortune to keep up with it all...so sorry! Car troubles are the worst. I hope your injuries heal quickly. Keep smiling :)

Diane said...

Lee,
I always knew running was bad for you, and step aerobics make me dizzy! Come out and snowshoe with me, much easier on the body. When Big Al got a post in his mouth, he thought the Dr. was pounding it into his brain!(but once in, it works like a charm) It's tough getting old! Good luck!

Jamie Jo said...

Poor Jake. How scary!

Hey, I had a root canaled tooth go bad back in 1995 or something. They ended up pulling it and I have not gotten the $3000 replacement tooth. I just have a space and it's been fine. And it's close to the front. I bet you've never noticed. They'll tell you that you need a bridge but you don't. So there is some money you can save.

Anonymous said...

Hey, where's a a picture of your swolen cheek!