Thank you all SO MUCH to those of you who have offered well wishes and thoughts and prayers and crossed fingers for Ben this last weekend. It’s was a REALLY stressful and REALLY long weekend and we still don’t have any “real” answers about what’s going on with his back.
So here’s a play by play of what happened Saturday and Sunday and where we are now:
Saturday:
6:00AM – We woke up, grabbed breakfast and headed to the track.
8:00AM – I headed back into Willows to get a print out of the bank’s acceptance of our offer. I had to go to about three different hotels before I finally found a printer that worked but was OUT OF INK. Thankfully, I was able to talk the manager of the hotel into letting me use his personal office and printer. Then I headed back out to the track to that Ben could initial it. He was just finishing up his first session and I got to watch the last three or four laps and he was taking the back half of the track (the part I could see) with ease. It was really cool to see the car flying around the track again.
9:00AM – I headed BACK to Willows with the signed papers to try and find a fax machine to get them faxed but first I had to call our agent and get the number so I hung out in the hotel room and watched some TV while waiting for a return call.
9:50AM – Liz called, gave me the info, I packed up my backpack and was walking out the door when the phone rang and it was our friend Stuart who was also at the track running his car that day.
Me: Hey, Stuart, what’s up?
Stuart: Are you back at the track?
Me: No, I’m about to fax these papers and then head back, you need something from town?
Stuart: Well, Ben spun and was tapped lightly in the front.
Me: I’m on my way.
I didn’t really think that it would be as bad as it was. “Tapped lightly” made me think that maybe one of his fenders was dented and a headlight was broken but either way, I knew that I’d need to be there for Ben. I understand why Stuart worded it the way he did. If he’s said “Ben just got hit head on at near race speed” I’d have probably wrecked on the farm roads back to the track myself.
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When I got there, before I could get to anybody to talk to and see what was going on, the tow truck drove by with Ben’s car attached and him in the passenger seat. He was talking to the driver and pointing at the trailer so I knew he was okay but the state of the car was a complete and utter shock. I pretty much just stood there, stunned, for a good 30 seconds. It seemed like the car rolled by in slow motion and my brain just wasn’t wanting to process what it was seeing.
I finally gathered myself up enough to hook the trailer up to the truck and drive to the end of the track to where they had dropped off the car.
What happened: Ben spun, a yellow flag came out so everybody should have been slowing down, two cars pass Ben with no problem, third guy in a Porsche GT3RS was not paying attention to the flags and instead was trying to still race the Porsche in front of him and saw Ben too late. He tried to swerve but ended up hitting Ben between 60-70 MPH head on. The guy didn’t even seem phased that he’d just wrecked his $140,000 car, let alone Ben’s M3. Asked Ben once if he was okay and that was it. Basically, he’s a rich asshole.
11:30AM – We start trying to get the car on the trailer. The front wheels are pointing right and part of the frame is pushed into the front right wheel so there’s no way for us to straighten them out which makes it impossible to get the car on the trailer straight. It finally takes a winch, jack, several wood boards, the cherry picker on a tow truck, four guys, me and more muscles then I’ve used in the last six year to get it on there.
3:00AM – We FINALLY have the car on the trailer. We haven’t eaten since breakfast at 6:00AM. We are tired, hungry, sunburned, defeated, and reluctant to drive home from there because the car is sitting the WRONG way on the trailer which is a horrible load/weight missbalance. We eventually decided to spend the night after loading all the gear into the truck, getting back to the hotel, getting showered and some food into us.
7:00PM – Stuart and crew are back from the track. Ben heads out to hang out with them while they catch dinner and a few drinks. I stayed in to PASS OUT. I think that Ben must have been living on adrenaline at that point because I was just EXHAUSTED.
I don’t know what timePM: Ben wakes me up, he has to lay down RIGHT THIS SECOND because his back is spasming. He’s in a LOT of pain. Get him into bed then sped all night tossing and turning.
How are we going to get this car home? It’s on the trailer but dangerously.
Is Ben’s back going to be okay? I know he’s not sleeping either.
How are we going to get the car OFF the trailer and UP the driveway?
How are we going to get Ben back on the track? This is his dream, his passion, and it’s sitting broken and shattered on a trailer outside.
So basically, I get no sleep.
Sunday:
5:00AM: Ben gets up to go to the bathroom. He’s in so much pain he has to crawl back to a bed, making the most horrific moaning painful sounds I’ve ever heard him make.
8:00AM: Walk to Chevron to get Ben Ibuprofen, he takes 800MG and it doesn’t even phase the pain.
10:00AM: I load all the luggage in the truck, get Ben out the door of the hotel, back starts to spasm, he has to lay down in the parking lot to keep it from going into a full on pain attack. I put my foot down, make him get in the passenger seat, lay it all the way back and insist on driving the truck and trailer home.
I’m not sure what time we got home. It was a long drive, I can tell you that. I had to drive between 45-55MPH the entire 180 miles because the weight of the motor on the BACK of the trailer instead of the front was making it rock really bad. At one point I hit a bump and it actually lifted the back wheels of the truck off the ground.
It wasn’t fun.
Stopped at the house to unload the truck, called Ffej to come over and take a look at the car, BS for a few minutes. Ben lays on the grass in pain the whole time.
We decided to take the the car, on the trailer, and park it at the lot where we store the trailer. This is a temporary fix. We want to have the car at home but right now, we aren’t sure how that’s going to happen in it’s current state. I spend some time trying to get two seperate car covers to cover the entire car.
I. AM. SO. TIRED.
Drive to Urgent Care.
6:30PM – Arrive at Urgent Care. It’s packed. We have to get a restaurant style pager to let us know when it’s Ben’s turn. Get a blanket, find a dark quiet waiting room in the medical center, so he can lay on his back to wait.
7:15PM – Get in to see the doctor. Ben’s reflex test is bad. His left leg is responding normally but his right leg is hardly responding at all. Doctor want’s him to go to the ER. He’s hungry and just want’s food. If he takes the ambulance he gets right in, if I take him, we start at the back of the line in the waiting room. I say TAKE THE AMBULANCE.
8:00PM – 12:00PM – Pretty much waste four hours in the ER and walk out with a prescription and a big bruise on Ben’s butt from a pain medicine injection.
Total. Waste. Of. Time.
Monday:
12:00AM – Pick up FOOD SWEET FOOD from a Burger King drive through and eat it in a 24 hour Walgreens parking lot while they fill his prescription. Ben takes the pain killer as soon as I get it in the car and falls asleep on the way home.
12:40AM – HOME SWEET HOME We came upstairs, stripped and PASSED OUT. I woke up at 6:00AM and called my boss to let him know that I wouldn’t be in, gave Ben some more pain medicine and we slept till 10:30AM. It was beautiful, wonderful, awesome, beautiful, blissful sleep.
I took Ben to the doctor today and his reaction test was better, but not at all normal. He’s in less pain but he’s on a LOT of pain medicine. A LOT. The pain medicine has an anti-inflamatory in it and that might be why his reflexes are responding more today then Sunday but either way, the doctor want’s an MRI and she is also leaning towards it being a ruptured disc. We’ll know more for sure after the MRI which might not be for two days. In the mean time he’s pretty much on bed rest. No driving, keep on the medicine and do as little as possible.
And I’m still trying to recuperate from all of this. So now I’m going to go soak up some time with Cassidy who we picked up after the appointment today. I’m SO GLAD she spent the weekend at my mom’s playing in the pool rather than having to deal with all this stuff. After that, I’m coimg back upstairs, cuddling with Ben and trying to sleep the rest of the exhaustion off.
PS – Inbetween all this we managed get the final papers signed for the house. Well, not the FINAL papers, but the IMPORTANT papers which mean, GOOD NEWS!!! We GOT THE HOUSE! YAY! We can talk about that and celebrate later. Sometime before July 15th which is when we take posession. 🙂