Today when I was on my way home from school, someone rear-ended me. I was stopped, waiting for someone to make a left turn, and the lady behind me smashed right into me. As I applied my brakes to stop my car from hitting the car in front of me, my nose hit my stearing wheel (for some reason, my seatbelt didn't lock ). My car has virtually no damage... it's white, so my bumper has lots of red paint from her car scuffed into it, but no dents or anything. Her car looks WRECKED! Her hood is crushed, but everything still runs properly... she said her brakes didn't work, that's why she hit me (but I saw her come up behind me, and she was dialing her cell phone). This was my first accident... I didn't know what to do. I was looking in my bag for my cell phone, and I was so nervous that I couldn't find it (partly due to the fact that I have a Razr, partly because it fell out of the phone pocket of my huge Tano). The passenger in her car came up to my car to see if I was ok, and I was (just really freaked) and they couldn't find a phone either. I finally found mine, and I called my dad (I was about 2 minutes from home and I didn't want to be alone) and then the police... I was suprised how quickly they showed up. We backed up traffic so bad.
After everything was said and done, my back started hurting really badly. Now my neck is starting to hurt so bad I'm getting a headache. My mom said that it's normal, but I'm starting to wonder if I should have gone to the hospital. I'm probably just overreacting, but I can't even stop shaking (and this happened about 3 1/2 hours ago). Does anyone know what I should do? Do I just pop some Advil and wait until the morning? Go to the ER? Suck it up and stop being a baby? I'm just confused. Any advice would be appreciated Thanks.
Yeah, maybe a visit to urgent care wouldn't be such a bad idea. At least they can give you an official once over to ease your mind, if nothing else. Adrenalin and other stress hormones can make the achies worse, too.
Sorry hon! Car accidents suck!
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oh my gosh, i'm so sorry!! that sounds like a really frightening experience. you poor thing. i think you should go to the er/urgent care, for peace of mind as well as insurance purposes, the only thing that sucks is you may have to wait a long time in the waiting room. take care and feel better!
Awww....Stephanie! That sucks! I had pretty much the exact same thing happen to me when I was in high school, only I was the one that rear-ended the other lady. (I did the same thing as you too--I called my dad first, then the police!)
Anyway, in my accident, I was moderately sore later on that day, but no sharp pains. If you're having sharp pains, then go to the doctor. Since you have a headache now, I'd go to the doctor just to make sure you didn't get a concussion.
I'm sorry about your accident...I hope you start feeling better soon!
I'm so sorry about your accident! It sounds scary and awful. I also think you should go to urgent care - if there's nothing wrong, you'll probably feel less freaked out! Let us know how it goes...
Thanks for all the kind words, everyone... it helped to reassure me that I'm not overreacting. I had sharp pains, but they went away (and so did my headache) and turned into soreness. I didn't go to urgent care because after I calmed down, I felt sort of better. My back is starting to tense up again, so I'm going to sleep with the heating pad tonight and we'll reassess things in the morning. I'm hoping that I can make it through school tomorrow and get someone to cover my shift at work if I'm feeling bad. I'm sure I'll be just fine. Thanks again... you all really know how to make a girl feel better !
It is definitely normal to have pain after a car accident. You *could* have whiplash, which is not uncommon either based on your description of the flying forward. I would go to the doctor and just make sure everything is okay (which I'm sure it is). At the very least, they can give you pain meds to get you through a few days.