"You know those sirens that you hear?"

It really has been my worst fear, every time that Jimmie is gone and I hear sirens. Especially since Matt's accident a few years ago. I can't help it. I worry each time that he gets on his bike (or when we were in Lawrence, his motorcycle) that something is going to happen to him.

Wednesday night started a little crazy anyway. Ella and I took a late nap and when we woke up I realized I had half an hour to get her bathed, clothed, fed and out the door before her class at church. I also had to get dinner ready for me and Jimmie to eat during her class.  I felt bad, but realized that I didn't have time to take the dogs on a walk before we left. I thought we would be home in an hour and a half anyway, so they could wait just a little longer. I had offered to pick Jimmie up, but he decided that he was going to ride out to the church to make it easier on me and so that he could get a little more work done.

We talked to Jimmie who said he was getting ready to leave the school. She ate quickly and then we headed out the door making it to her class just in time. I went outside and took a deep breath, trying to calm down from the flurry of activity. I sat down on the bench outside to wait for Jimmie so we could eat dinner. I got a little distracted checking email and playing on Facebook on my phone. I did start to worry a little at about 6:30, but thought that maybe Jimmie just had some more things to finish before he could leave. He is a chemist and this happens quite frequently! Then I heard a siren and for a minute wondered where he was, but again thought he just got hung up. Then at 6:45 my phone rang and I heard this sheepish voice on the other end say "Hey, you know those sirens that you hear? They are for me." And I immediately wanted to vomit. I didn't, but I did run all the way around the church and almost started to run on the road and decided that was a very bad plan. Jimmie assured me that he was fine, and I even talked to the paramedic who said that he was ok, but they were going to take him in to the Yale ER just to make sure. However, I did hear him say before they hung up the phone, "Let's go, we're going to run him as a full trauma." As a former trauma nurse that did not reassure me!

I ran to the church office and found a friend that could watch Ella while I went to the hospital and got down to the intersection just in time to follow the ambulance. I did notice Jimmie's bike on the side of the road, but kept driving. I had a horrible time figuring out how to park when I got to the hospital, but figured it out and went in to check on him. I had to wait a while, but when I got in there they had already done several scans and checked him out pretty thoroughly. He was sitting up when I got back to him.

Really only by the grace of God was he Ok. He had quite a few scrapes and one of his hips and the opposite ankle were very sore. They kept him in the ER for a couple of hours because they could not believe that someone that just got hit by a car was not more injured.

We went to get Ella and came home. I walked both dogs(who were incredibly excited to go out) and it took Jimmie nearly an hour to get across our apartment, into the shower and then into bed. For the next couple of days I did a whole lot of moving of his legs for him because he was very sore.

Now, unless you looked at his back and arms where he still has some large scrapes healing, you would not be able to tell that he had ever had an accident. We have had some frustrations about insurance and some other things, but for the most part we are just so grateful that he is ok and that he was wearing his helmet. His helmet cracked, either when he hit the windshield or the ground. His bike is bent. We decided to get a clunker car so he doesn't have to ride on the streets any more in this crazy place!

Thank you all for your prayers, concerns and help during that scary time! I truly believe that God was watching out for our family!