Whirlwind past 2 weeks

Hey folks, long time, no me! This has been the craziest and most stressful couple of weeks I've had in a long time, with my nephew being born, then the car accident the day after, then fighting with their insurance company, getting treatment for MY injuries, and finding a replacement car. Oh, yeah, and working a high stress/high responsibility job on top of that.
All that crazy = no time for blogging. So I'll do a photo montage to show the progress:

Is he not the most beautiful thing in the whole wide world?

This photo was taken shortly after he got home, and let me quote my (amazing) brother, "I am so proud of her (wife) and he has made us both so happy." I've said it before and will say it again, my brother is an awesome father!

Jacked up car

The arguing with the 'drive into my backseat' guy's insurance has been horrible. They took my rental car yesterday, leaving me nothing to drive (and I drive a whole lot for work, since I'm on the *mobile* crisis team) and not yet sending me a check to cover my car....Fortunately for me (and amazingly, I might add) my older brother and his wife gifted me some cash to help replace the car, and my dad was willing to front me a little more so I could try to replace it without missing too much work. So we fast forward to yesterday, which was a long and boiling hot day of used car shopping (my dad gets this gleam in his eye, I swear it's like he's a junkie getting a fix) with a couple of crap cars, leading to the most ultimate--my new (to me) car!! A 2004 Suzuki Verona, black, tinted windows, loaded! I swear, it's like a little old man car--it even has a change drawer in the dashboard by the wheel!! It's really nice and has low mileage, and, boy it's pretty!!

And it's mine!!

Finally, the whiplash is getting better by degrees. I can move my neck now, but don't have full range of motion. The chiropractor is something else--I'd never been before, and it's turning out to be such a great idea--my spine is a little 'wavy' but he's putting me back in line and it's working!! And they're doing electrical stimulation of the muscles and a 'deep tissue massage' kind of thing with a back massage machine. Once things are less jacked-up, I will start physical therapy to strengthen everything. So three days a week for the next 3 weeks, I will be getting my back worked on. I still hurt though, and some days are worse than others, so I still sometimes look like this:

Admit it, you chuckled a little. I know I did!!

Last but not least, work....I think there is something about the heat that makes people's medications less effective. It seems like the very sick people are VERY SICK. I'm having to hospitalize a lot of people, both voluntary and involuntary, and it doesn't seem to be slowing down like it has in past years. Other people can't afford the medications that they need to stay stable. Whatever it is, it makes for very high stress work for me (I've gotten screamed at and threatened a lot lately, not fun).
HOWEVER--I did just get a voice mail from my boss telling me that I've been given a raise in my salary for picking up extra work and becoming the Jail Diversion Coordinator (I work with cops to divert people with mental illness from jail and into mental health treatment, and train officers to identify and work will individuals with acute mental illness). It is very nice to feel like I'm being acknowledged for the work I've been putting in...
On that note, I'm off to find something to eat, then put on a swimsuit and go sit by the pool and relax for the first time in a couple weeks. PS, I will be talking to the chiropractor on Monday about how soon I can start running again. I find myself being very jealous when I see other people running, knowing I can't right now....but I have another 5k coming up in a couple weeks, and I'd love to run at least part of it!!

Thanks for the ongoing support guys!!
--Marge