Can I just skip May 19th?

A strange feeling comes over me every May 19th for the last couple years.  I get the eebie-jeebies.  

The reason can be traced back to May 19th, 2015.  At 8:00 am, I was in my beautiful truck on Madison Ave as two lanes of traffic waited for children to board a school bus with it's flashing red lights.  I was the last car in the line of traffic.

Just as the school bus turned off its lights, my truck felt like it had just exploded!  I immediately realized that someone had hit me from behind and had done so with authority.  The force of the impact pushed my truck (with all four wheels locked up) approximately 15 feet forward, crushing the rear end of the Camry in front of me.

As I exited what was left of my truck, I observed the driver responsible for the collision, a young man in his 20's, exit what I can only assume was once a vehicle.  I ran up to the Camry in front of me and asked the woman if she was injured.  She said she was shaken up, but didn't need an ambulance.  

It was at that moment I noticed there was something seriously wrong with my left shoulder.  It was burning and throbbing and very painful to move.  Having worked traffic accidents for about 10 years, I then noticed the young man's vehicle didn't leave a single inch of skid marks on the roadway, which means he never touched his brake pedal.

I asked him if texting on his phone was more important than everyone else on the road that day.  He mumbled something unintelligible and shook his head.  I asked him for his driver's license and insurance.  He told me his license was suspended, he had no insurance and to cap off the trifecta, the car he was driving wasn't his.

Having been hit before by a slacker with no insurance, I have always carried uninsured motorist coverage on my vehicles.  Once again, that extra $9 a month paid off.

Shortly after the accident, I began my first round of physical therapy (PT) to address the pain in my lower back, neck and shoulder.  I had to go to one hour visits, twice a week for 6 months.  When the PT didn't fix my shoulder, I was given an MRI where they discovered a torn rotator cuff and a torn labrum.

Shortly after the MRI came a 4 hour shoulder surgery to repair the damage.  Then one month later, round two of PT.  Once again, I began 1 hour visits, twice a week for 6 long months.  It's really a testament to the human spirit that you can be coerced to driving yourself to this unbelievably painful treatment.  There were many days I would have rather held my hand over an open flame for an hour, but somehow I convinced myself to go.

It has now been just over 2 years since the accident (is it really an accident if the guy was using his phone on purpose?) and the range of motion in my bad shoulder is nowhere near that in my good one.  Will it ever be the same?  Who can say.  One thing is for sure; this collision was 100% avoidable had that young man been paying attention to the road and NOT his phone.

345 days until May 19th, 2018.  Yippee.....

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