January 4, 2005 - 3:50am - 78 freeway at the Mar Vista exit

I was heading to work in Torrance. It was raining, hard at times, then backing off. Sometimes the wipers were going full speed and other times they were off. As I was coming to the Mar Vista exit in the midle lane, the front tires just lifted from the pavement. The truck started to go to the right. I tried to steer to the left, but the truck continued into a 180 degree spin. The right side of the freeway went up hill and there was a curb, which I basically hit with both left tires. I recall hitting and hearing the crunch of the roof.

I heard someone yelling 'Are you OK'. I yell back 'Yes!'. He then said he called 911, but couldn't stay. I unhooked my seat belt and crawled out on the passenger side. I walked around the vehicle and found my camera and check book laying on the ground. I threw my checkbook back in the truck, but held on to my camera.

A couple of minutes later another guy stopped and let me sit in the back of his car while I waited for the police. Two police cars and an EMT unit were there within minutes. First they walked me away from the vehicle. As I was walking away, I took the picture. The police officer said 'Don't worry, we will take plenty of pictures'. An EMT person asked how I felt, I said 'OK'. He asked if I wanted to go to the hospital. I said I feel OK, but I guess I should get checked over. He escorted me to the truck and off we went. We only had to go 2 exits to the emergency hospital.

They looked me over and did a cat scan, found nothing of importance damaged. Told me to take it easy and come back if I took a turn for the worse or started to do crazy things. I asked the doctor to look at the cat scan to see what was going on the left side of my face. He couldn't find anything. He suggested that it was probably Parotitus.

Lisa met me at the hospital and was I was released, we went to the place where the Yukon was towed. I grabbed a few things and we went home where I changed clothes. Lisa dropped me of at Enterprise car rental on her way to work. I rented a Ford Expedition and headed back to the Yukon. I unloaded all my stuff and finished around 4pm. 



 






 



 



 

I look a lot worse than I felt  

I had a black & blue area on my tongue but forgot to take a picture.

 This looked bad, but turned out to be blood in a crease of my skin  
I had some swelling on the left side of my face that started on January 1,
and continued after the accident. I had the ER include a look at it with
the Catscan. The doctor said it was probably the Parotid gland.

1/5/04 - This was my look the next morning after I completed the drive to Torrance.

 

 

1/6/05 - Thursday morning, waiting to get into the office.


1/6/05 - Thursday evening when I got to the hotel after work.
   

 

1/13/05 - This is the left side of my face where it had swollen quite a bit
 
 

 

 

1/14/05 - Went to the ER and the doctor lance what turned out to be a boil. He inserted a strip of cloth to keep the incision open, allowing it to drain. I was also given antibiotics.
 

 

1/16/05 - I pulled out the cloth, which was about 6 inches long. I'm treating it with Neosporin and taking the antibiotics.
 

 

 


As of 1/1605 evening, I think there is something else causing the swelling on the left side of my face.

On January 4, I rented a Ford Expedition and went back to work on January 5, 2005. I went to Pomerado Emergency Room on January 14 and it was determined I had a boil on the left side of my face, so the doctor lanced it, drained it and put a 'wick' inside to continue the draining. On January 15, 2005 I picked up the replacement vehicle, the insurance check, was available on January 17 and by January 18, 2005 the black eye was gone and swelling on the right side of my face.