First - a BIG hug for you

Second - Welcome to the spinal boards

Third - OMG! OK I just had to do that, as that is what I did when I read about you going to jail.

A part of me wants to tell you that driving under those conditions was not wise - but I think you know that already.
Also if I had not spoken to my mom for a long time and she was ill and I thought this may be my last chance to see her alive, I too may have made that same choice

So I won't lecture you.

What charges were placed on you?

Please do keep me updated on how things go.

Yes, I will keep you in my thoughts & prayers ♥

PS: the F*** part is frowned on in general. I would just use *&%$# and leave out any leading letters - we all can figure it out

I will definitely keep you in my thoughts and prayers. I know that the very last thing that you need right now is a lecture so I really am not trying to lecture you at all. But the better choice may have been to pull off the road and get a little bit of rest or delay your drive by just a bit. I can see where the driver behind you would have been concerned with your erradict (sp) driving. I do not see how the cops were justified in taking you to jail when you broke no laws. I sincerely hope that things are going to take a turn for the better for you. Please do keep us posted with the outcome of all of this. I wish you luck on Dec. 1 and will keep you in my thoughts.

I am so sorry with all that you have been through - especially with family and such. Unfortunately legal medication or not, you will most likely be charged with DUI. Your lawyer might be able to get it knocked down considering your condition, but more so combining with what all was going on, and as such caused you to take this medication and operate a motor vehicle.

I wish you well, and that this smooths out. You already stated that you where swerving. Many times the State or Local police will follow for a distance to make their own determination of your driving status. The "jerk" with the cell phone might have initiated their interest, but the police made their expert decision to pull you over. As for the DUI test and your physical disability, yeah most don't understand if they can't "see" the disability. Sorry if they were not amicable to you there. I wasn't there, but if you are weaving such that they were concerned, the wrong circumstances and "bad" things could have happened. Good luck to you.

Brenda

Hi

First let me say welcome to spine-health. Have a look around lots of information here to take in. So what was the charges? Did they drug test you? If so I assume that was a blood test and was drawn at the hospital? What the results of the test? If you couldn't do the sobriety check you should have medical papers that show such a thing? I guess the bigger thing I question is why didn't you pull over if you knew you were having issues driving? If you were driving on the medium must have been really ugly. I am shocked the cops just followed you and didn't pull you over sooner? Thank goodness for the person with a cell phone as you could have been injured or better yet injured someone else. Going to jail was minor compared to what could have happened. I do hope your mom is ok? Take care.

Thank you all for your terribly kind words, and fast too. The thing is that I have been drivining under my meds for 6 years, absolutely NO problem. I will go to the lawyer and drive this home to him.(Never, Never, Never have I had a moving violation or parking ticket in my life in my 32 years of driving). My problem was exhaustion, worry for my Mom, not being able to see all three of my relatives. Buy the way both my husband's and my family is so very, very small it is almost noexitstent. That's what hurts me so very much inside to see them. And to top it all off, all the other few live in all four corners of the country. I did finally see my Mom, it was a shock. I hugged her shoulders and it was like hugging an extreamly frail sparrow.(tear)
The thing is, is that that the cop DID NOT see me, he was only going by what some dweep in a cellphone was telling him, who knows how much he could of embelished! Could the guy been in a bad mood and embellissed a little? Just today I called the police about some teeagers running up and down the city streets in their 4 wheelers, Officers says he can't do anything unless he sees them. What is this a double standard or something?

Oh, well please stay with me and I'll let you know how it turns out.

Thanks all,
Sandy

for you and will keep our fingers crossed that everything works out well for you. I am curious. Did they do a blood or urine test? If not how would they conclude that you were under the influence of anything other than sleep deprivation? I just can't believe that they took you to jail!

The only thing you might have a problem with is the Ambien,good thing that you have a lawyer,good luck with your case....

Thank you all so very much for your replies & concerns. And to clarify, it was NOT a police officer that saw me on the interstate, when I got to Jackson and parked, an unmarked car slid right in behind me so I could not back out. Since my brother-in-law was the only one there, he pleaded with the officer to just let him drive me home & they would get my car next day. The officer said he really sympathized but since there was someone who saw me (NOT THE OFFICER) he had no choice. I hit those cuts in the side road two times at the most. They are there for the purpose of jarring you. Tell me, how many truck drivers hit those things at all hours of the day & night especially, and never get in trouble. And get this, when I was in the squad car I told the cop that they would probably find Ambien in my blood sample also, unfortunately it didn't have that 1 or 2 hours to totally were off. And you know what he says to me "Well I take Ambien too!" Maybe one day he will have an emergency call and not get to completely sleep it off either, then what? I had no alcohol in my system, but since I had my legitimate prescription bottles with me that's all he wanted to snag me on. I lied about nothing and admitted everything. I did the eye finger test, the alphabet recite, but when it came to the stand on on foot, and the foot to toe walk I told him time and time again that I had 6 years of degenerative lower back disease and now my right knee is scaring me to death with swelling, pain, and a ligament or bone chip clicking around somewhere and just could not do it with no support. And as far as proof of all my tests, I have EVERY one from many, many doc reports to mri's, to my back surgery, to epidurals, and on and on. Plus just getting out of the car after driving 1-1/2 hours doesn't help either, he could have at least let me walk around a bit and stretch out, but no.
I have my mother's doctor report that she broke 3 ribs in her fall and that's why I was in so much duress, and now I will have a report from my Ortho about what is going on in my knee. So believe me, I've got proof of all this pain I'm going through and what I went through all these years. And just for my defense, one of the times I veered was trying to adjust my quite tight sun visors on both sides as it was a very sunny day that Sunday. I am sorry to sound defensive here and I know some of the info you guys gave where right on. But, well let's hope my lawyer can do his best cause believe me, I've learned my lesson, even if it was after 50 years of life.

Thanks so much people,
Sandy

PS. I am ever so sorry that I started this thread under the wrong heading. I'll do better next time. Thanks for your understanding. You're bunch of great folks!

Sandy - please understand that while some of us may not agree with your decision to drive or the way things went down that day, we will still be here for you and only want what is best for you and all involved

I may have missed it in your last post as I have trouble reading long posts with no breaks in between the sentences/paragraphs - but where you blood and/or urine tested that night/day ?

Yes, unfortunatley I did take a voluntary blood test. I felt backed into a corner as I had a few of my pain pills in my purse since, in their legitimately labeled bottles. I was going to be gone at least a half day or more and knew I would have to have one or two before I left for home. I know it was a dumb thing to do, my husband said NEVER take a breath or blood test, but I did not have anything in me that was not supposed to be. But it was still stupid because the lawyer could have said I didn't have anything in my system at the time. Buts what is done is done. I have so much proof of disability and pain and proceedures over the past 6 years. The least the officer could have done was give me 10 or 15 minutes to stretch out so I could do his balance on one foot and toe to heal test, but he didn't. I was driving for over 1-1/2 hours, you know how stiff and stove up you can get after driving that long. And I did NOT take my meds right before I left. I took them at least 1-1/2 to 2 hours beforehand. The crazy thing was that up until a couple of miles before I got to Jackson is when the exhaustion set in, I felt fine as a fiddle til then. Go figure.
Anyway thank you so much for your concern. I really mean it.
It really helps to know so many return your calls for help!

Thanks Always,
Sandy

Sorry to hear about your mom taking a fall and hurting herself. That's always a big stressor in our lives.

What bothers me about this incident you've described, is that you are more concerned about the "wrongs" that everyone else has done to you, when all along it was you who chose to continue to drive once you began feeling impaired.

The mistakes you are recognizing that you made seem more centered around mistakes that will make it harder for your lawyer to get you out of the charges.

Asking for a few minutes to stretch and walk around before taking an impairment test, is like a boxer getting knocked silly and then being given 15 minutes to catch his breath and recuperate. The test is to determine your impairment at the time you were pulled over, to determine if you were at that moment, fit to be driving.

We as chronic pain sufferers and patients, must take responsibility for our actions, especially when compounded by physical limitations and medications. If we cannot safely conduct ourselves in a public venue or while driving, then it is our responsibility to seek assistance.

Even if we have been able to function just fine for many years while taking certain medications and with physical limitations, when that changes or something else gets added to the mix, we need to re-evaluate our situation.

Sandy, I think it stinks that you have gotten yourself into such a pickle. Things do tend to work out the way they are supposed to, so go with the flow. Like was mentioned in a previous post, just because we may not all agree with you on something, doesn't mean that we don't care. We are here to support you and all others. Welcome to Spine Health.

"C"

Sandi - what is the next step for you in all of this?

Has your lawyer told you the worst the law can do to you and the least?

Please do keep us updated

PS: Sandi please read this post - it would be most helpful to my eyes
http://www.spine-health.com/forum/forum-help-troubleshooting-suggestions...

Ms Humpty you're right, I'm sorry to ramble. I will keep that in mind from now on, just that sometimes I have to explain things to help everyone understand my dilemma. And yeah, I apologize for being so defensive about certain things. But there were some very unkind things that happened to me that shouldn't have and when you have your own legit medicine that they will not let you have, suffering to the max is not the way to go.

I see my Ortho doc tomorrow (Tues) about my knee. Wonder what it will be next week, my elbow? Ha! (I hope). But you are a great bunch of people and I have never and I mean never got so much response from a forum than on any other forum. I promise to keep you updated.

Thanks again and best wishes to you all,
Sandy

Sandy it was not subject length I was pointing out - it was that you need to break up your sentences and paragraphs - which I see you did very well in your last post. My Thanks

Hi all, and Aviatrix believe me I hold nothing against you because of your job, it is an important one. And since I've already talked to my lawyer and this is Federal and so it's not worth a hill of beans, but the officer had written in his report that he did not see me driving, but since someone else did that's all she wrote. I just didn't want you (especially) to get the story wrong. I just got to face the music and could possibly get some leniency with my disability on the community service.

And I don't know how it works with something like me, if I could do the community service in my home town, Bartlett, and not have to drive to Jackson. Would you by any chance have an input about that? But if not, I've got a lot of family that would do the driving there & back.

And just one more thing, the Orth. doc I was to see this past Tues. had and emergency so everyone got rescheduled. So I got this next Tues., a seven day wait. (hopefully only.)

Again, thanks for all the info and honesty. This is the best forum I've found and hope to give some help to others.

Thanks, Sandy

Too bad about your Dr app changing. Please do let us know how you are doing

I just read this post now and was wondering how you are making out with all of this considering your most recent loss. How are you doing? I can't imagine dealing with the loss you have suffered along with all this too. My prayers are with you.

stopping in to see how you are doing