Sunday, May 14, 2006
OUR STORY...
WRITTEN BY MALLORY 2006:
Last March 31st, on a chilly morning around 6am, my husband was on his way to work. He was traveling down Green River road when all of a sudden he was blind-sided by a car going full speed through a stop sign at Millersburg road.
A woman who was talking on her cell phone and speeding, ran a stop sign at a very high rate of speed and T boned my husbands truck spinning him around and into oncoming traffic on Green River Road where he was hit again headon by another truck. He never even saw it coming.
The paramedics didn't even find Mark until minutes later when someone spotted him pinned under his truck.
The vast force of the collision crushed his body and threw him out through the floorboard and passenger door onto the pavement. He was trying to yell for help but was unable to since his lower jaw was broken in two pieces and laying on his chest in a lot of blood.
His chest was completely crushed breaking 8 ribs down his left side, collapsing his left lung, the broken ribs lacerated his liver in 3 places causing internal bleeding, his shoulder was separated, his eye socket was broken, this list goes on.
I was laying in bed with our 3 year old son early that morning, when I got the dreaded call from one of Mark's friends who had seen the ambulances racing to the scene of the accident.
I can't begin to tell you the feelings that come over your body when you hear this kind of news.
To make a long story short, after 33 days in the ICU at St. Mary's hospital, several surgeries and lots of physical therapy, Mark survived! The doctors at St. Mary's called him the miracle man. His story was on the news several times and the front page of the Courier and Press three times. He truly is a walking miracle.
After his recovery, we had the mounting medical bills to deal with, $202,000 worth to be exact! We thought for sure we were in financial ruin. We met with several lawyers who wouldn't even take the case. The woman who caused the accident walked away the same day with minimum injury but she also had minimum coverage auto insurance which didn't make a dent in the bills.
Everyone told us there was nothing we could do and bankruptcy was our only option.
That seemed so unfair, that, we had to suffer so much for someone else's recklessness, but we didn't see any other option.
So I scheduled an appointment to meet with yet another attorney, our 5th, a Mr. Bruce A. Smith, who specialized in bankruptcy.
After hearing our story, he couldn't believe it. Come to find out, he only lived 2 blocks from the intersection where the accident happened and remembered seeing the horrible scene that morning, of mangled cars.
He decided to take our case and try to save us from bankruptcy.... and he did!!!!
After lots of meetings with the hospital and doctors he got our bills knocked down to only a fraction of what they originally were! We thank Bruce Smith so much for what he was able to do for us. We also thank God everyday for the wonderful miracles he has given us!
Good things have come out of very bad situations for us and we owe it all to God!
We were just trying to get back on our feet this year, trying to get all the bills paid and Mark was able to return to work.... BUT a few months later... we were hit again...
This time it was a large lump in my abdomen. I was scared. After several tests, scans and meeting with doctors, it was determined that I had a fairly large tumor. No one knew for sure what it was yet, but the surgeon said it needed to come out.
I was scheduled for surgery on Memorial Day weekend 2006.
The surgeon reassured me all was going to be fine.
After I awoke from surgery, the doctor came over with a straight face and told me they had removed the tumor and unfortunately it was an enlarged lymph node which most likely meant.....Cancer!
I started to cry and asked for Mark, he came in with tears in his eyes and we just held each other.
The next morning we met with an oncologist, I didn't even know what an oncologist was. After explaining to us what I had, the stage I was at and my likely survival rate, my thoughts were a blur!
All I really remember was when he said 'survival rate' those words will wake anyone up!
What I remember was when he said my odds of survival were 60-70% the first thing that automatically pops in your head is....that's 30-40% chance of NOT surviving!
Dr. Mark Browning, my oncologist, decided we needed to start aggressive chemo treatment right away. I was introduced to ABVD chemo in June and have been taking treatments every 2 weeks since then.
This fight with cancer and chemo has really made me appreciate all the cancer survivors out there!
I had NO idea what people went through when they were on chemo, it's a horrible thing.
When I get online and chat with other cancer fighters, we all kind of joke that we don't know what's trying to kill us more, the cancer or the chemo!
I've learned that you have to keep your sense of humor in these kind of situations, sometimes it's the only that keeps me going. I'm usually feeling pretty miserable, I'm bald now and totally drained.
I have 2 more treatments to go, then I start radiation on my hip, where the cancer has spread from my lymph nodes into my right hip bone.
I am still keeping a positive attitude, I think attitude has a lot to do with surviving. I learned that from Mark, he fought for every breath after his accident, lived on a ventilator for weeks and he is living proof that willpower, faith and attitude can overcome extreme circumstances!
When my mom was battling with her disease, ALS, better known as Lou Gehrigs disease, she fought hard, she fought just to move her limbs, to eat, to drink, to communicate, everything. She fought for two years until it finally got the best of her in June of 1990.
My Mom died just 4 days after I graduated high school.
I wanted to share my story with you. I like to tell our story to anyone who will listen to encourage everyone to keep a positive attitude, trust God, keep your faith and try to look at the bright side of things in the midst of tragedy.
Life is good if you make it so!
Appreciate it and pray.
(Blogs post most recent entries first and oldest last. SO, If you are reading my journal/blog for the first time, you will have to click on the links at the bottom right side of the page starting with May and work your way up. I have tried to get the blog to be in chronological order of oldest to newest, but they just don't work that way. I posted this first entry "Our Story" here at the top but then the most recent are underneath it)
