Almost nine years ago (07-21-03) I had a major 4-wheeler accident. We were out riding in the sand dunes of New Mexico with a bunch of friends. We were making our last round on the track we'd been driving all day, when the wind changed directions, carving one of the hills into a 15 ft. cliff. I drove right off that cliff without knowing. It busted my helmet, ripped it off, and I landed at the bottom (on my back) with the 4-wheeler upside down, on my face. It completely crushed the left side of my face, nearly severed my left eye lid, and completely dislodged my left eye from it's socket (my eyeball was laying on my cheek). It was bad.
My husband was the one that found me, as he was only seconds behind me on the track. He rushed to me and threw the four wheeler off of me. Not a possible feat under normal circumstances, but his wife was under it, so it went flying lol. As soon as he got the four wheeler off, the pressure was released and blood began to flow non-stop. I am told that I was conscious from the moment that the bike was thrown off me, but I do not remember anything besides occasional events here and there for the first few days.
Hubby took his shirt off and tried to use it to apply pressure in order to stop the bleeding. Unfortunately, the face likes to bleed....A LOT! I soaked through his shirt, a friend's shirt, and Hubby's military issue pants (cut off to shorts). Anyone that was near me and trying to get me out to the highway for the ambulance was completely covered in my blood. That's a very eerie thought.
Where I had wrecked was a sand bowl. There were hills on all sides and nothing but sport four wheelers to get me out. Needless to say, they weren't having any success in getting me out of there. When they were about to give up and call for the chopper to land in all of that sand, another friend showed up with their hunting four wheeler. Praise the Lord!! They loaded me on the deer rack on the back and were able to drive me out to a friend's truck. That friend drove Hubby and I out to the highway in order to meet up with the ambulance that was waiting.
During that ride, I have my first memory of the event. I remember not being able to move, see, talk, or feel anything. All I could do was listen to Hubby saying, "It's going to be okay. I've got you. Don't worry. Lord, please save her, heal her. It's going to be okay." I remember thinking, "I've never heard him so worked up, something bad has happened. Who got hurt?" Then, I remember hearing someone praying in tongues. If you are not familiar with "praying in tongues" please read Acts Chp 2 of your Bible. We are Pentecostal and fully believe in the workings of the Holy Spirit in our lives. I began to listen to the voice that was praying and it hit me!! I was the one praying in tongues, but I wasn't doing it! Physically, there was no possible way for me to talk at that point, everything in my face was crushed! God had taken over my tongue on my behalf!!! I still get goosebumps when I think about.
Finally, we met up with the ambulance. The only thing I remember from that part of it all, is that the gurney wouldn't collapse, so they kept slamming into the back of the ambulance to try and force it to collapse. My thought during that was, "Yep, I'm dreaming. Nothing bad is going on, it's just a dream. 'Cause nothing like this would happen in real life, only on Comedy Central or something. *laughing in my head*." Not a dream though.
From there everything moved pretty quick, but like I said, I don't remember much. When I first arrived at the ER, they found my eye had been placed back into my eye socket. The docs flipped out and tried to blame the EMT's, but it wasn't them. No one had touched my eye, but it was put back in the only perfectly protected spot I had on my face. The Great Physician was doing His thing!!! They put me through scans, x-rays, MRI's, and who knows what else at the first hospital, in Artesia, NM. I later found out, that by their calculations, I had literally lost more blood than my body held. Yet, I never lost consciousness and never had a blood transfusion. Another amazing miracle from God!!! (Still a lot more to go :-D )
While I was losing all this blood in the hospital, my entire church family was in the waiting room and surrounding the hospital in prayer groups. Those that couldn't make it, or had gone to take care of my children, had started a prayer chain and were praying from wherever they were. Prayers were pouring in from all over the world, I was so overwhelmed when I found out how many prayers were going up and how quickly word had spread. People I had never met before, on their knees before our Maker, crying out for my recovery and healing. WOW!!!
After they got a pretty good run down of the injuries in Artesia, they life watched me to Lubbock, TX. Hubby couldn't fly with me because he needed to clean up and pack our bags. So, one our students drove him like a mad man over there. Hubby was the youth pastor of our church at the time. Lubbock took their own scans and gathered all of the information they needed for my case. Their report to Hubby was that my lower left jaw was broken in four spots (badly), left arm was broken, left orbital structure was crushed, left cheek was turned to dust, nose was crushed, and I probably wouldn't have sight in my left eye, if I was lucky enough to survive. Sounds extremely bad, but wait 'till they sent me to Dallas as my final hospital!
I was life watched to Dallas (Parkland Hospital) because of the extent of my injuries. When I arrived, I remember them asking me, "Why did they send you here? They could have handled this back in Lubbock. Do you know why they sent you here?" The best response I could get out was, "I don't know where I am or how I got here." Their scans and tests were showing things to be completely different from Lubbock's! My jaw was not broken at all, my left arm only had a hairline fracture, and everything else was about the same. Now, they had copies of Lubbock's findings, so the entire medical staff of both hospitals was in complete awe at this point. God had healed even more during the flight from Lubbock to Dallas! AMAZING!!!
After a couple days passed, and I was able to know what was going on, they gave me the option of waiting for swelling to go down before doing surgery or doing surgery immediately. I of course opted to wait on the swelling, because not doing so would require more follow up surgeries to fix the placement of reconstructive materials. No thanks! During the time that we waited on swelling, there were so many other miracles that were seen. My arm was completely healed five days after I got there, no break or fracture at all, a 14 year old boy with similar injuries was completely healed of an infection from his body rejecting the materials, a man was shot in the head while protecting his sister and never had brain injury or anything, a homeless man was saved while talking to Hubby, my roommates marriage was restored, and the floor I was on was taken over with the joy of the Lord completely. All of it was so absolutely amazing, I would never take any of it back. Even my dad, who I had not seen in over eight years, showed up and started trying to restore our relationship!! When I think of all that God did over that month, and is still continuing to do, I can't help but let the tears pour. He is the best Father a girl could ever ask for!!!!
After 3 weeks of waiting for the swelling to go down, and waiting for the docs to quite being amazed at all the miracles that God was working in the process (it was fun watching them be so confused all the time LOL), we finally did surgery. They were able to rebuild my left cheek (it's titanium now), left orbital structure (bone graph from my skull and lots of plastics), and 3/4 of my nose (sylicon). It was a 19 1/2 hour surgery all in all. Everything went exactly as planned, and better even. The Lord really blessed me with the best medical team for the job. Getting the plastic surgeon I got, was in itself a true miracle.
They weren't able to restore the full range of movement for my left eye though. Basically, the muscles behind my eye had healed into fractures and the ruling was that they were permanently stuck and I would never have the ability to move my left eye to look around without a ver risky surgery that could cost the sight in my left eye. Not a risk I was willing to take. As long as my eye couldn't move around, they couldn't fix my eyelid (attach the lid muscles to my eyebrow muscles allowing me control again) because I wouldn't be able to look up to cleanse my eye during blinking. So, they said I would have to stay like this for the rest of my life.
I believe that God will continue to work healing in my eye. He has already set some of the muscles free, as early as two years ago in the middle of worship service on Easter Sunday. But, in the meantime, I have a different looking left eye that causes people to ask me what happened. Anytime I get asked that, a huge smile takes over my face and the story of God's amazing power and love comes pouring forward. I actually don't mind having an eyelid that doesn't open all the way, because it's an opportunity to testify. So many people have drawn closer to God or come to God as the result of the testimony that God has given me. It is so wonderful!!
Now, I do still deal with a lot of chronic pain as a result of the injuries, but it's getting better with help from Lyrica (nerve blocker). I just started on that in January and it is amazing to finally feel normal for the first time in so long. But, even the pain serves as an opportunity to testify, because people always want to know why I'm hurting. So, I tell them :-)
This is a testimony that I will never quit telling. I hope that by sharing it on here, it has been used to build you up in God and encourage you. No matter how bad things may seem at any given moment, it could always be worse. Even in the worse though, God is always right there by your side, holding your hand or carrying you through. John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him, shall not perish, but have eternal life."
2 Timothy 1:7 "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and a sound mind."
- This is the Scripture that was fully implanted into my mind, quoting it non-stop, as I went through the hospitals and surgeries. With that verse leading the way, there was zero fear through everything, but tons of testimonies of His power, love, and peace.
Be blessed in Jesus Name!!!
