As a kid I grew up in church…we were at church every Sunday (morning and evening service) and every Wednesday night. Now, my parents were not, have not ever been bible pushers or crazy people as depicted in many movies that come to mind (thank God my name is not Carrie). Nevertheless we were in church and that was just our way of life. As an adult, I don’t go to church as much as I should probably but I do have a relationship with the big man upstairs and my disclaimer will always be that I love Jesus but I cuss a lil. I have no doubt miracles happen every day/all day, that being said I just have never seen them in living form. Until December 16, 2017…and that is where my story begins.
Before I tell my story I need to give a little history on why and what was happening in our lives at this moment in life. My 18yr old daughter was attending college in Missouri on a basketball scholarship. Life 6 hours away from home was turning out to be more than my CJ could handle…paired with a psycho boyfriend who tried to overdose with Ibuprofen (yes Ibuprofen) when she broke up with him, along with an ankle injury that had her out for most likely the season, she was ready to come home. Being the Christmas season I was unable to get off work to move her home so my amazing parents made the trip to move her out of college and bring her home where she would continue college locally while deciding what direction she wanted to go.
On December 16, 2017 the day started like any other day. I had gotten to work and fixed my first cup of hot chocolate and was about to start my day when I got the call that no one ever wants to get…7:45am my daughter called and said, “mom, we have been in a wreck”. She sounded calm enough when she told me that they hit black ice and slid into a “ditch”. The next 30 minutes were a blur of text messages and phone calls. My dad had been in his truck in front of my mom and daughter, and my mom was driving my daughter’s car because my daughter was wearing a boot on her fractured ankle. Contemplating on whether my sister and I should drive 6 hours I asked my dad if everyone was OK and should we come and his response was absolutely not necessary. However, in the mean time we found out that my mom was pinned in the car and having a hard time breathing so the next phone call to my dad when I told him we were heading that way his one word response of “OK” told me it was worse than we thought.
As my sister and I started our journey with little information, we started to get bits and pieces about our mom. Now, our 70 year old mother never slows down and never complains about anything. So as we are getting info, all we have is that she may have broken a collar bone and maybe a rib. As for my daughter, maybe a concussion. Little did we know what we were walking in on when we finally reached the hospital. We arrived to find out that my mom had broken BOTH collarbones, 14 ribs and cracked her sternum. She was in more pain than I have ever seen her in and it was one of the hardest things I have had to see in a very long time.
My daughter, who said she thought she just had a concussion was now in a neck brace and going back for a cat scan. Still not registering everything I was focusing on my mom. Reason being, my daughter is walking around acting like she is fine. Later I would realize shock is a great disguise. So my daughter comes back from her cat scan and within about 30 min a man comes in the ER room where we are still waiting with my mom and has a huge brace (neck to waist). He walks over to my mom and says I am here to put this brace on, are you Cierra?
The thoughts swirling in my head at this time are what in God’s name does she need THAT for! So, I speak, not even realizing as I am speaking that Cierra is sitting next to me. His response…the look, I will never forget it. If his face could speak…he looked at her and back at my mom and back at Cierra. He then asked a nurse to come in and hold my daughters head in place while he put the brace on. Keep in mind she has had a little flimsy neck brace on until this point and has been walking around like no cares in the world. A bump on her forehead and leg but no other visible injuries.
While still waiting for my mom to be admitted to her room, an ER nurse came and got us to discharge Cierra. When they called us in they said she had broken her C7 and fractured a few other places. When I heard the world broken neck, I guess I was in a sort of haze as well because it still didn’t register completely. They said she was OK to travel back to Oklahoma and as long as she left the brace on for 3 months she was in perfect alignment to heal. So we spent the night in Missouri that night at my oldest daughter’s house with plans to take Cierra home the next day (Saturday) because they were admitting our mom for an undetermined amount of time. Friday night the pain and soreness set in as the shock wore off and Cierra had a horrible night. Of course with the brace on, she could do nothing by herself…literally nothing. So Saturday, after seeing mom we headed back to Oklahoma. On the way home I contacted our family doctor and scheduled an appointment for Monday morning the 19th.
Monday came and we walked in to the doctor’s office, handed over the CAT scan from Missouri and waited. Our family doctor came in, sat down, and crossed his legs. He looked Cierra in the eyes and said, “I’m just gonna sit here and look at you, because no one with your injuries has ever walked in to my office. You should be paralyzed from the neck down”. He then told us we would see a Neuro Surgeon that afternoon or the next morning at the latest. We left the dr. office still not really thinking of the gravity of the situation. So, the next morning we did the same drill…we went to the Neuro Surgeon, handed over the CAT scan from Missouri and waited.
The surgeon walked in shook both of our hands and said the following to us, “I don’t mean to scare you or alarm you, but our trauma team is waiting for you in ICU and we will be doing surgery tomorrow”, he then told us that her C7 which is what holds your skull was completely crushed and there was absolutely no way it would ever heal. He had no words as to how or why this was missed and she was ever discharged from the hospital because in his words she should be dead or at the very least completely paralyzed at this point.
Cierra was wheeled to the ICU and that afternoon was full of tests, cat scans, MRI’s, etc. That evening the surgeon explained that surgery would be about 6 hours long, that he would have to go in through the front of her neck to put a metal box where her C7 had been and because of extensive damage he would also have to put 2 titanium rods and screws in her back. This is where I need you to know the miracle of life we were now very aware of. The “ditch” that mom and Cierra had slid in to was actually a 70 foot ravine about 3 feet from an overpass. Unsure if my dad had seen them (he watched it all from his rear view mirror), Cierra crawled up the ravine in a boot on her ankle to find help. At the top of the hill she saw a nurse across the highway at another accident and Cierra ran across the major highway to get help for her nana. Cierra then walked around the wreck, the hospital, etc. with a crushed C7.
A friend of ours told my mom that Cierra’s guardian angels were with her that day and my mom said it best…she said that God held Cierra’s head in his hands until she was safe. Looking at pictures of the wreck, my mother is a miracle as well. If they had hit the final tree just inches closer to the driver’s side my mother would most likely not be with us today.
Both of them are healing, both of them will have aches and pains for the rest of their lives. My daughter’s basketball career is over, but she is alive, she is a walking and talking miracle. My mom is back to being an amazing mom and nana and my daughter is back in college. So when you have doubts, when you wonder if there really is a God, when you just don’t know…I would love for you to remember my story. Don’t ever give up hope, miracles are walking among us every single day…I have proof!
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