Tag: #life&wheelchairs

Sometimes, You Just Have to Bail

by C.C. Hasty, posted in Blessed, Dreams, God Is Good, Graduation, Heaven, Mom, Prayer, Uncategorized, Wheelchair

As we sat in the waiting room at Williamson County Medical Center, I looked back on the years that had lead us there. While playing football during Alex’s sophomore year, he tore his labrum. We also learned that he suffered from hip impingement. We always planned to have this surgery after he graduated high school so that he could continue to play sports. We just didn’t know at that point in time that he would end up having a wreck his senior year that would require multiple surgeries and alter the course of his life forever. There would never be any more sports for Alex.

And here we were, fixing to undertake another surgery that would take at least 6 months to heal. I couldn’t help but think that Alex had just now finally healed from all the other surgeries and hadn’t had any time to just be a normal teenage kid. I didn’t feel good about it, but he is 19-years-old. It is his body and his decision. I was ready to do whatever I needed to do to help him heal from this surgery.

All the way to the hospital Alex was extremely anxious. I knew that something was wrong, but like any other teenager, he would share it only when he was ready. This wasn’t his first time having surgery, but any other surgery he was absolutely ready. This time was different.

As we sat in the waiting room to go back to pre-op, patient after patient was taken back. Still, we waited. Alex grew more and more anxious. Finally, he looked at me and said, “What do you think about just leaving?” I had spent weeks trying to convince him to hold off on surgery and here he was suggesting leaving? I thought he was joking at first. When I realized he was serious, my heart jumped with hope. He explained that he didn’t feel going through with surgery was a good decision. God was telling him not to do it. That was all I needed to hear! We told the nursing staff that Alex had changed his mind and we bailed! We both left feeling like we had lost 100 pounds of weight off our shoulders.

I knew in my heart that this surgery wasn’t a good idea. Everything that had led up to this day had pointed towards not doing it. Scheduling it had been difficult to begin with. We had left message after message for the scheduler and it took weeks before she returned the message. The day before surgery, the surgeon’s office realized they didn’t have the referral from the correct doctor and we spent hours trying to fix it. We finally received the referral only 30 minutes before it was too late. Then, we had to wait while watching patient after patient being taking back for surgery, each time leaving us alone in the waiting area. These hurdles were God giving Alex more time to listen to Him.

I am so proud that I have a son who listens to his heart and what God is telling him. I don’t know what would have happened if Alex had the surgery. But, I know in my heart it was something that God didn’t want us to do, and I am so thankful that Alex listened. I am praying that Alex has the best summer he has ever had this year!

Love & blessings,

C.C. Andrews

Equals 

by C.C. Hasty, posted in All Lives Matter, Blessed, Discrimination, God Is Good, Prayer, Racism, Uncategorized, Wheelchair

After spending the day at Vanderbilt with Jackson to start his bone infusions, I was reminded that gender, race, financial status, or even what church you attend means nothing at all. 

My heart broke for all of the children there receiving chemo or infusions. Children of different ethnic backgrounds. Children of parents who had little in the way of money, and children from parents who had more than enough. I saw a girl who could hardly move and had no hair left. A child no older than 6 throwing up but refusing help and insisting to her concerned parents that she was okay. I watched a mother rolling her child around in a wheelchair for hours to distract her. I saw babies and I saw teenage boys just barely old enough to drive. I watched volunteers hand out toys, drinks, and snacks. Doing whatever they could to help cheer and encourage these little patients. It didn’t matter if the child was a girl or a boy. If their parents were poor or rich. If their skin was black or white.

In this they were all one. All fighting to stay alive. They were equals. 

If only everyone who thought their race or the amount of money they had in the bank made them better than others could visit the 6th floor at Vanderbilt, it would change the world. 

Love and blessings, 

C.C. 

Doing the Right Thing Sucks 

by C.C. Hasty, posted in Blessed, Dreams, God Is Good, Heaven, Uncategorized, Wheelchair

After paying over $43,000 over the last 4 years in rent to the owners for the lease of our auto shop, they decided to go behind our back and have us evicted. We are not sure what is really going on. Are they foreclosing or possibly have someone lined up that agreed to pay more than we were paying? To be honest, I have never had a fondness (a polite way of saying it) for this couple. They had zero sympathy for our family after the accident. 

While closing my store this summer (’cause the wreck seriously flipped every part of our lives upside down) they tell us we have to pay double what we had been paying on the storage units we have been renting over four years because all of their units were full and they could now ask full price. If I wasn’t willing to pay it, I would have to move out by the end of the month, which was 2 weeks away. Didn’t matter that I was in the hospital with Jackson at the time and physically couldn’t do it. They illegally took the contents of our storage units by not giving us 30 days notice. Yes, we are taking legal action, but it shouldn’t have ever happened. Who takes from someone that is in the circumstances we have been in for the last year? Especially while they are in the hospital with their child. These people do. 

While moving our things out of the shop, my two oldest sons asked me why I was cleaning after what they did to us. Because, I told them, “It is the right thing to do. Yes, what I would really like to do is not spend my time cleaning after the way they have treated us, but I will continue to do what’s right because I believe that you reap what you sow.” They pointed out that this principle doesn’t seem to be working for me. True. Here lately I wonder why I strive so hard to do the right thing. We have had bad luck on top of bad luck. During the 10 days they somehow illegally forced us to move in, my uncle suddenly passed away. During the funeral, my son went into Diabetic DKA and had a pancreatic attack. I rushed him to Vanderbilt and we spent 4 days in the ICU. While there, he fractured his tooth from clenching in pain and had to leave Vanderbilt to be rushed to the dentist to have his tooth extracted. After getting him home, I had to finish moving the shop. All of this in the span of 10 days! 

Yes, sometimes it seems like no matter what you do right, nothing good ever comes from it. It can feel incredibly unfair, and you wonder why you even bother. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you doesn’t always have immediate results, if any. But as I told my sons, at the end of the day I am responsible for MY actions. You have to treat people the way you want to be treated. When I choose to not do the right thing, it is on my conscious. I have to live with the decisions I make. And when I make it to my forever home in heaven, I will then have to answer to God for those choices. Not to mention, I have my 5 children watching every little thing that I do. I am teaching them, through action, how to live their lives. I want them to choose to do the right thing, even when it feels pointless. 

So, despite the fact that this couple has stolen from us and treated us deplorably, the building was handed over to them in the allocated 10 days completely empty and clean! Sometimes it sucks to do the right thing, when you really just want to treat people the way they treat you. Just remember, doing the right thing is for YOU, not them. 


Love & blessings, 

C.C.