Up before dawn, it was our usual race to grab helmets, safety vests, and for the whole family to jump into the van of the company. They fell into our seats, barely awake, while my husband hit the accelerator, fusion in the occupied before dawn, the line of construction vehicles headed toward a new day in the dusty Bakersfield, California.

Turning west of Rosedale Highway, which left the main road and stopped at a padlocked gate. When dialing numbers block scan with the oil fields of a special breed of foxes, an endangered species that inhabited the local few acres of abandoned land hills. If we saw one of these animals we were forced to stop work, contact your local biologist, and, presumably, stop all operations until the safety of the animals was assured.

Foxes not visible to the eye, so leave the door open wide and dozens of dump trucks to get behind us and went into a restricted hazardous material clean up.

Our leader had challenged us, "you can load to 30,000 tons in the next three weeks?" Randy, my newly married husband of four months, he replied: "Not a problem. "You see," No "and" impossible "were two words that simply did not exist in your vocabulary! Soon the work became a day of 15 hours of adrenaline-filled activities as we come together as a complete family once again "impossible" assignment.

Two of our sons, Larry and Jeff, soon joined his brother, Robbie, and along with our three children who carry the first 30,000 meters of black ink of petroleum coke. Petroleum coke is usually the consistency of sand or ash ... but soon would discover that none of the scientists and engineers could have predicted ... that beneath the soft layer of coke was almost petrified stratum of very strong, solid petroleum coke. With the right equipment might have drilled and divided the strata property, but all I had were porters. This should have been a red flag for what was to happen ...

Randy was a skilled heavy equipment operator, but the rest of us were so green that we had to be taught everything from the lubrication of the ramp construction. I was a middle-aged mother who had previously spent more than a dozen years, homeschooling children and volunteering at church.

Never before had stepped on my foot a construction site, much less operated machines require only a ladder to enter the driver's seat!

He challenged me with the operation of a CAT 962 loader and plants Robotrack screen - only! Larry has a CAT 980 loader, Jeff took water duty trucks, shovels and Robbie petroleum coke in the cars.

Learning to live together as a blended family is often an obstacle that requires some years of diligence to master, but for our family not only live together but work in a dangerous environmental cleanup project together. Say you have chosen for the crash course!

Our boss enjoyed a million dollars a month, our little family team was producing for him.

We worked together like a well oiled machine, charging as much as 204 large trucks a day. It became necessary to hire more men, so he went and hired some more green ... and trained the new guys, who became like family to us. Except for Randy, none of us had been certified yet and hazwhoper were not equipped adequatelyfor work. He had not yet received the medical entrance exams! It was a rush job of fever and a million dollars a month, the benefits could not afford to slow down to that sort of thing, that is our out of state, project manager told us.

Our boss had thrown down the gauntlet - 30,000 tons of petroleum coke to be removed in three weeks!

Randy had come right off of 4 consecutive months of 24 hours a day working in a very stressful environment of hazardous materials with a high level of toxicity in Chicago. The newborn company has not been established yet for necessary medical checks for massive exposure despite high levels of toxins in the round of "the base of the clock, Randy was taken to their physical and mental limits in place Chicago hazardous materials without standard security measures in place.

It was as if driven by ... Not really a man, but rather as a machine. He gave everything he had to his boss, and there was nothing that could stop him. All that Randy manages to put in front of him to do, even if it means staying up all night in a dark tent, alone machine and put what the work could continue at full speed. You would have thought that would recognize the warning signs ... each machine is broken from time to time, including human machine! But consumed with keeping her nose above water and survive only by the day.

We passed the mark of 30,000 tons in the first month and almost half way through the stack!

We did not have the right equipment, but the job was flying at a pace that it had become impossible to stop. The leaders were watching the dollar signs of inflammation between the computer screen ... It was really amazing what a little family team could do!

After breaking through the frozen layer that began the deliberate destruction loaders in the solid petroleum coke in order to break the pieces small enough to load. It was heartbreaking again and headache producing work. We were going to get sore every day, but there was no slowdown. We had daily production quotas to meet.

One day, Randy picked up something from the ground and the white powder flew everywhere. The plant is a giant screen roaring, screaming red monster that blows the air like a whale on earth. If you get near the controls is like a sand-blaster on his face.

We never knew what we would find in the pile - which had been there for decades, the accumulation of garbage every possible kind. There were times when it is loaded into dump trucks and would like to see things like brown bottles found in all of chemistry or pharmacy. It's just one of the risks they run in hazardous materials ... but our work was so fast that none of us had gone to school yet hazwhoper!

It is not even certified to work in a field of hazardous materials!

In early July 2003, the desert of Bakersfield was submerged in a wave of searing heat. Daily temperatures were fired in the three digits, so he started working as soon as possible in the early hours of the morning before the heat became unbearable. Work as quickly as possible, already exhausted after months of relentless workload stress, Randy was running his 980 in CAT speed. Load garbage trucks was their main task, as it was a delicate operation and none of us "newbies" were able to meet the loads as quickly as needed.

Then it happened. Going full speed by the quake inevitable, crushing bite petrified coca, the machine broke Randy - cut bolts immediately. Randy's body hit the steering column and the pain exploded in his chest and back. The pain was normal for him and he thought he could shrug. "Impossible" was not in his vocabulary, so he continued working.

Randy was generally very patient and kind to all of us "newbies", but from that day became a tense slow wick, which often resulted in verbal explosions.

After a weekend in a bad mood, my husband told me: "You might want to take me to the emergency room - I think I'm having a heart attack."

We arrived at Bakersfield Heart Hospital Sunday morning. Randy collapsed and the emergency team quickly took it and ran a battery of tests. When I called the doctor was finishing writing his report and looked at me. While writing, he said he was prescribed an antibiotic for acute bronchitis.

Intuitively I knew something was wrong with that report, so he tried to alert the doctor. I wanted to look into his eyes, but he was in a hurry. The heart of this patient was perfectly healthy and was ready to move to a real emergency, which seemed to be his point of view. Why bother to interrupt a busy emergency room with a spectacular entrance when his heart was perfectly fine?

He interrupted his hasty departure, saying: "Doctor, do you want to know what he was doing when it happened this pain?" The doctor just gives me a look, said: "So he takes the antibiotic for 10 days and should be fine."

I knew something was wrong, but I could not understand!

On Monday, we returned to the workplace, but Randy was not right. Our project manager has just visited our site a few days earlier and had returned to Indiana. We stayed in touch by phone and email to let him know what had happened and he advised me to take Randy back in ER. Tuesday morning we left the workplace for a couple of hours to visit the emergency room different.

Running the same battery of tests, the doctor is pleased to say that Randy's heart was perfectly fine. This man looked me in the eyes when I asked him what he thought it was, and then began a long speech ... about the dangers of working in a hazardous materials site without a mask. He told us he sees refinery workers come in all the time with lung problems as a result of working without respiratory protection. He diagnosed the pain as Randy "chemistry pneumonitus" and told us to see a pulmonologist.

Nobody seemed to think it was an emergency, and are out of state did not have the medical resources that we knew personally. We arrived at the medical building and saw a pulmonologist who sounded incredibly safe (after X-rays and CATscans) and Randy said he was suffering from Valley Fever, a common but serious illness that affects the Bakersfield area and cause similar symptoms. She advised us to go to the Scripps Clinic in La Jolla for further testing and diagnosis.

Nothing felt right to me. It seemed like every doctor looks through a pair of goggles - called by the name of their branch of knowledge or expertise combined with personal experience. So I told myself I needed a primary care physician, internist or general practitioner who could help us put the pieces together. Our pastor told us a very capable, mature Randy doctor who examined from head to toe, leaving the body without moving. She assured us it was simply a matter of eliminating all possibilities and get to the root of the problem. We are relieved that someone was going to bat for us, although it did sit in his waiting room for hours and hours (which was complete for all patients!)

By then, our company was alarmed. He bought two tickets (one way) to Randy and me to Chicago for their own doctors might try Randy. By then he had been to so many doctors and do not think Randy's body could not tolerate the trip so that our project manager was able to convince business executives that allows us to stay and continue to receive treatment in California.

Because Randy White recalled breathe dust near the plant of the screen, it was suspected that a contaminant has affected his lungs (he had a lot of trouble breathing, with pain in the chest that spreads to the back). So suddenly everything changed in the workplace. Tape black and yellow stripes was published by all the "area of ??contamination" and everyone, including truck drivers, were required to wear masks at all times on the site.

All of us "newbies" went in a hurry and register for classes at the local university hazwhoper so we could be legally certified to work in a hazardous materials site. The company did not want to get caught with their pants down. It is also the law that all hazardous materials workers should receive a physical examination upon entering and leaving a job. We all have our controls, except Randy - and his "disease" should be kept secret. Our company association could not see Randy in their condition or do not know how he was seriously injured. By the time the tape was made and the rule of the face mask was implemented was impossible not to tell the truth.

As a caregiver, I felt totally inadequate!

Over the course of 10 monthsfollowing the accident, Randy was sent to all possible types of doctor in Bakersfield. An osteopath had tried to discuss Randy, but his throbbing upper abdomen Randy yelled and ran to the table. He continued screaming and the doctor quickly finished its review, said it was probably the pancreas, and then left the room with a referral to a specialist in the stomach! A few minutes later a nurse came back saying we could leave now.

Let? This was a man who could withstand anything - it was a machine! He could lift 300 kilos without breathing hard. Impossible and there were not even in their vocabulary. But Randy was screaming, "No!" Something terrible had happened when the doctor was pounding the top of the abdomen. In the parking lot of Randy refused to get in the truck until I returned to the office and asked for something stronger to kill the pain. It was closing time and they said they would have to wait and make another appointment to discuss pain medication. I was very daring at the time and told them I was leaving his office, unless prescribed something to help. How to send a man to his house screaming? Especially when you do not know its origin ... the way it is taught as a man of Montana registration to continue working, even if his arm was cut to half price for a chainsaw! If only I had known that Randy was just being dramatic - he was dying of pain at that moment!

As a caregiver, I felt totally inadequate. Randy I was responsible for 24 hours a day. The worst was not knowing what it was. At home, listening to him scream in pain I often wondered if I was going to die. If you can face your enemy in the head is much easier! But we were being beaten in all directions at once. Sometimes people forget that caregivers need all the help and support the person seriously injured. When serious injury occurs, traumatizing the entire family!

A few weeks later we went to the doctor stomach ... has allowed me the room to see a computer screen that shows what the inside of the stomach pinch of Randy, taking a biopsy. He said that Randy's stomach was fine and prescribed two types of medicine that we were assured that Randy nausea. At least, he had ruled out cancer of the pancreas.

Some people feel relieved now that our country will finally get national health care and that everyone has access to medical resources. I do not mind everyone has the medical resources ... but is that where we put our trust? Randy and I would know to trust anything or anyone or anything apart from God plan will fail.

God was getting into our world to teach us something about him - that never fails and love that He is the only real solution to the pain, illness, financial losses ... everything!

He wants to be our all in all! When all systems fail and we were confident everything and everyone fails, God is really there to support and sustain us!

In the fall of 2003, our doctor told us that she had run out of medical resources and that we must consider Los Angeles. We were referred to a neurosurgeon based in Los Angeles also had an office one day a week in Bakersfield.

Within the first five minutes of our first appointment, the doctor said he suspected A__ T-8 T-9 in the thoracic spine as the culprit. Says we have to schedule a diskogram with a clinic in Los Angeles that left us very hopeful for the first time since that black day when the pain began.

Because nobody knew what was wrong, not to release Randy stop working. A new supervisor was flown to replace Randy, but nobody could tell what had happened ... and Randy was still "on duty". The new supervisor said he had back problems, so they refused to help the humble workers in the workplace - we had to solve everything ourselves. Randy came and went. While pain tolerance was high there were plenty of days when you had to go home and go to bed. His back felt like I was bleeding and often raised his shirt and asks me to look back - I see nothing that would indicate a hemorrhage? Everything seemed normal to me, except for a large swelling in the center.

Randy became nausea and headaches, as well as across the chest and back pain. Its bitter sweet character as the pain continued increasingly invaded his life. Doctors prescribe a large dose of narcotics for pain as they dared to give him, but was neverenough do more than take the edge off the pain increasing. Nobody thought it might need a break. No one mentioned take time off from work. And Randy was not an option.

We finished the job in Bakersfield, go beyond what the company expects ... making millions of dollars in profits for this new venture, untested environment. It was time for a break, finally! There should have been time to carry hazardous materials elsewhere, but everyone knew that Randy was not for her ... so we have remained silent in the Bakersfield site for six months, although he had no work to do.

Randy was fast sliding down and when he came to Los Angeles for diskogram were desperate for anything to work. Randy put on the operating table, the surgeon places the needles into your spine as a test to see if / when the area was problematic. There was absolutely no doubt that the disc was the problem, Randy jumped off the table and took the general surgery team to put it back on the table and to hold. The doctor prescribed Demerol rapidly and then more and more and more. The nurses had been warned that the full amount, but the doctor took one look at Randy and said to give him more. Do not let me in the recovery room for over four hours because they were having problems controlling Randy.

A patient's door with Randy said, "I thought I was in pain, but obviously I do not know what the word is compared with what is happening to that guy!"

Finally, the clinic was closing its doors, Randy pushed the passenger door of our van and waved us off. Each hit in 401 sent an excruciating pain in the back of Randy. The 2-hour tour through Los Angeles rush hour traffic is still memorable for me, now!

A week later we returned to the office of Dr. A__ and offered the assurance that help was on the road. He said he had just returned from a conference that "nucleoplasty" was the topic of discussion. It was a new procedure at the time and the doctor described it as the heating of the disk material until it resembles the consistency of a marshmallow. This simulates a fracture in the back with the body, which then take action to "fix the interruption." This procedure Dr. A___ voted 50/50 in their ability to be effective. We were so desperate at that point would have tried everything it offers a possibility of relief from unrelenting pain. Soon we realized that the treatment itself was about to break any possibility of Randy live a normal life. They were operating under the assumption that there was no damage and deterioration of the disc, because at that time none of the experts were wondering what had happened at the time of onset of pain!

Would be eight months after the injury the doctor S__, with the aid of fluoroscopy, discovered the cause of pain - a broken rib that had penetrated the hard, crushing a nerve in the T-8 and T-9 area . That part of the thoracic spine regulates the function of the muscles of the chest, heart, lungs, etc. .. therefore, the reason for the symptoms of a heart attack in those areas?

After nucleoplasty, Randy was sent home the same day ... another disk drive on the bumpy 401 in Los Angeles. A short work week had opened in a city of 2 hours from Bakersfield, so Randy and I went to work that job just a day after his nucleoplasty. None of the doctors had given Randy is no restriction on the time and nobody thought he needed time off work. Red flag missed that completely!

Randy had a very difficult time traveling. The movement of the vehicle, even standing was incredibly difficult. It was as if the back is folded in half and was struggling to keep upright. We did the job and returned to Bakersfield for a follow-up appointment with Dr. A__.

Dr. Randy A__ then instructed that if the procedure was to work (it would take about half a year to see if it was effective or not) would have to stop driving any type of vehicle, do not lift anything over 5 pounds, and not travel more than an hour at a time. It was time for Thanksgiving and they were still in the workplace, in reality the hope of returning home. A__ Dr. advised us to stay in California and not travel under any circumstances.

I was dismayed to think that they just learned about these restrictions over a week after the surgery! We did not know how dangerous it was to be physically active after the type of surgery. The reality of the situation grew worse Randy increasingly apparent every day. By then, parties were for us and all the doctors were complete, or largely not available. The swelling in the center of the back of Randy had increased to such an extent that one of the young children in the trailer park Randy asked if he was a hunchback!

To keep pain at bay, Randy would walk in circles for hours and hours in the trailer park, but after nucleoplasty was like he ran out of juice, and often what you find down in the sand on the outside the trailer park in an empty field. Which he had hewn in the arena the only place where I could find that would allow a measure of relief.

Finally, in mid-January, we see Dr. A___ new work Randy officially launched on Nov. 23. He stressed that over the coming months the unit is not Randy, not take more than five pounds, and limit their trips to no more than an hour. He sent a doctorA___n Randy, a specialist who helps people recover from spinal cord injuries and also to Dr. S__, a specialist in pain management.

The two experts discussed the treatment of back and forth to each other, and each time we went to see one of them complained that the doctor and others that refused to comply with the other recipe. A__n Dr. Randy refused to treat at all, say that the swelling on the back would first have to go down. When asked if there was anything we could do to help Randy walking and back support that folds in half, he prescribed a wheelchair and a back brace, along with a new form of morphine.

In March 2004 Dr. S__, after a series of failed attempts to relieve pressure from swelling in the back of Randy, discovered the real culprit - and said the injury was due to Randy's a hole in the spinal cord . Well, something that finally made sense! And we feel in our spirit that this was the breakthrough that was needed. Not knowing, not understanding, is to walk in the dark - and when you walk in the dark, stumbles around. To understand what happened finally given so much relief!

We asked Dr. S__ what to do with a tear cord? His answer surprised Randy and me. He said that to rest for one or two years. I looked at Randy and he looked ... "The rest, what is that?" was the silent communication between them. And for how long?

Our lives were about to change again, so we always change. A brochure for a conference of healing came in the mail and we aim to make that day! A few weeks later headed to British Columbia with one goal in mind: complete healing of the backbone of Randy. It was our only hope!

Randy had made a promise and sealed it for not bringing enough pain medication for the weekend. He said: "If God did not cure me, only you can put me down!" The first day was really great, but not cure. The second day was wonderful, but like Randy stood in front of the speakers to receive prayer, which had to close the service and the emptiness of the building! The third day was daunting and Randy began to lose hope. It took about half a dozen of us to push forward for prayer. John Arnott, was the speaker and do not care to talk much as he wanted the chronic pain - especially those who had been in chronic pain for many years - to reach the front.

Finally Randy tug forward. He later admitted that he was not sure that fear was the greatest ... I was going to be healed or was not going to be healed! After all, a lot of people go to conferences of health and healing. And really, when you see people fall and claim to be cured, are cured or is it really a lot of excitement and hype, or worse? We were about to find out.

At the present time to healing was recorded on tape and then produced a DVD called "The miracles, the story of Randy McKenzie." I was there watching, but my husband was so short he could not see anything with all the people before me. Then suddenly John Arnott was wondering if anyone had come with Randy and so someone please come forward. Randy was stretching and bending, doing things that normally would have cut the muscles and tissues in the back, with all cables. My husband was crying and suddenly picked me up in his arms and began to spin around me! He always told me that when God healed him, the first thing I would do is pick me up in his arms, and he kept his promise!

From somewhere to my right, a voice saying, "Honey, is your husband back!"

Everyone fell like Randy and I held until the voice spoke again and said, "Well, I guess we'll just let them have their private moment here!" I looked for having buried my head on the shoulder of Randy and John Arnott was handing me a microphone. My God! I just said the first thing that came to mind because it was the sum total of all Randy and I had been praying about the last years.

And that's when our lives changed in an irreversible way, once again. Not only had God removed the pain of my husband, but when you put your hands on your back could feel the hands, whereas before it had seared so nervous that his back had become insensible. As if that were not enough, Randy was out of pain medication and could not do anything if he wanted ... This was literally his last chance. Slept for the first time that night - all night! And at no time suffered a symptom of withdrawal. Your doctor during follow-up after the conference, said he should have died suddenly just go recipes!

I do not know what surprised us most: the injury or healing. I think the cure. And that's when the leaders of the conference sent a film crew to our house and started filming a drama / documentary in our living room and local area. Really did not want to be part of the film and had no idea why anyone would shoot a normal family living in the desert and had almost all errors known to man. However, a little removed from the mountain, a sacred space, where the army of heaven had been witness, echoed a few sentences to me: "We will go where you want to go. Just want to touch the lives of the most injuries, mostly fractures, those in need ...." Therefore, said yes and just trusted in God.