"My life is a country song"........

"MOM, I'M OKAY!"

The "V" is where they cut to gain access

This USED to be a battery

Well, as great as yesterday was for Zack, who spent the entire weekend with friends, running around, driving his car and being a typical soon to be 17 year old (This Sunday is his Birthday). Today was just the opposite.

Thank God he is okay. Zack called me at work this morning asking if he could drive to get some breakfast (nope didn't make it to the store yesterday either, shooting for tomorrow). On his way to town he noticed white "smoke" coming from under the hood. As the car started to stall, he was able to pull over into the closest driveway. He thought the smoke was steam or perhaps oil that was on the motor. He tried to restart the car again, and all of a sudden noticed the '"steam" turning black. He jumped out of the car, went to the hood where the center was already scorched. He slowly lifted the hood thinking it was a small localized fire that he would be able to control. Once he did so he saw the flames all over the entire motor and slammed the hood down. While running to the house where he had parked he called 911 and knocked on the door to see if they could get him water, no answer, so he turned around and decided that he better get further away from the car. His fear was the car exploding since he just filled the gas tank.  He ran to a nearby church and waited until the Fire Department showed up.  As you can see by the pictures, the had to cut into the hood with their special saw to get the hose close enough to put the fire out.  

This USED to be the motor

He called Frank as he didn't want to bother me at work, (even through all of this, he was STILL thinking about someone else!). Once things settled down and it was time to get the tow truck, Zack called me at work, he says the three words every parent is glad they hear and yet fear "Mom, I'm OK." He explains what happened, he is crying and angry at the same time. He tells me Frank is really angry that this happened to him. Frank then calls me to get a tow truck, since we have AAA I immediately call them and then the insurance company. Luckily I had obtained Comprehensive which covers fire. We are not sure yet what they are going to offer for the car, but we are advised from our agent to get all of the receipts together of all the improvements. It's almost time for me to leave work, but I ask Zack if he needs to me to come there or home right away. He says "No, we'll wait for the tow truck, have the car brought home, I'll see you when you get off work."

They get the car home, Frank heads back to work promising Zack everything will work out. Frank is very angry. He is done with things like this happening to our son and not having control over any of it. Zack get ready for me to pick him up for afternoon appointments. I call him around ten minutes before I leave work so that he is ready to go grab lunch. No answer, No answer at home (after three times),  Every call on his cell goes straight to voice mail! Doc Nancy sees that I am freaking out, she tells me to go go go... "call and let me know he's okay." I run out the door, drive as fast as I can, arrive home, run inside and nothing, no one. "Zack, Zack!!!", I run to the front porch "Zack?, ZACK WHERE ARE YOU??????" still nothing. The dog looks at me as if I am crazy. I run back to my car and snap it into reverse, I decide it is faster to drive to the neighbors house and pray he is there, while backing up the drive I see him running towards me waving his hands. I pull back down the drive, jump out of the car and he runs to me and says "I was at Raz' house."  I look at him and as he walks up to give me a hug I start to sob, I mean every tear I have held in for a month!!!  He says "oh Mom, I'm sorry, my phone died and I went to Raz to tell him I'm not painting my car, I emailed my teacher already and told her the Senior project would be different too, I didn't mean to worry you." Here he stands all composed and I'm falling apart! I look at him and remind him how damn proud I am of him and how he handled everything.

He then shows me the car and calmly tells me everything that happened. It's a miracle he didn't get burned opening the hood. I now realize that for the past two nights I have not been able to sleep. I would wake up with this sense of "doom" and couldn't figure it out. I even saw him in my dream driving the car and something happening, but couldn't make out the details. The minute I got the call the feeling was gone. 

We head out to the Cardiologist and Cancer Center. Zack must have a EKG and Echo today to make sure his heart is doing well. One of the treatments (actually tomorrow's) can possibly do some damage so they monitor it closely. The tech tells us that she can't tell us what she sees, but assures us that "I'm not making any emergency calls!" We are pleased, for lack of better words, and head out to the Center. Once there the usual routine begins. This time the lab work to determine if his count is well enough for the next treatment. Within the hour we are told that everything looks good, they do not yet have the report back from the cardiologist, we tell Julia what the tech told us, so she says "oh, well it's probably okay then, they will send us the report in the morning. Be here at 8 am!

As we head out, Zack starts to liven up a little bit. We stop by Biltmore House Guest Services to see my sister. We fill her in on all the latest. She offers to bring us lunch tomorrow while at the clinic. Something to look forward to. As we continue our drive home, Zack starts to make up a country song. He says his life has become a Country song. I can't even remember the words he and I came up with, but we were laughing so hard he almost spewed his drink all over my car. It felt so good to laugh, his mood got better and he started talking about the next steps. 

The one thing this kid has learned and been taught is, "life can throw a bunch of crap at you, but you can survive and know that something better is around the corner." It always has been for our family, so why wouldn't it be. 

Tomorrow is another day. We are on course with his treatments which means we start month three!