Feature Article on Amy Y. Martin

Published Sunday, May 25, 2008
Amy Yost Martin chronicles her battles to survive: Never give up
By Lindsay LancasterTimes-Staff News Writer

You never would have guessed that Amy Yost (now Martin), an athletic, popular 1987 Hendersonville High graduate and homecoming queen, would have to fight to survive health problems just as she started college at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

Now a 38-year-old mother of two, Martin has written a book about her challenging experiences called "Living to Tell About it: A Pursuit of Normalcy." In chronological order, the book starts out with her first challenge: She suffered a stroke at age 19 as she was getting out of a pool. A short time later, she faced an auto accident, which left her fighting to live. Doctors induced a coma. Martin wasn't brought back to consciousness until about a month later.

Next challenge: She spent seven months at Thoms Rehabilitation Hospital in Asheville to re-learn how to speak and regain her motor skills. She had to learn how to write with her left hand because of the extent of the accident injuries to her right side. But the nightmare most certainly didn't end there.

Colon cancer ran in her family, and she faced a partial colectomy at age 20. When she was 26, she learned she had Graves disease. At 28, she had to have a full colectomy, but suffered major complications, including a MRSA infection (a strain of staph infection that is extremely resistant to antibiotics).

Surgeries didn't stop there. She had two C-Section surgeries to birth her two sons (Christopher, now 5, and Micheal, now 2) at age 33 and 36. Next she needed ankle surgery at 34 and gallbladder surgery at 37.It's hard to imagine one person enduring so many challenges so young - and surviving. Martin can't explain how she got through it all."I don't know. Maybe it's just inner strength," she says. "I've always kind of been a self-motivated kind of person. ... I've learned from myself that I am an extremely strong person. I'm not somebody who will crumble at something."

A tally of the surgeries/illnesses Martin has faced: Exploratory surgery and physical therapy at 19; partial colectomy at 20; Graves Disease at 26; full colectomy, MRSA and takedown surgery to complete the colectomy process at 28; C-section at 33; ankle surgeries at 34; C-section at 36; and gallbladder surgery at 37. Part of getting through it all may be related to the fact that Martin never asked, "Why is this happening to me?" "That never entered my mind. I can remember thinking, just because I've had this happen, doesn't mean that something else isn't going to happen," she says.

Her experiences with physical therapy, especially at Thoms Rehabilitation Hospital, ultimately led her to want to help others the way they have helped her for so many years. After her car accident, Martin longed to return to a "normal" life as she watched former classmates earn their degrees and progress through life."I was really frustrated because I didn't have a goal, or even any idea of what to do," she says, explaining that by this time, many of her friends were already getting their college degrees. "Through my own therapy, I feel like I developed a bond with my physical therapists."After seeing a career counselor and taking tests to determine her interests, "I decided that getting an associate's degree in physical therapy would be the way for me to go," she says.

After beginning her career in physical therapy, she met the man she would marry, Tim Martin, and tied the knot in 1995.When she had been working in physical therapy for about seven years, she and Tim looked into opening a non-medical home care service, where clients could be helped with cleaning, meals, hygiene assistance and shopping, among other services."I had never heard of this kind of service," Martin says. "I just knew it would work."They opened a franchise called Visiting Angels and haven't looked back. And the business is a success.

To this day, Martin is still affected by health issues. She still has a slight case of double vision that gives her trouble when staring at the computer screen or reading a book. Her left ankle still gives her trouble. And she has arthritis in her right knee and hip. But she still hits the gym two to three days a week. Martin feels as though exercise might have aided her recovery. "It kind of has re-taught my body normal movement," she says. It has been trying for Martin because she can't do all of the activities that she used to enjoy, such as running or swimming. She is deaf in her left ear, which makes it difficult to hear in certain situations.But these obstacles haven't stopped her from enjoying life or doing things many people shudder at the thought of doing.

In fact, in 1994, Martin did something the vast majority of the population hasn't tried. She went skydiving from a small plane at 12,500 feet altitude with a fellow physical therapist."It was really unbelievable. It all seemed very surreal but it was great!" she says. "I'm glad I did it!"

Though she doesn't feel like she will ever truly be "normal," she has always maintained a positive outlook on life."It's almost eerie in a way, like there's a guardian angel, or somebody directing my life in the ways that it's gone, and for years I've felt that way," she says sincerely. "I have a very blessed life.""Living to Tell About It: The Pursuit of Normalcy," published by LuLu.com, is a quick read and you won't want to put it down. It details her story from high school on, chronicling her ups and downs, experiences and relationships.

Martin really decided to write about her life when she went to her 20th high school reunion last year. Although she had given thought to writing her story before, it was after former classmate and valedictorian Furman McDonald, who is now a doctor at the Mayo Clinic, encouraged her to put a book together.

"I guess his approval made me kind of feel that maybe it is worth writing a book," Martin says. She and her husband looked for writing services online and contacted Writers in the Sky, based in Nashville, Tenn. Working with the agency, Martin began the book in November 2007 and finished four months later in March."Unfortunately, we weren't able to really go into a lot of detail about every incident," Martin says. "There was just so much that happened, we couldn't do much more than just touch on things."

After reading Martin's book, friend and fellow HHS graduate Karen Lewis was inspired to begin writing a screenplay about Martin's life. Although Lewis had heard about the beginning of Martin's health problems, she didn't realize how much more happened in Martin's life until she read the book."When I read the book, I was just taken with the story," Lewis says. Now she is about 30 pages into the screenplay. "The way I've done it so far is starting off where she did in the book while she was in college, but then doing flashbacks in high school to kind of set the stage for the person she was to kind of make people understand how her life really has changed."

Martin offers a tidbit of advice for prevailing despite numerous challenges. She says: "When you're faced with what you feel like is an insurmountable obstacle, ... persevere, and know that whatever situation it is you're in or whatever you're doing, it will go away - it'll pass. The sun always comes up tomorrow."The book is available for purchase online at Barnes & Noble, Amazon and www.lulu.com/content/2193894. The video trailer for the book can be found at http://youtube.com/watch?v=icJTWmtpWDI. To see Martin's blog, visit www.amy-y-martin.blogspot.com.