Tami Martinez: Me again

Tami Martinez is one of those people who's just glad to be alive.

Every day, she's thankful for her husband, her children, her friends, her job and her health.

Because nine years ago, she almost lost it all.

Some thought she did.

On one Web site about her 25th high school reunion, someone posted she had died.

"I was like, 'Oh no. I'm very much alive,'" Martinez said with a laugh.

It was 2001 when the Post Falls woman contracted a type of West Nile virus that left her fighting for her life. She had to learn to walk and talk again. At times, she couldn't remember her children. There were days she confused days and nights.

But she never quit trying.

"I just persevered through," the 47-year-old said. "If I knew from beginning to end what I'd have to do, I'd have probably curled up and died."

She still has her moments, things still don't click as they once did, but for the most part, she's back.

"There's been huge progress in the past couple of years," Martinez said.

Starting with her job.

"I love what I do. I love graphic design. I like creating visual things," said Martinez, owner of Mallaurcott Design, which is named after her three children, Mallory, Lauren and Scott.

"My whole goal is to help businesses be the best they can be," she said. "I'm very good at what I do. I know I bring some different pieces to the table than your bigger ad agencies or people that have been in the business for many years because of my experience."

The Post Falls woman, who married Gene Gertson on July 4, is on the Post Falls chamber board of directors, Post Falls Park & Rec. Commission and has served many nonprofits over the years.

"I think the reason I've been involved with so many nonprofit groups is because of my story," she said.

The future, once bleak, is bright.

She wants to expand her business. She wants to learn to ski, to bike again. She wants to spend time with her husband and her kids and cheer for son, Scott, today 18 and a member of the U.S. men's in-line speed skating team. (Lauren is 23 and recently married, Mallory is 15 and has been the center of my recovery - very accepting human being and she's my baby.)

Really, she says, she just wants to focus on life's simple things.

"I'm enjoying being content with what we have," she said.

One more thing.

Martinez has moved 42 times in her life. No more.

"Post Falls feels more like home than any place else in my life," she said.

•••

What happened with your health that almost killed you in 2001?

It's one of the things where they're not 100 percent sure. I wasn't feeling well, I just signed on with the speakers bureau as a national public speaker on education curriculum that I wrote. I had 11 conferences I was starting with Cortland University in New York and working with Dr. Thomas Lacona, I wasn't feeling very well, the weekend before. Turns out I just had flu-like symptoms and went into Kootenai Medical and everyone kind of had the flu. They said go ahead and go on your trip. If you're not feeling better, come on back.

What I didn't realize was I had a brain infection. I had encephalitis. By the time we landed in Buffalo I was pretty disorientated. And so the airlines actually had to take me off the plane and figure out what to do with me. I didn't know who I was or where I was. And Cortland University thought all the speakers were coming in the next day so there was no one there to meet me so I was kind of stranded and ended up at the community hospital. My speaker partner, Anne Price, found out where I was, came and was with me. They sent me to Syracuse University, just trying to diagnose why I was so ill.

My doctor here, Dr. Sturges, was in correspondence with Syracuse for a few weeks until they were able to get me home. That was in June. It wasn't until September that the Centers for Disease control diagnosed me with West Nile type virus.

So the cabin pressure of flying with all this brain infection is pretty much what did most of the damage.

How did you get West Nile virus?

They said it was a mosquito bite. We really don't know.

I've heard of about half a dozen people here locally, children to adults, who were sick with that type of virus at the same time who had different results, some just cognitive memory issues, that type of thing.

Mine was pretty severe. I had to learn to walk and talk and read, drive and parent, I had to get to know my children again. My earliest memory of them, they were real young and yet they were pre-teen and upper grade school level when this happened.

It's been a long process.

What did you go through?

When they brought me back from Syracuse University Hospital, I went into Kootenai Medical Center. They kind of floated me around. I don't remember how long I was there, maybe a couple weeks, then I qualified to go into the rehab center because it looked like I was going to make it through. So I spent several weeks in the rehab center. It's interesting, they have a horticultural garden outside the cafeteria, and I learned to walk again in there. It's the coolest thing. They call it the secret garden. If you fast-forward I just got married this year in that garden. I had two life-changing experiences at KMC.

How was your recovery?

I had in-home nurses who came in once a week. I had in-home physical therapy for several months, several times a week, then I had to go through vocational rehabilitation. I'm a huge advocate for North Idaho Vocational Rehabilitation. I kept thinking, I'll get better but would not necessarily know my caseworker from week to week. I would introduce myself, we would go through the whole thing again because my short term memory was so poor.

I had difficulty with light, I had difficulty with sound, I was very hyper-sensitive neurologically.

Funny stories from my kids. I would wake them up at 9 o'clock at night thinking it was 9 o'clock in the morning thinking they were late for school. I couldn't even comprehend day time, night time.

Windows were mirrors, mirrors were windows. I was just pretty dysfunctional during that time. My voc rehab counselor said, 'Let's see if we can set her up in her own business. Maybe she can work out of her home a couple hours a week.'

Small business development center got involved, taught me how to write a business plan. It just kind of unfolded.

What about your return to trade school?

I had six really great instructors. Two were really quite curious who this person was coming into class, who doesn't speak to anybody, who just wears sunglasses all day, is just like a sponge and learning everything. They went to the owner of the trade school and said, 'You need to come watch this woman because she's not a production artist, she's a visual artist. We think we can teach her more and we are willing to switch her program. We just want to help her.' Idaho Voc Rehab agreed and so, I was certified in 43 different levels of commercial graphic design.

How did things go when you finished school?

It was like 'Now what do we do with her' because I couldn't work normal hours. It was kind of interesting. I could work a couple hours, then all the sudden I might be overloaded and have to sleep. I had no concept of time.

How much can you work now?

I work at least 40 hours a week. I have over 300 local clients and 10 national larger account clients. It's just been amazing, one step after another. Some of my memories are coming back. Sometimes, I remember the most obscure things. Very unusual experiences where I've repeated a memory that wasn't even mine. It might have been a conversation I overheard from someone else and somehow my brain adopted it as its own. But overall, I'm very functional now.

Would you say you are back to your old self?

The moment for me was when I was introduced to Dr. Miller, he is the head of North Idaho Behavioral Health, just to kind of help me put some pieces together because I felt like was pretty lost and not getting back to where I was. After hitting bottom, you kind of go through almost post-traumatic syndrome during that time. You'll have feelings you don't know where they come from. I was trying to determine what's real and not real, regarding who I was. Dr. Miller told me once, 'I just want you to know, you're OK with where you are.'

It was kind of like getting permission to be OK with where I was at. I'm OK that I may not have good balance for the rest of my life. I'm OK that sometimes I forget. I'm

OK with accepting where I'm at and knowing now where I'm going. It kind of allowed me to shed the past and just move forward.

Did your faith play a role in your recovery?

When I was in the hospital at Syracuse, they considered me unresponsive for several days. I had just about every needle, poke, brain scan, three spinal taps, they even took fluid from the base of my skull. It was more than uncomfortable. I could hear everything, but I was legally blind for eight weeks. I couldn't really see too much in front of me, so I kept my eyes closed most of the time, it was hard. But I was aware of what and who was around me by smell and hearing people's conversations. Syracuse University Hospital is a teaching hospital. I could tell which intern groups would come in. But I couldn't speak. By the time I could think of a response and get the energy up to it up to my mouth, I was aware so much time had passed it might be a different group of people that were in there. I could hear them debating what was wrong, what they thought was wrong.

This one doctor, he would reach down and he would hold my hand. I was not responding, but I was always looking forward to him coming to my room because I felt like he knew I was there. So I was reasoning that whole time even though they said, 'We're not sure she's going to survive.'

So you could hear it, but couldn't react?

I remembered all the conversations and thought, 'OK God, this sounds bad. It doesn't feel like it's going to be this bad, but if it is, send me a support system of people to get through.'

I never questioned why, ever. A friend of mine, Jody, came to bring me home. She flew to New York, had to stay four or five days just to get me through physical therapy to learn how to take me from an airline wheelchair to a seat. When she came into the room, I remember her coming and I knew it was her. I knew this was good, it's going to be OK.

My first memory is of her coming into the room and putting headsets on me and playing music, and it was the song, 'It is well with my soul.' I thought, 'Right on, that's where I'm at. I'm OK with this God. I don't have the strength to do it myself. Send me a support system. My faith has blown away any little box I've put God in. It's just been a really amazing journey.

Is your faith stronger because of what happened to you?

It validates everything I've always known to be true.

What role has God had in your life?

I don't walk around with a fish on my car or put Christian symbols on my work. I guess this is how I put it; I grew up in a church environment, where you have your horizontal relationships, your Bible studies, and I've always been kind of the odd one that just focused on my vertical relationship, that was between me and God. I have failed many times in my life, in my walk, many, many regrets, but that's kind of what forgiveness is about.

How are you feeling about life?

My physical therapist at the time told me I was a great faker. I don't have any feelings in the pads of my fingers or the pads of my toes. My handwriting is horrible now. I still have some vertigo issues, but I handle them pretty well. It used to be daily, now it's like maybe a couple times a month.

I'm fortunate. I met a woman who was about 5 years older than me who went through the same thing, she was sharing her testimony with a group. She has lost her hearing. She walks with a walker. Really, she's crippled. But she's sharing her testimony about how great God was.

It's like our stories were identical, but to look at me from the outside it appears I've had a full recovery. I'm just very blessed in that regard. As far as my cognitive being, I feel like the slates been wiped clean. I have a clean pallet to be and accept who I am. It's so much easier to navigate life in honesty and truthfulness. That's a reputation I've earned without knowing it, just putting things out there and being pretty transparent about who I am. I'm feeling great about life and everything that is ahead of me.

Date of birth: Sept. 10, 1962

Family: Husband Gene Gertson, three children plus two stepdaughters (Mariah and Nicole).

Number of hours on average you work in a week: 40

Number of hours on average you sleep in a night: 6.5

Hobbies: Cooking, politics

Favorite movie: "The Notebook"

Favorite book: "The Shack"

Favorite author: Thomas Jefferson

Favorite spectator sport: Speed skating

Favorite type of music: Indie

Best advice you ever received: Sometimes you have to let go of the good to be able to receive the great.

Quality you admire most in a person: Honesty

Any one person who most influenced your life: There's a collective group of people who have influenced my life. I have been very fortunate and blessed to have fabulous people in my life.