June 6, 2016
Gladys Holley has two black belts but she faced the fight of her life in knocking out a wound that would not heal.
“I was a fighter,” she says. “I could take pain. I’ve had a broken foot, hand, fingers and ribs. But this is the worst pain I’ve ever been though in my life.”
Her painful journey began in late 2014 when she found a knot under her arm that turned out to be cancer in her lymph nodes. Before long, she had 29 lymph nodes removed, a double mastectomy and nearly 30 radiation treatments.
In January a spot came up on her chest that turned out to be a staph infection requiring another surgery, which was done in Cullman, same as all her previous surgeries. For help in healing Holley turned to the Marshall Wound Healing Center, which required her to wear a wound vac for weeks. A wound vac applies negative pressure (a vacuum) at the wound site through a dressing, which helps draw the edges of the wound together and remove infectious materials.
“Mother, at one point, was in so much pain she was not sleeping and her personality changed,” says Holley’s daughter, Marlene Treece, a nurse at the Veterans Clinic in Guntersville. “It was unbearable to be around her. She was just in misery.”
When the wound vac was removed to allow the skin to heal on its own, it was determined that a skin graft was necessary. Having skin taken from her leg and applied to her chest left her with two wounds to heal. Holley once again had to use a wound vac to encourage tissue growth at her wound site. She also began a course of hyperbaric oxygen therapy at the Marshall Wound Healing Center to promote healing. The staff there came to know Holley very well when she came for her daily treatments. They realized Holley is a fighter in more ways than one.
“She always had a smile on her face,” says Sarah Smith, director of the Wound Healing Center. “She brightened our day.”
Belinda Howard, a certified registered hyperbaric nurse at the Wound Center, says Holley had a remarkable sense of humor. She even named her wound vac and said she looked forward to divorcing him.
“She always said, ‘Today is better than yesterday. I’m getting better,’” Howard recalls.
Holley, 63, who lives in Arab, believes her history of fighting has helped her survive the painful battle that is almost won. It also has strengthened her faith.
“A lot of people couldn’t have gone through what I went through,” she says. “It was God. If it hadn’t been for God, I wouldn’t have made it.”
Growing up poor, Holley recalls being picked on and called a ‘hillbilly’, which she says created the tough fighter she became.
“I just got mad at the world,” she recalls. “You had to be tough or die when I was coming up.”
So she quit school and went to work in a poultry plant. When she saw a newspaper ad for karate lessons she knew that’s what she wanted – to learn how to fight back.
“I thought, ‘I’m going to get into that and nobody’s going to pick on me anymore.’”
Holley excelled at karate, soon earned a black belt and started teaching. Ironically she taught in the same school gym where she had been bullied. She eventually taught lessons at the Arab Rec Center. She studied Tang Soo Do, a Korean martial art, and earned a black belt in that too.
“I tested with a broken foot,” she laughs.
The highlight of her fighting life was when she went to the Battle of Atlanta where she met martial artists turned screen stars Chuck Norris and Bill ‘Superfoot’ Wallace, who worked out with Holley.
“That was the greatest thing in the world that ever happened to me,” she says.
Holley won three championships before giving up karate after her husband died nine years ago.
“I just lost interest in everything,” she remembers.
She still works out in the hallway of her small apartment in Arab. Her kicks are impressive and her arm strikes and punches are fast.
Holley is grateful to the staff at the Wound Center, which she still visits weekly, for diligently working to help her heal. She also appreciates her daughter for changing the dressing on her wound every other day.
“I don’t know what I’d do without her,” she says. “And I’m thankful for my sweet nurses and good doctors.”
Treece says she is thankful that her mother’s suffering is almost over. She still tires easily and can’t do her own grocery shopping or attend church but she’s improving all the time. Treece calls her mother every day and does all she can for her.
“She’s getting there,” she says of Holley. “She’s on the mend. I love that little woman.”