Suzy623
Member
- Location
- Mobile, Alabama
My trials and tribulations as a child were nothing compared to my trials and tribulations as an adult. And, in looking back, the adult years were pleasant compared to the trials and tribulations I'm facing as a senior adult.
I was born 18 months after my brother and my sister was born 5 years after me. The three of us had a fairly normal childhood I guess. When I graduated high school I got married and moved about 2 hours away; my brother was drafted into the army and was in Germany; thankfully he wasn't sent to Vietnam. My sister was just entering high school. This will take forever.....fast forward 20 years.
My brother had 2 kids when he divorced and married his second wife. My sister had married but divorced within 2 years. She remarried and had 6 children (my brother referred to them as her 'litter'). I had 2 children and divorced. Then I married a man who became verbally abusive over time and continued to 'improve' on his abusiveness until I retired 6 years ago and left him. All of our children are adults now with children of their own and a few of our grands have children.
About 8 years ago, my brother was diagnosed with prostrate cancer. It was the first time anyone had to deal with cancer in my family so we were all distraught and worried and tied up in knots. He went to Johns Hopkins for surgery and everything looked okay afterwards. He went back to work and went on with his life. On his 2nd year of being cancer free they found a cancer in his thyroid. The thyroid cancer was treated and his 5 year follow-up showed him clear of cancer. The whole family thought we had survived the worst scare that would ever hit us. That pretty much sums it up and brings us to 5 years ago.
Five years ago my mother, who was 84 at the time, was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma. She underwent radiation but they were not able to radiate a spot on the back of her lungs but it went into regression. She had 1 more radiation treatment to finish the course when my father (also 84) had a stroke. I took mama for her last radiation treatment and from there to see my daddy in the hospital so she could show him her 'Certificate of Completion' for the course. Daddy was in the hospital for over a week and then went into rehab for 2 months. The day my brother was bringing daddy home, my sister in law, my niece, my sister and her 6 children were at the house and we were all waiting for the arrival. You wouldn't believe the noise around us with everyone trying to talk over everyone else and the grandkids running around adding their noise to everything. My sister got a phone call and when she was through she walked toward me and, as sisters are sometimes, I knew she had to tell me something so I walked toward her. She whispered that the doctor just told her she had cancer but not to tell anyone else until she could process it and find out more. My brother arrived with my mother and daddy and we all made more noise and laughed and enjoyed the time together. We were all happy that daddy had survived the stroke and only had a slight limp in one leg. But he had already been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and it was more noticeable after the stroke. Now I'm getting ahead of myself so let's back up a bit in time.
My sister had been having bad problems for 2-3 years with rashes that would turn into raised areas on her skin. She had several biopsies but none of them gave any indication to what was going on. The doctor treated it like a common skin disorder, with creams and such but kept sending her for different tests. I took my sister to one of her doctor appointments and I waited in the waiting room while she went in to see the doctor. She called me and said the doctor was talking cancer and she needed me there to hear what he was saying. The doctor said he had run every test he could think of and it comes down to cancer but he couldn't determine where the cancer was or what type it was. He assured us that we would get to the bottom of it and try not to worry until we had specifics to worry about and that he could be wrong. He said a lot of cancers are curable and it could be just a skin type. My sister had been seeing this doctor for several years and she liked him because he was blunt and upfront with her (neither one of us likes to hear BS from our doctors). He wanted to send her for one more biopsy.
Now we're back at my daddy's home coming and the phone call my sister received. Later that night she told me the dermatologist was the doctor who called and he named a cancer she had never heard of before and she couldn't even pronounce it. She had to be in his office the next day anytime before noon.
....next entry we'll cover a rare form of cancer and a liver transplant and may even get to a stem cell transplant......
I was born 18 months after my brother and my sister was born 5 years after me. The three of us had a fairly normal childhood I guess. When I graduated high school I got married and moved about 2 hours away; my brother was drafted into the army and was in Germany; thankfully he wasn't sent to Vietnam. My sister was just entering high school. This will take forever.....fast forward 20 years.
My brother had 2 kids when he divorced and married his second wife. My sister had married but divorced within 2 years. She remarried and had 6 children (my brother referred to them as her 'litter'). I had 2 children and divorced. Then I married a man who became verbally abusive over time and continued to 'improve' on his abusiveness until I retired 6 years ago and left him. All of our children are adults now with children of their own and a few of our grands have children.
About 8 years ago, my brother was diagnosed with prostrate cancer. It was the first time anyone had to deal with cancer in my family so we were all distraught and worried and tied up in knots. He went to Johns Hopkins for surgery and everything looked okay afterwards. He went back to work and went on with his life. On his 2nd year of being cancer free they found a cancer in his thyroid. The thyroid cancer was treated and his 5 year follow-up showed him clear of cancer. The whole family thought we had survived the worst scare that would ever hit us. That pretty much sums it up and brings us to 5 years ago.
Five years ago my mother, who was 84 at the time, was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma. She underwent radiation but they were not able to radiate a spot on the back of her lungs but it went into regression. She had 1 more radiation treatment to finish the course when my father (also 84) had a stroke. I took mama for her last radiation treatment and from there to see my daddy in the hospital so she could show him her 'Certificate of Completion' for the course. Daddy was in the hospital for over a week and then went into rehab for 2 months. The day my brother was bringing daddy home, my sister in law, my niece, my sister and her 6 children were at the house and we were all waiting for the arrival. You wouldn't believe the noise around us with everyone trying to talk over everyone else and the grandkids running around adding their noise to everything. My sister got a phone call and when she was through she walked toward me and, as sisters are sometimes, I knew she had to tell me something so I walked toward her. She whispered that the doctor just told her she had cancer but not to tell anyone else until she could process it and find out more. My brother arrived with my mother and daddy and we all made more noise and laughed and enjoyed the time together. We were all happy that daddy had survived the stroke and only had a slight limp in one leg. But he had already been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and it was more noticeable after the stroke. Now I'm getting ahead of myself so let's back up a bit in time.
My sister had been having bad problems for 2-3 years with rashes that would turn into raised areas on her skin. She had several biopsies but none of them gave any indication to what was going on. The doctor treated it like a common skin disorder, with creams and such but kept sending her for different tests. I took my sister to one of her doctor appointments and I waited in the waiting room while she went in to see the doctor. She called me and said the doctor was talking cancer and she needed me there to hear what he was saying. The doctor said he had run every test he could think of and it comes down to cancer but he couldn't determine where the cancer was or what type it was. He assured us that we would get to the bottom of it and try not to worry until we had specifics to worry about and that he could be wrong. He said a lot of cancers are curable and it could be just a skin type. My sister had been seeing this doctor for several years and she liked him because he was blunt and upfront with her (neither one of us likes to hear BS from our doctors). He wanted to send her for one more biopsy.
Now we're back at my daddy's home coming and the phone call my sister received. Later that night she told me the dermatologist was the doctor who called and he named a cancer she had never heard of before and she couldn't even pronounce it. She had to be in his office the next day anytime before noon.
....next entry we'll cover a rare form of cancer and a liver transplant and may even get to a stem cell transplant......