By mid summer things were getting a little more organized. The kids were out of school and the older ones were a big help with the babies. Mom was here as much as she could be. Christian had taken to Heidi loving all the attention she gave him and Joey stuck with me until Mom came over of course. Jacob on the other hand had become very attached to Uncle Dave and Grandma Hanson. Everything was going pretty darn smooth considering we now had 11 kids. That year on my Mom's birthday we had given her a trip to Oklahoma to visit my cousin and his family. In September she decided to go. It was during that time the Twin Towers had been attacked and she had to stay 5 days longer than expected. She called me a few times saying she just wanted to come home she didn't feel well.
The night she arrived home I picked her up at the airport and took her to her apartment she was glad to be back. A few hours later she called to say she was having trouble breathing. I called my sister to take her to the hospital and told her to keep me informed. Having already had a heart attack and stint we were sure it had something to do with her heart. Imagine my surprise when my sister Lori called me a 3 a.m. hysterically crying. Some sad excuse for a doctor with absolutely no bed side manners walked in said it appears you have leukemia and walked out. Well I said bullshit, when in actuality I wanted to say no way God would not do this to me again. They admitted her that evening and told her they would have to do a bone marrow test the next day. If that were positive they would surgically implant a port so they could start chemotherapy. I was at the hospital with her when they did the bone marrow test. Anyone who knew my mother knew she was a very strong person, but when they slammed those big bore needles into her hip bones she buried her face in her pillow and screamed. I wanted to knock the snot out of that doctor. Why didn't he sedate her? What a heartless bastard. Well the marrow was positive so they implanted a port and her chemo began.
Knowing how sick chemo makes a person I told my brothers and sisters she could not live alone anymore. I was the only one of us kids that didn't work so I told Mom she had to live with me. She pretended to not like the situation but I knew she was happy. My girls doubled up, what we could fit in the room came here and everything else went to storage. Two week later Mom came home from the hospital.
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