I lost my dad when I was seventeen in a over-turned open cab tractor accident, me my mom & my first cousin was in the field w/him when it happened what was so bad for my mom was she lost her real dad when she was three in the same way. My husband & I (just married) took over the farm b/c my mom moved to shreveport she just needed to get away from the whole place. Mother nature had other plans for us, we had lost a crop to torrential rain & the crop insurance place said we didn't qualify-just over the limit (crooks) then sent us a bill for 9000.00, we had been barely keeping ourselves in & out the red. We had one son that was three & one that was 5 months old- I'll never forget that winter we alternated deer sausage & pork sausage every night. I still cannot stomach deer sausage to this day. Then when my son was four I picked him up from daycare & when I got him home I was cooking supper & he was crying at my feet- I noticed one side of his face was showing the crying emotion & one side was not, he had been bruising easy but you think hey that's little boys, I called our ped. that night & we had a doctor app the next day I had to work so my hubbie took him in & I met them for lunch my dh said the dr said it was bells palsy from a bad ear inf. (made sense we were on 2nd set of tubes) but thought he was anemic so did blood test then I got a phone call at work at three that afternoon he said he thought it was leaukemia I pretty much blacked out he said they were waiting for us in jackson, ms & to go right now. The whole way we convinced ourselves it was a mistake we saw doctors that whole night until 4 in the morning by 9 the next day we knew he had leaukemia & it was type AML lvl 2 the type most common in adults thank god a friend convinced us to go to st. judes which we did, b/c of his type he had to have a bone marrow transplant the first one he went through rounds of treatment & then got his own marrow back (we were there 7 months) the prob w/that is dormant cells are in their marrow (they do not do this type transplant anymore) & they relapse, his b-day is april 18th & we spent it at walt disney for his make wish trip I was five months preg w/baby three (also having prob cause after sonogram they said the baby had choroid plexus on his head which went away but b/c of where it was located on his head at time said poss sign of down syndrome-I know what else) but I had to put that out of my mind b/c two weeks after make wish trip my son relapsed this time we did a transplant from his brother who was only two months away from turning 2 yrs old but they were a six out of six match (can't do any better than that) that was prob the worst of the worst-total body radiation it was very tough when a doc tells you they are going to bring your child to deaths door only to snatch him back & you have to sign this paper for them to do it (ok I'm gonna have to wrap this up I'm crying, didn't realize I needed to do this today
I had to find a doc up there which he was wonderful & my third son was born in memphis very healthy & no down's we were there that time for 8 months & got to come home, to which the farm was bust & we had to take bankruptcy. There is a happy ending here-My son now is a happy healthy 16 year old, we have growth issues (he has taken the pro-tropin shots but he still is very tiny for his age) but we can handle that & finally last year st judes only see us once a year. The doctors & st jude are a gift from god & I thank them every day, I know we wouldn't have had the same outcome if we would have stayed in jackson. I still keep the teddybear someone gave us from when we were in memphis in my bedroom & when I think I'm having a bad day & I see that bear I know things have been a whole lot worse.