My Rock

-
Sometimes the lemons seem to be just too sour to swallow, and there's just not enough sugar to sweeten it. The last few months have been that way for my husband and I. We are doing our best to keep the information flow to our seven-year-old boy at a trickle, but also not leave him in the dark; it's been a tricky balancing act.

In August, a bomb went off in our lives. Keith's ALL Leukemia roared back into our lives in the form of relapse. There have been far too many moments over the past four months, where I thought I was losing him. These moments I would like to forget, but they have helped me navigate my terror too.
We have also had some good moments. Some seemingly stolen hours together we might not have had before, moments in and out of the hospital that for just that time, we forgot what we were facing and merely lived it together, enjoying each other in as normal of a way as we can. After just one round of Chemotherapy, Keith achieved remission, and the doctors began preparing us for the next hurdle, a Bone Marrow Transplant. Keith's brothers are both half matches, and the middle one was chosen by his doctor as the best candidate, and we are moving forward for a transplant date towards the middle of this month.

After all, we have been through, Keith has been the best. He's endured 4 rounds of Chemo, 2 bouts of sepsis, over two months inpatient, and countless pricks, IVs, and procedures. Thorugh it all he hasn't complained, he just rolls with it and does it all with a smile. Keith has been there for me in my fears and my anxieties. He is as always (even though he's the one facing it all) my rock.

I have loved this man for 10+ years and been his wife for 10 wonderful years, and he's always been there, always willing to help and fixing or finding solutions to whatever is in front of us. Whether it was work, school, infertility, adoption, pets, mortgages, debts, etc. This man never batted an eye but faced it all with grace and a willingness to do all he could to get us through it.

And I am terrified for the next stage in his battle. I am afraid of the countless percentages the doctors throw out there as if that should alleviate my deepest fears, but I'm not a scientist, I'm a liberal art major, and all I can think is what if...

I don't know what to do. I don't want to burden him with my fears about the bone marrow transplant, I don't want him to have any doubts or anxiety. I just wish and pray that everything will be fine. I am calling on anyone who might read this to please lift Keith up in prayer, pray for healing and speedy recovery without complications. I love this man with every fiber of my being, and our story is not over yet. We have so much left to do, Liam needs his Daddy, and Keith is not ready to join the Almighty just yet.

Please pray for Keith.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HIUS 713-Blog Discussion Thread: Growth in the Post Bellum Economy

-
Image
              The Postbellum American Economy was an irregular period of growth and change, both in the workforce and industry. The experience of American women in the workforce has always been diverse, generally drawing a stringent line between single women and their married counterparts. During a period of intellectual upheavals with the ending of the Civil War, the reforms of the Reconstruction period, changes in American Christendom, and the rising issues of African Americans seeking equality now that freedom had been gained. Often this line was drawn in as a means of defining one’s properness, stemming from “their health, their morals, and the sufficiency of the pay of those living away from home.” [1]   Claudia Goldin states that it was indeed the actions and labor of single women that “shaped female labor force from 1870 to 1920.” [2] From Goldin’s Table: Labor Force Participation Rates of Single Women, 1890 , we...
Read more

Widow

-
Image
Even now, just over four months in, the word widow seems foreign. The first time I used it to describe myself, I cried on the phone to a stranger at the VA. Keith was a central part of my world, and now that world seems smaller and less grand. That world was unbearable in those first few days, but in time, I have learned to manage and carry that pain with me.  Amy & Keith The first days were some of the most challenging days of my life. Without Keith in the world, I could not focus, eat, or understand what was happening and how it was happening. Planning his funeral was one of the worst days. I could not wrap my mind around what I was doing and why. I could not bring myself to the realization that this was happening to us. And still, all I could worry about was Liam and how this affected him.  Now it seems like everyone I know affected by his death is getting back to "normalcy," and we are still back at the beginning, trying to figure it all out. It is strange to suddenly...
Read more

Strother West Roberts (1842-1897)

-
Image
My third Great Grandfather, Strother West Roberts, was born on November 1, 1842, in Blaine, Kentucky, the heart of Eastern Kentucky, to John C. and Esther (Abbott) Roberts. Strother’s younger brother, Reuben C. Roberts, was born the following year on April 9, 1844; three more younger brothers and a sister joined the family. Two siblings, including his only sister Martha, died before Strother was ten years old. By the age of Nineteen, the United States had broken down into the Civil War. Both Strother and his younger brother Rueben were enlisted into the Union Army into the 14 th Kentucky Regiment, Company G, at Camp Wallace in Lawrence County, Kentucky. [1] The Union’s 14 th Kentucky Infantry Regiment of the Civil War was a highly accomplished and engaged unit throughout the intense years of the American Civil War. In its three-year tenure, the unit engaged in many battles from their home city of Louisa, Kentucky, to distant battlefields in Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia. Stro...
Read more