The Chronicles of the P.K. Part 2 (Cancer rares its ugly head)

I spent the next few months watching my parents deal with this disease and try to maintain a normal family life. My parents would try their hardest to look and stay strong for all of us. I can remember hearing my mom cry about it when she thought no one could hear. A lot of my early memories of the first few months of his illness are fuzzy but a lot are clear even over 25 years later. Some I try to block out but come back strong. I find myself reliving some of it and the pain comes back. The doctors appointments and chemo treatments took up a lot of time with my parents. All the medicine and pain he had to endure to try to beat this horrible illness took its toll on Cory too. The chemo treatments would make him so sick. He would come home and head straight to the bathroom. Sometimes mom would keep a bucket in her car for him to throw up in. I can remember him getting sick and me running and hiding, plugging my ears so I couldn't hear it. To this day if I hear someone get sick it takes me back to that horrible time. I feel all that worry and pain come back on me.

I hated that he had to go through that, but it was to help him. The steroids he had to take had side effects on him too. They made his face swell and increase his appetite. Mom used to kid him and say he ate everything in site. That he would eat the decorative flowers off the plates if he could. It was light hearted humor towards him and he too thought it was funny. Most weekends I would go and stay with family members the whole weekend. I spent a lot of my weekends with my cousin Chris. In which he and I are still close and communicate quite frequently. My late grandmother stayed with us a lot to take care of us. Mom was gone a lot and dad was working so everyone pitched in. I can remember my Granny cooking us supper a lot and bring to us at night. Beans and cornbread was eaten more then I cared for back then. But I'm glad to say I'm thankful for that and the people who stepped up to take care of us while my parents took care of my brother. With all the treatment he endured things looked up and Cory was showing signs of improvement. I remember when dad stood up in church at Mt. Pleasant and said Cory was in remission and how thankful we all were. Little did we know that our good news would be short lived. Back to the life of sharing my family with doctors and hospitals would return... To be continued