2010 - A Year in Retrospect (PART 2)

My mom & me at the Anderson Summer Gathering

Not long after we got back home from Florida, trouble struck again.  My mom’s Fort Wayne oncologist, Dr. Nattam, sent her to Mayo Clinic for evaluation.  The world’s leading expert in Multiple Myeloma is on staff at Mayo.  While going through the process of harvesting stem cells for a stem cell transplant, my mom became very ill.  The doctors told my dad that it was a reaction to one of the medications used to stimulate production of stem cells.  She received several of these shots prior to the stem cell harvesting (where they essentially drill a hole into your hip bone & use a syringe to suck out the cells), & of course they seldom have had anyone react to the shots.  They had never dealt with a patient quite like my mom.   Because they believed her severe pain, nausea & vomiting was all related to the shots, they sent her home (a 12 hour trip!) to recover.  That proved to be a mistake.  She wasn’t home for 2 days before she was in the ER @ Parkview.  She was so sick, & my dad didn’t know what to do to help her.  They admitted her & found that she had a mass growing in her abdomen, near her left kidney.  They began radiation therapy to shrink the mass, but after one treatment decided to return her via ambulance to Mayo Clinic for further treatment.  And so began the first of several treks to Rochester, Minnesota.  My mom spent a large portion of 2010 in the Mayo Clinic (St. Mary’s Hospital to be specific).  February to early March; Mid-March to the end of May.  Things became even more complicated because while doing the radiation, the laser burned part of her intestine, & that caused her to become severely nauseous & she vomited several times an hour.  She could hardly keep anything down, & she was dropping weight too fast.  She hated being cooped up in that hospital room, but because of the stem cell transplant she had to be very cautious about germs.  I remember the first time she was allowed to go outside.  My dad had gone to the hotel to shower, so Connie & I got her in a wheel chair, covered her up with several blankets, put a hat on her & took her to the great outdoors!  It was a mildly windy Spring day with the sun shining brilliantly & staggered clouds gently floating by.  She just soaked the beauty in!  We were heading around the corner to go back into the hospital when we saw my dad walking out of the parking garage.  We yelled, “Father!”  Nothing.  “Bob Anderson!”  Nothing.  Finally my mom mustered up enough strength & yelled as loud as she could (cancer took her yelling ability away!), “Bunny!”  Boy, his head whipped around so fast it’s a wonder the orbit of the Earth didn’t shift!  He knew that voice, & he couldn’t believe that she was outside!  That was a beautiful day. 

On May 23rd, she was finally released to go home following her stem cell transplant.  She was only home for one day & ended up back as an in-patient at Parkview for another week+.  Her electrolytes were really out of whack & she was vomiting to excess again.  She was discharged from Parkview on June 4th, the day of Isaac’s graduation.  That was the last time she was in a hospital.  We didn’t think it would be her last time ever because her stem cell transplant worked & she was free of cancer cells.  She had a new lease on life!  A second birth, so to speak.  We fully believed God had healed her & she would be with us for a little while longer.  Little did we know what was coming.

Lets back up to March.  God provided for us in an unusual way.  In April, 2008, I was forced to stop working at Dupont Hospital as a Unit Tech (I LOVED my job at Dupont!) because of my neck & back.  They had been a painful issue for years because of structural defects in throughout my whole spine.  All of the lifting, pushing, pulling, etc. that I did with my job caused severe pain in my back & neck.  The pain got to be too much for me, which is why I was forced to stop working.  I immediately started the application process for disability.  Applying for disability is a long process, & an endeavor not to attempt without the help of an attorney.  After being denied twice, I finally had a hearing before an administrative law judge on March 18th.  That was my final chance at disability designation.  I must have looked like a train wreck that day, because in a highly uncharacteristic move, the Judge ruled from the bench that I was to be granted disability status!  She, as well as my attorney, stated that she NEVER does that!  God moves the heart of the king (and the judge) wherever He choses!  Because of her ruling, I became eligible for Medicare coverage in October.  I also began to receive a modest monthly check from Social Security, which helped with our financial issues.

In early June our son Isaac graduated from Lakewood Park Christian School.  Three down, two to go!  My nephew Alec also graduated in 2010, from my alma mater, Leo High School.  We had back-to-back parties for Alec & Isaac - Alec’s from 1 to 4 & Isaac’s from 4 to ??.  My mom was able to come to each party for a short while, which made both Isaac & Alec very happy.  Later in June Bob & I visited the University of Southern Indiana with Isaac, where he decided to attend.  The following weekend we had a huge celebration for my mom’s 65th birthday!  Never have we been so happy for her to grow a year older!  Cancer teaches you to cherish the little milestones.

July 7th was our 25th Anniversary!  It is so hard to believe it’s been that long that we’ve been married.  Not like it’s been bad or anything!  It’s just that it doesn’t seem like it’s been 25 years.  So many things have happened in those years.  God has been faithful in every moment, & whether we have had good times or hard times, He has always seen us through.  Poor Bob didn’t realize that we our marriage would be tested by sickness instead of health, & for poorer rather than for richer!  I can honestly say that I love Bob more today than I ever imagined I could 25 years ago.  This was our first anniversary in unemployment, though, which made our dream of spending it in Hawaii impossible.  We would have settled for Colorado, but that was equally impossible.  So we spent the evening in good ol’ Fort Wayne.  The County Line staff gave us a Cork & Cleaver gift certificate in January, which we used for our anniversary.  Have you ever had their ice cream pie?  The two of us had a hard time finishing it, it was so big!  That’s saying a lot - Bob couldn’t finish it!  Ask the County Line staff & they will tell you without hesitation that “Bob NEVER refuses food!”

Later in July my mom visited what used to be her frequent “haunt”, Hobby Lobby.  She was well-known by the management.  Is that a good thing?  Well, in her case it was.  They sometimes would hold things back for her because they knew that she would love that item!  While talking to Steve Rubin, the manager, about her health, she asked him a strange question.  “Do you have any job openings?”  I don’t know if Steve thought she wanted a job or what, but he asked why she inquired.  She told Steve about Bob & the circumstances we were in.  Steve told her to have Bob stop in sometime & he would talk to him.  Bob had been filling out applications all over since the 1st of February, but in this economy, finding a job - any job - is difficult.  Finding a job in ministry proved to be even more difficult.  Since we were so desperately in need of a job, Bob went in right away.  Steve offered him a part-time job as a stockman.  He never even had him fill out an application!  It only paid $8/hour, but it was a JOB!  Bob was thrilled!  Finally he could provide something for his family.  He unloads trucks, stocks merchandise, helps customers with large purchases, sweeps, mops, cleans the bathrooms...  His first few weeks were exhausting for him!  But he’s in great shape now because of the physical nature of work he does at Hobby Lobby.  Working there has been a type of physical therapy for him.  He has seen many friends while working there.  Next time you are in Hobby Lobby (or Bobby Lobby as Kevin McIntire now calls it), look him up (or have one of the cashiers call for him on the intercom) & say hi!