[RKDinOKC]

I've helped to or taken care of a close family member in varying degrees since I got out of college.

When I first got out of college I moved back home to help my Mom take care of my Dad. He had diabetes, chrones, and several other complications due to diabetes.

The day my Dad passed my Brother 13 years older than me had a major MS attack. The first 1 year or so I just took care of Mom's house while she constantly went back and forth from OKC to Atalanta to help with my brother.

Then Brother's 2nd ex gave him his 13 yo troubled teen. Because of MS Brother could not handle the stress of a troubled teen, so Mom and I took legal custody of Jarret from juvy. Turned the 13 yo making Cs and Ds into a model A student in one semester. Since he turned into such a good kid he went back to his mom when he turned 16. So that was 3 years of raising someone else's teenager.

Within of a couple of Months of teen going back to his Mom, MS brothers current wife (not Jarret's mom) divorced him because he was not the man she married. So Mom and I moved him in with us. At that time he got around with one of those 3 wheeled carts. Traded my Jeep Cherokee for a Ford Astro so we could haul him and his cart around. After a couple of years sold Moms house and used that for a small downpayment on a handicap accessible home.

His MS slowly got worse. It was a little easier after he bumped into an old HS girlfriend at his reunion, she followed him home, moved in, and helped take care of him. Thank God for codependents.

Then in 2000 Mom came down with breast cancer. My brother Tom thought Mom had no business taking care of George so he fixed up and convinced George and his girlfriend to move into her trailer before Mom got back home from spending a short recovery time with her sister after the mastectomy.

Went for a couple of years without really taking care of anyone, then in 2003 Mom had a stroke, recovered, then another 6 months later. I changed her doctors after I read the number one side effect of the drug was stroke. Didn't get her off those post cancer drugs soon enough and she slowly slipped down that post stroke dementia slide (it's just like alzheimer's).

If you know someone that get breast cancer, don't let them take Tamoxafin. Or if they recommend a post operatory drug, READ THE WARNINGS AND SIDE EFFECTS. Mom would much rather had the cancer come back and kill her instead of fading away into strokes and dementia.