December 28th
First of all I hope all of you had a wonderful Holiday Season and will have a great New Year also. I have been pretty sick with a virus and have spent most of my time in bed that accounts for the not updating sooner. We had a superb Christmas, all the family was here, including mom. She enjoyed the food so much that she got sick, literally, but she was fine after she got some of it off her tummy. We got some great pictures of her with her great-grand-daughters and just enjoying the time with the family. She didn’t put up too much of a fuss when she went back to the NH, she was actually glad to be home in order to take care of her things so they wouldn’t get stolen (many things are missing including her hearing aide and shoes). I was able to get some very special things for my kids and their family, I gave each grand-daughter a necklace with a guardian Angel pendant, my d-i-l’s a two tone cross necklace and my boys rings with crosses. They were engraved with "IS 41:10", love mom or grandma. They loved them and put them on right away, of course Robert and Crystal are saving Kasi’s until later. I figure that what ever may lay ahead for me that they will always have those. I go in on the 29th for my new CTScans, they will determine when, if and how much chemo I can have or need again, which is planned for mid-January. I have decided to go with chemo again if possible, in order to rid myself of the cancer that is still there. I had opted to discontinue everything after the battle I went through in Seattle but I found it is too hard to have any quality of life right now, knowing that I do still have active cancer in me. I think about it daily, hourly, every minute it is present in my life thus the reverse in my decision. I don’t know how I will be after I know that this is gone again. My thoughts are that once I know it is gone that I will no longer go to the doctor. I and my doctor are certain that it will come back again, when, no one knows, but it will be back and I just don’t want to know it. I want to live what life I have remaining without worry and constantly thinking about it and without being sick from the rigors of chemo treatments. I am going to sell my house this spring and I should have some money left out it to do some traveling and playing and to set up a little place for me and my dogs. I’m also selling off all the stuff that the kids don’t want to take, getting rid of the loads that I have been carrying for so long and easing my journey through life, that’s really all I want any anymore, a little less stress. My mom is being taken care of, not as well as I would like, but since I can’t do it anymore and the NH can, then that is how it must be.
I also will not be doing this site any longer. I always intended this site to be one of help to care-givers and to provide information on Alzheimer’s Disease. I am no longer a care-giver. I am now a daughter that watches as others provide care to my mother. I am a visitor in a facility where I have little or no say, out of fear that they will make her leave or treat her worse. I have been negligent in keeping updated with the new strides in Alzheimer’s treatment and research the past two years, my own health has been foremost in my thoughts and this is not a cancer site. I do expect to keep it online for the next year but will most likely not be adding to it nor updating it. For those of you who would like to stay in contact with me I will post my home address, I would love to correspond via ‘snail’ mail, since I won’t be online after this month I won’t have an e-mail address. I want to THANK all of you. Those that have been with me since the site first started, those who are new to the site and those in between, all of you have encouraged me, supported me, shared your lives with me and become family and I will never forget what an extended family has meant to me. I wish you well will all that life may throw your way.
HAPPY NEW YEAR
Denise Cooper
3808 Pacific Way
Longview, WA 98632
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