My mother…

Hi everyone,

My name is Cooper, I am almost 15 years old. I live in Oklahoma. My mom, Brenda, passed away of this dreadful cancer on September 25, 2004. She was 49 years old. I’d like to share the story of my mom with you all.

For quite some time she had experienced a pain in her right arm. Somewhere in 2003 or early 2004 she went to the doctor to find out what was wrong. It was a dull pain that seemed to have bothered her a lot, but not all the time. They didn’t find anything wrong with her and the pain continued. On April 27, 2004 she went to the doctor again to get a full body check (or something). That is when they found the cancer in her liver. I have no idea whether the pain in her arm had anything to do with it, but I know they found “legions” (spots) on her liver. They told her she was in Stage 4, which seems to be the last stage (i just found out tonight from http://www.cancerbackup.org.uk/Cancertype/Bileduct/Bileductcancer). She was a very determined person. Very strong. She fought with everything she had.

I helped her out all of summer ’04. I got a lot closer to her during that time, seeing as I was the one who took care of her each day. My dad would be at work til about 6p.m. and my brothers were gone most days or didn’t want to see her suffering.

In July, she had scheduled an appointment with M.D. Anderson in Houston, TX. She had planned everything and was about to start packing…when she got a call from them telling her that the doctor who specialized in her type of cancer had gone on vacation…….I was the only one home that day and ….let’s just say I was very very frightened and sad. It was a bad deal. She got very angry with M.D. Anderson and didn’t associate with them from that day on (of course that is after she called back and chewed them out…haha..).

Sometime that summer she spent a lot of time seeing different doctors and I don’t really remember where all she went. Now, i’m not completely sure on all the information but i’m pretty sure that I remember, sorry for any mess-ups. I do know that she found out about a treatment illegal in the U.S. because it includes giving the patient a fever to boil the cancer out of the body…i don’t know… I’d have to ask my dad. Anyway, that treatment was in Bad Aibling, Germany…and she left during the hurricanes in Atlanta, GA on September 16, 2004 ( a thursday). I had just started junior high and it was really weird not being able to tell her all about it. She flew from Oklahoma City to Atlanta and had to spend the night there because of the weather. The airport was planning on sending the passengers on the flight to Munich to paris and then boarding another flight to munich from there, but my dad pleaded with them to go straight to Munich because my mom didn’t seem to have much left in her and there was little time. They obliged and my mom spent one week in Germany in the most beautiful place she had ever been….I got to talk to her a few times…she could barely talk, but it was better than nothing. I really thought she would come back, and I was shocked to hear at 11:37p.m. on Sept 24, 2004 that she had passed away on the morning of September 25, 2004 at around 9 or 10 o’clock.

She was a great woman. She is deeply missed.

Thank you for reading her story, if you have any questions, i’d be glad to answer them….but keep in mind i’m only 15 so i don’t know tons of medical terms.

Thanks for reading,

Cooper

p.s.: Oh! I forgot to mention… I do know that she had ulcerative colitis and had an ileostomy when she was around 21 or so. if you don’t know what that is, look here–> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ileostomy