COOKIE's World Up to Day +17

Dearest Friends and Family,
This is COOKIE resting with heat packs on her shoulders. She's our favorite quarterback! The shirt says it all!

It's almost a week since my last "report" but it's been a very busy week. For the most part, and as of yesterday, Friday, 5/12, Cookie was doing very well. Her week has consisted of a lot of pain management. She's had a lot of concentrated leg and neck pain. They've mixed her meds around and rearranged her pain meds to best suit her needs so hopefully she'll have some relief. So far, so good.

They're weaning her off of the nutrients as well. She's eating more by mouth and taking more meds by mouth. This is very good. Mainly because those are important steps that must be taken when it comes time to go home. So, with those things accomplished, her transition will be easier, whenever it's time. Can you believe it's +17 today? The time seems to be flying by, especially when you're at the hospital. It's a constant business and before you know it, it's dinnertime and you have to wait until 7:00 to even THINK of getting on the 405 South!

Aunt Shannon went up on Tuesday and spent the day. Cookie played her cds and they colored and laughed all day long. When Shannon got home she was so happy to report that they had such a fun day. Shelee called and said how much laughter there was. It's so good to hear because Cookie's nights have been difficult. Her pain coupled with having to go potty every hour, she hasn't been getting much sleep. Needless to say, neither has Shelee.

I went up on Wednesday. I hadn't been up there since the weekend. When I walked in the room, Cookie began to cry. She had had a very difficult night and was having a very sensitive day. She's homesick to boot. We convinced Mommy and Daddy to go out for a while. They went to find the nearest Target and get some birthday shopping done for Parker. Cookie and I watched the movie "Dreamer" with Dakota Fanning and got our Mother's Day cards all in order. Cookie actually ate some pork chops and rice that I had made.

Matt's new laptop came equipped with a morphing program and it's hysterical!! I haven't seen Cookie laugh this hard in such a long time. It takes your picture and distorts it in several different ways. We're trying to figure out how Matt can email the pics to me so I can share some of them. We took MY picture and it was the funniest ever! (Sure, pick on the old lady.) The nurses had to come in to see what we were laughing so hard about. It was SOOOO funny!

We had taken some video of Parker from the night before. He did HIS rendition of American Idol and some personal footage for Cookie. It's the best footage we have of him and it was so funny! I gave Cookie the camera to watch it and she was crying so hard. She misses him so much. He IS the next ELVIS!

Thursday evening Shelee was complaining of a toothache and it was the kind of ache that wasn't going to go away on it's own. I had just gotten off of the phone with my sister and told her how wonderful everything was. Then Shelee calls and tells us that Cookie spent the entire afternoon on Thursday in pain and that she was suffering with a toothache. So, Friday morning I went out to UCLA and Shelee and Matt came into town to go to their dentist. He was taking the day off but came in just for Shelee. He was the only one there. We have a great dentist.

So, I got to spend an unplanned day with my girl. Shelee and Matt didn't leave until after the doctor's came. They're very pleased with Cookie's progress. She's definitely showing some signs of graph vs. host disease but they seem to be minor. Her mouth sores are completely healed already. Her hands and feet are peeling but they have this cream that's the very best stuff I've ever seen! It keeps the skin so soft! I want to soak in it!

Cookie asked Dr. Moore if Parker could come up and see her on his birthday. She could hardly ask the question before she was crying. Well, even if he WAS going to say no, how could he now? Thankfully, he wasn't going to say no. He said of course Parker can come in as long as he isn't sick and hasn't been around anyone that has been. Well, he's 4 (almost 5) and in preschool 3 days a week. So, he can wash up really, really well, wear a mask and stay for an hour. Dr. Moore said he would make sure the nurses were aware of it so they wouldn't stop him coming in. Cookie is very excited! She wants to see his beautiful face and hug him and she wants to be the one to hand him his birthday gifts from her. I don't think that's asking too much, do you?

So, Mommy and Daddy left for the dentist. Cookie and I did a craft, did a coloring puzzle, and, you guessed it, played Yahtzee! I told her I was feeling lucky but because of my sorry past history with the game, she didn't listen. I beat her time after time. We played for hours. It was a monumental breakthrough in the world of Yahtzee competition! We also listened to all of her cds and so we raised the roof a few times!

by the end of the day, we were both tired and happy. Mommy and Daddy returned and the evening routine began. Every night Shelee bathes Cookie, changes her bedding and changes her dressing on her broviac. I've never seen anyone stay as busy as Shelee does in that room. It's immaculate with everything in it's place. I love how she does things.

I'll close by saying that every day presents it's own set of new challenges but I think that's true in everyone's lives. Ours are just more magnified these days. We're all settling in to a routine that "gets the job done" in order to bring us to our ultimate goal of bringing Cookie and Mommy and Daddy home.

Cookie asked me to include this little paragraph in my next blog. This is from her to all of you......
"I would like to thank everyone for sending their thoughts and stories to me. It's been a lot of fun reading each of your 'blogs'. Thank you very much for taking the time to write to me. I really appreciate it."

Take care of yourselves and give your loved ones an extra hug today!
Until next time, with love,
Gloria COOKIE Warren