Done with Chemo Gift

[sa1142]

Tomorrow will be the best day that our family has had a very long time. My mother-in-law/ best friend/ neighbor gets her last round of chemo tomorrow. She has gone though a six hour surgery and many rounds of chemo. Her long term prognosis will not be known until her "port" gets taken out and she has to wait til about a month after her last round of chemo til it can be removed. But her numbers have gone from 600 to about 25... which is very promising. Now on to my question.... My husband and I are having a nice dinner at out house to celebrate. We made decorations and menus ect... to help celebrate both his mom and dad. Her for completing the intense rounds for being such a fighter... and him for taking care of her and being so strong and compasionate. But... we want to get her something special. We can not do a spa day because his dad is getting her that but we thought maybe jewelry.... or maybe something homemade.... or a scapbook. Any ideas??

[Audrey_M]

First let me say congratulations to all of you in the battle of ovarian cancer. It is indeed something to celebrate!

I read through all of you other posts to try to get some sense of both you, your husband and your mother in law in order to get a better picture of you as individuals and your relationships.

I like the scrap book idea about how strong and inspirational she has been through all of this. In your original post, there were some responses that were spot on in terms of cancer sometimes being a chronic illness (as with my aunt, who is now in her late 80s and has gone through numerous rounds of treatment over the past 10 years for ovarian cancer) and then those who wage the battle but are not so fortunate.

I don't know what your parents' support group was like during her treatment, but one thing that you might consider is for people to offer as "gifts" doing something for them, whether it be cooking a meal, running errands, yardwork, etc., so that they have time to spend together. If her markers go up and she needs treatment again, this is something she and her husband can fall back on.

If your parents are financially secure, another precious gift might be to ask people to make donations in honor of her fight to a cause that supports ovarian cancer; research, treatment or otherwise.

Hope the dinner is a smashing success!

Audrey

[dian07]

Just a thought here....maybe a scrapbook consisting of short (or long) notes from her family telling her how brave and strong she has been, thank her for being so strong and brave because you don't know what you would be without her,  what an inspiration, how proud you are to be related to her, how amazing she is, how she helped other family members when she was sick, how selfless she has been, how much you each love her, etc.......just an idea.  If she has close friends, you could always add them a little later on.
The notes could be on individual pages and set in a beautiful album cover.
I would think she would cherish each page.
Peace.
dian