Chemo has been rescheduled again!

Each of Cooper's cycles are suppose to be 14 days apart including the days he gets the chemo.  To make the 14 day cycle he should have been back on November 21st.  His ANC and platelets have been really low and slow to recover this time.  Salt Lake was hoping to have him back tomorrow on November 30th but his counts are still too low.  Now we are hoping for Monday December 5th.  If he gets admitted that day this will be the longest he has ever been inbetween cycles, 28 days total.  Wow, poor little guy is wearing down.  Right now he feels good though so we will enjoy the time we have at home.  Cooper and his dad decided to make Family Home Evening treats last night.  Here they are making brownies.

Cooper is feeling good!

Cooper is finally feeling better.  We decided to make the most of a Saturday and we drove to Logan and then ended in Preston to see the light parade and fireworks.  It was a great day!

Discharged on Antibiotics

Cooper had a 3 day hospital stay at Portneuf to help recover from Cycle 12 (11/14-11/16).  Then over the last 10 days (11/14-11/25) he has had a total of 6 transfusions, 2 red blood and 4 platelets.  It seems like we were at Portneuf every other day after being discharged for the transfusions.

Here are some pictures from the last 13 days of recovery. Some are in the hospital and some are at home.

Cooper ended up staying on those antibiotics from 11/14 through 11/25.  Way too many days for me to play home nurse.  He was okay having me give them for the first 4-5 days but then it got old, for both of us.  If we look at the positive at least we were home!

 Cooper loves Christmas time.  He is wearing a reindeer headband and getting ready to watch a movie.

 Here is Cooper in a box being silly.

 Here we are decorating our house for Christmas.  What a fun time of year.

 Cooper is taking down his older brother Ike in this picture.  He has tons of fun playing with his brothers and sister.

Korbie decided to make little buddies and took some clothes and filled them with stuffing and gave them a head.  Cooper carried his little buddy around for a couple of days.  He even took him to Thanksgiving dinner.

Admitted to Portneuf Again!

Cooper was discharged from Primary Childrens on Friday November 11th and here we are at Portneuf on November 14th.  He was home for November 12th and 13th, which is good because Dalton was baptized on the 12th and Korbie's birthday was the 13th.  He started feeling sick yesterday and by bedtime was really nauseated.  He slept with Jared and I.  We woke up and checked his temperature at 1:30 and 2:45 and it was hanging at 100.  Then at 5:30 I woke up to him feeling very warm.  His temperature was up to 101.1  He was still nauseated and now throwing up.  We headed into the hospital and they admitted him at 6:30 and started antibiotics and cultures by 7:30.  He feels miserable with nausea, body aches, temperature and light bothering his eyes.  His platelets are almost at transfusion level but his red blood cells are good.  He will probably get a platelet transfusion tomorrow.  Hopefully we are only here for the standard 48 hour stay.

Cycle 12 (November 7 - 11)

Cooper is completing cycle 12 of his chemotherapy this week.  He will be discharged tomorrow (November 11th) at 3 p.m.  He has tolerated the chemo really well this week.  He has had a couple of fevers which seems to be the norm for him.  He has spent a lot of time walking the halls with his basketball and playing in the playroom on the third floor.  He has painted countless wooden figures, mostly christmas trees and snowmen.  He has also made posters, a dream catcher and silly putty.  He is definately feeling good.  He just finished getting a blood transfusion and he is feeling really good.  Here are some pictures of the past week.

It's snowing!

Cooper had his blood drawn yesterday and his ANC and white count are higher than ever.  I think it is all because on the last cycle he didn't have Doxo with the Vincristine and Cyclophosphomide!  His white count at this point is usually 0.1 and it is 1.1, huge difference.  ANC is usually 400 and it is 780, another huge difference.  This is great.   His counts are already high enough for chemo on Monday.  This will be the second time in all of chemo cycles that he has been able to go at the 14 day cycle.  The last recovery was 24 days.

It snowed tonight and the kids are thrilled.  They made a snowman and have had a great night.  Here are some pictures of our happy kids!

Halloween!!

Cooper is still a kid and loves to go Trick or Treating so we were excited to find out that his blood draw from halloween morning was good.  His ANC isn't as low as it usually is by now and he doesn't need any transfusions.  What a blessing!  He went trick or treating with his brothers and sister and had some fun with his cousins and grandparents.  It was a really great night!  It is so nice when a kid can be a kid!  The first 4 pictures below are Cooper and his twin cousins Quincey and Kamryn (they are Ryan and Ranae Bowman's youngest girls)  Cooper has really enjoyed the twins temporary move to Inkom and he will miss them when they move back to Malta.

Here are some more of halloween night.

Cycle 11

On all of Cooper's odd cycles he usually gets Vincristine, Cyclophosphomide and Doxorubicin but he is done with Doxo now so cycle 11 only consisted of Vincristine and Cyclophosphomide.  I am hoping this is easier on him as far as recovery.  Doxo is really hard on him so it will be nice to be done with it.  This chemo trip was fast without the Doxo.  He was only at Primarys for a day and a half.   We didn't even have time to go and make silly putty. 

Cycle 10 Recovery

Cycle 10 recovery went well except it was very long.  He can go back for more chemo as soon as 14 days from the first day of the last chemo but his platelets and white count stayed very low for a long time.  This recovery lasted 24 days, the longest recovery yet.   He felt good some of the time. 

Lowell Hawkes (my coach and close friend) has been giving Cooper every medal from all of the marathons and other runs he has done this year.  Cooper decided to put on the marathon shirt he also gave him and all of the medals and we took a picture for Lowell. 

Cooper and Korbie had fun one day and dressed up as presents.    Here are some more photos of that.

Cycle 10

Cycle 10 is a 5 day cycle.  He really enjoyed staying out of the room for this visit.  We would return for medications or for the nurse to start or stop chemo, but most of the time Cooper wanted to walk up and down the halls and play in the PlayZone.  The PlayZone is a room set up with volunteers and they give the kids many options as far as crafts and games.  The entire 5 days Coop made silly putty in all different colors but mostly red and blue.  He also painted 11 different wood cut outs.  Cooper has to wear a mask in the PlayZone and up and down the halls but he doesn't mind because he did not want to sit in the room.  It is really nice that he feels good enough while getting chemo to go and do things.  He is on anti-nausea meds every 3 hours and that seems to do the trick for him.  Cooper usually doesn't feel well after the chemo hits his little body hard enough to cause a transfusion of platelets or blood.  I tried to get pictures when we were in the room so they aren't very good because he did not want to be in the room.  Next time I will get some of the hall and playroom.