Thursday, December 29, 2011

Cooper's last day of chemotherapy!!!!!

Today is Cooper's last day of chemotherapy.  This is so exciting.  It has been a really hard year.  Chemotherapy is bad stuff.  It makes him feel so sick.  It will be so nice for him to be done.  When the chemo road map is finished there is a bell that Cooper will ring.  Here are pictures from his last day.

 Above is Coop and Ben.  Ben is a super great guy who helped take care of Cooper and he happened to be here for his last day.
 Above is Amie, Cooper's nurse.  We were also excited that Amie was there for Cooper's last day because she is definitely one of our favorite nurses.  She was with Cooper at the beginning and we haven't had her again until his last 2 days.  She is 6 months pregnant with a boy.  We are so excited for her.
 This is Tommy.  He is another favorite that happened to be here on Cooper's last day.  He is getting ready to do Cooper's last vitals before leaving the hospital.  He also made Cooper a poster to celebrate his last day of chemo.
 This is the last MESNA that Cooper had to have before he was discharged.  This stuff pushes the chemo through all the important organs so it doesn't cause damage.
 Here is Cooper by the bell.
 Here is the saying under the bell.  It is kind of hard to read.
 Here we together after Cooper rang the bell with Tommy's poster.  Jared and I were a little emotional.  It has been a long hard year and it is hard to believe he is finally finished.
 As we were walking out of the hospital there was this ice sculpture so Coop stopped for a picture.
Cooper picked out this ornament and it fits the time perfectly.  It is a picture of a little bald cancer kid holding up an IV pole saying "I Survived!".  A perfect way to end this year and celebrate Christmas.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Day 4 of Cycle 14

Cooper had some very special visitors today, some of the Utah Jazz Basketball team and dancers.  We had Jamal Tinsley #6 and Devin Harris #5 come to Cooper's room and gave him a couple of signed basketballs.  Then we went on a walk to let Coop dribble the ball up and down the hall and ran into Alec Burks #10 and Gordon Hayward #20 who are in the picture below.  

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Believe in Miracles


This Christmas tree says Believe in Miracles and we thought we should take a picture in front of it.  Right now he has a fever of 101.5.  They started cultures again and Rocephin.  Hopefully he doesn't have any more.

Day 3 of Cycle 14

Cooper has had a good day.  We can hardly keep him in the room long enough for the chemotherapy and nausea medications.  He likes to be out in the halls or in the toy room.  Every time we come back there seems to be a present on his bed.  Last night Build A Bear brought a present for all of the kids.  His bear is dressed in pirate costume.  He loves it. One of his cancer buddies Tyson also came and gave him a Toy Story coloring set.  He also received some candy and a loaf of bread with oranges from a past cancer mom who has been where we are. 

Then today when we returned from the toy room and he had a big bag on his bed with tons of stuff; watches, books, motorcycles, jets, candy, legos and many more things.  This present is from the military.  There are so many people who are very generous, especially with these sweet little kids fighting cancer. 





Day 2 of Cycle 14

The second day was a good day.  Cooper has a little friend named Boo who was diagnosed with brain cancer that had spread to his spine.  After a lot of horrible chemotherapy and intense radiation they had scans last week and found out today that he is clear, he is in remission.  Hooray for Boo!  Here are some pictures from our day.








Monday, December 19, 2011

Admitted to Primary Childrens for Cycle 14 - The Final Cycle!

Cooper was admitted today for his final (5 day) cycle of chemotherapy.  He has a fever that has continued for more than 1 hour so they are doing cultures and antibiotics but he seems to feel just fine.  We have already been on a walk and he has made a christmas tree.  Here are a few pictures from day 1.






Notice on this last picture that Coop is getting a ride on his IV pole.  He knows how to have a good time.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Cycle 13 December 5th - 6th

Cooper went for Cycle 13.  A blood test determines whether he can go for more chemotherapy or not.  His ANC and platelets were a little low but they wanted him anyway and so we went.  He seemed to do well.  We just got home and he is happy.  Only time will tell if he will recovery quickly from this cycle.  Lets hope for the best.  If he does recover well they plan to have him back for his last 5 day cycle on December 19th-23rd.  Hopefully he doesn't get a fever so we can be home on Christmas. 

After recovering from the last cycle of chemo he will have 2 weeks before a pelvic CT, MRI, PET scan and chest CT to make sure the cancer hasn't metastisized.  If all is good and scans are clear they will schedule a surgery to remove his central line power port.  He will be thrilled to get this out.  The plan after that will be scans and blood work every 3 months for 3 years, then every 6 months for 2 more years.  If there hasn't been a sign of cancer after 2 years of scans the chance of it coming back goes down dramatically.