Celebration Time! Chemo is Over!!!

Chemo is over!  Chemo is over!  Chemo is over!!!  Woo hoo!!!  I am done, done, done with it.  It has been a long four months.  I am thankful that even though it was miserable it did what it is supposed to do and my tumor is pretty well gone.  I am thankful for very smart doctors, the awesome St. Louis Breast Institute, and an amazing team of nurses that I truly love.  I am so ready to feel good and I am ready to enjoy the holidays.  Bring on Thanksgiving and Christmas!!

This is me being unhooked for the last time. 

I didn't even know he took this picture until I found it today.

Jason standing with me as I rang the bell signifying my last

 treatment.  During the whole treatment "You Can Ring My Bell"

 by the Pointer Sisters kept playing in my head.  I am excited

 and relieved that it is over.  I am hopeful that I never have

 to do this again.  I am thankful that it worked and the tumor is

 pretty well gone.  I am grateful for everyone's help and support during

 the last four months.  I love my family and friends! 

You guys are the best!

 

Two of my three chemo nurses - Laurie and Charlene.

These are two special ladies that gave me lots of advice and

support.  I love my doctor but I only spent a few minutes with

her at each appointment; I spent 6 to 8 hours with these

ladies each time.  I am so thankful for them!!

I always dress for comfort when I go for chemo, so I am sporting

my favorite cozy blue sweatshirt from Old Navy in this pic.  It is

big and comfortable and clearly not the most flattering thing

 to be photographed in.  Oh well.  I love this sweatshirt

but had to crack up laughing when a few weeks ago I

was watching Seinfeld and George Costanza had on

the same blue sweatshirt.  At least I look better in it than

 he did.  lol.

 

When I got home late last night from St. Louis, I had gifts waiting on me.  What a surprise!  My dear friend Penny Luzadder sent me a bouquet of all pink flowers and my other dear friend Amy Ettinger sent me a bouquet of red roses.  How sweet are they?  I love these girls!  They are both so thoughtful and I think they love me too.  ;)  My sweet Mom and my wonderful Dad bought me the red lantern and the box of chocolates.  I love them so much!  What a help they have been to me.  I would be lost without them.  Walking in and seeing all of this on the table brought tears to my eyes.  I am so blessed to have such a great support system!

Another great and dear friend of mine, Deb Duquaine, bought me a raspberry beret as a "chemo is over" gift.  The other night we were at Menards and I parked by the "out" door and that was the door we went in.  So I sang her a little bit of "Raspberry Beret" by Prince:  "She went in through the out door (out door!) and she wore a raspberry beret!"  So, as a surprise she gave me a raspberry beret!  I love it!  I am planning to wear it on my next trip to Menards.  By the way, what is up with their parking anyway?  Who wants to park all the way down by the "In" door and then when you check out and leave with a ton of stuff have to walk all the to your car, which is parked so far away (especially in the rain?)

Here are a few random pictures I found that I had taken recently...

Carissa Faith in her favorite dress.

If this dress is clean, she wears it.

If it's dirty, she wants it washed asap.

S-I-L-A-S.  It's how you spell boy.

Check out that after-bath hairdo.

Clean Carissa in mismatched pajamas.

On November 12th, my cousin Abby had a sweet baby boy.  Her and her husband named him Andrew Michael Kitley.  He is such a gorgeous little baby.  We just love him!

Me and baby Andrew.  I could have held him all day. 

Silas was a bit jealous.

Maleah loves to hold babies!  She held him twice that day.

Carissa wanted to hold him too.  I let her hold him

for just a minute and then I took him back.

She said "Thank you!  That was killing my arm!

He is heavy!"  I guess if I held something

that was 20% of my weight it would feel

pretty heavy too.

My Mom holding Andrew.  Silas was even

more jealous when Grandma held him.  I think

he was trying to tell Andrew that this was

HIS Grandma!

 

I think that about wraps it up for this blog post.  Stay tuned.  My hair is growing back blonde.  I know, crazy, right?!  Anyway, when it gets a little longer I will post pics!  But for now, I am still wearing hats, scarves, and my raspberry beret.

A Cooper Update

Hi everyone.  Sorry for the lack of updates.  Everything is fine here.  I just haven't made much time for blog updates.

Let's start off with me and get that out of the way.  I am feeling pretty good most days.  I have my bad days right after a chemo treatment but for the most part I am doing pretty good.  When I last wrote a blog post, I was getting ready to start my second round of chemo.  It was going to be a different chemo drug than the first round and I was planning on taking it in a low-dose form, once a week for 12 weeks.  Since I handled the first round of chemo fairly well I was told about possibly taking this second round in a high dose instead and being done in four treatments instead of twelve.  I discussed it with my doctor.  The pros of taking the low dose were:  hair regrowth, feeling good, more energy, no Neulasta shots the day after a treatment (I did these with the first round of chemo.  They cause body pain but they rebuild my blood and bone marrow so that I don't end up with Leukemia.)  The cons of the low dose chemo:  12 more chemos instead of four.  I chose the high-dose.  That number four was just too inviting compared to 12 more.  So, I sacrificed the rest.  I am still bald as ever and have now lost most of my eyelashes and my eyebrows are pretty thin.  I do have to take a Neulasta shot after each treatment.  The chemo that I am on causes intense body pain for a few days, combine that with the Neulasta and I am pretty miserable.  But it is short-lived and after a few days I am back up and going.  But here is the really great part:  I already have three of the four treatments behind me.  One more to go, folks!  And then I am D-O-N-E with the chemo.  My last treatment is scheduled for November 20.  I should be feeling great for the holidays and a certain little man's 2nd birthday.  My next step is surgery.  That is scheduled for December 26th.  I will have a double mastectomy with reconstruction.  Prayers appreciated.  In the meantime, I am going to enjoy the holiday season!  This is my favorite time of year and I have a lot to be thankful for and celebrate this year.

Enough about me, here's the latest on everyone else:  Maleah is doing great.  We are home-schooling this year and it is going great!  We meet on Tuesday mornings with a Classical Conversations group at Louisville and we all love it.  Carissa is doing Kindergarten and going too.  If you are not familiar with Classical Conversations, google it.  It is a nation-wide program.  Besides school, Maleah also loves her American Girl dolls, doing artwork, reading Nancy Drew mysteries, and talking to her friends.

Carissa is doing great with her Kindergarten work.  She is very busy at her art table every day too.  She loves to paint and to play with play-doh.  She doesn't play with her toys very much because she is always doing artwork!  Both girls are very creative.  Carissa wants to be an artist when she grows up.  She also recently asked me if you were married does that mean you have a husband?  And I said yes.  She said she wasn't going to get married then because she doesn't want to have any kids.  I then explained that you can be married and just not have kids.  "Really??" she said, "How does that work?"  I told her it was complicated but she didn't have to have kids if she didn't want them.  She was okay with that answer.

Little Silas is doing great too.  He is almost two years old.  I can't hardly believe it.  His birthday is December 11th.  He is starting to talk more and more and we finally got him to give up his bottle.  I guess because he is my baby, I just didn't push the whole "no more bottle" thing.  He didn't like any sippy cup I gave him so I just stuck with the bottle.  Well, we finally found a cup he liked and threw the bottles away.  He handled it just fine.  He is such a sweet little boy.  I get hugs and kisses all the time.

Jason is doing fine too.  He has been taking care of almost everything around here and doing a fantastic job of it.  He has been able to do a little bit of deer hunting and so far, hasn't shot anything.  I have a feeling that might change after tonight though. 

I am ashamed because I have taken next to no pictures in the last month.  I have nothing to show you.  But I am sure I will more than make up for it over the holidays!!