Merry Christmas from our family to yours. We just wanted to say thank you for everyone in Cooper’s life who have offered their prayers for him. We are truly grateful to have this holiday season to celebrate with Cooper, and are so thankful for all the great results we are seeing from treatment.
A quick update on Coop:
Cooper did a straight 72 hours of chemo last week. He had to have a second IV put into his hand because he was on 3 different meds and one very large bag of hydration. Bryan and Jessica are now giving him his Neupogen shots at home. Cooper has been doing really good this round. No vomiting at home and eating plenty of Captain Crunch. 
We finally got his bone marrow results in. He is down to 5% of cancer cells on one side and 5-10% on the other side. As of today this means no collections for stem cell transplant this round. Nothing is set in stone though. Cooper was really excited for Santa to come and get lots of Thomas!
Thanks again to everyone, and Merry Christmas from our family to yours!
Shoot for Coop!
Shoot for Coop was a great success! We had 11 teams show up to play this last Saturday, thank you to all who braved the cold! With temperatures in the 40’s, everyone stuck it out and had a good time for Cooper’s sake. With a silent auction, and a live bake sale auction, we were able to raise nearly $3000 for Cooper.
Our friends at KCEN were there to cheer us on as well, and he was featured on their evening news cast. Click Here to watch!
Many thanks go to cousin Tonya – she gave up nearly three months of her own time every day to put this together, and it would not have happened without her determination to see it through. We all all looking forward to maybe doing it again…in warmer weather of course! 
Enjoy some pictures from that day here.
-Aunt Amanda
The entry deadline for the Shoot for Coop golf tournament has been extended until December 5th! There’s still time to sign up!
Please register by email, or call Tonya Miller @ 254-913-2420 for more info. Cash or check only please.
-Aunt Amanda
Round three of Cooper’s treatment has been a rough one. Cooper has gotten sick everyday. He had to have a blood transfusion on Wednesday. Despite the fact that he has been throwing up he is still playing with his trains and running the halls. He has been in diapers all day everyday because of the constant iv. This is round they call platinum. It is strong. Dr Grayson says he expects to see a lot of change in the tumor this go around. He also told us today that one of his vertebrae above his spine has collapsed due to the weight of his tumor. This may require surgery. He is just not sure when. The neurosurgeon is going to take a look at the mri when we get back from S.A. to make sure this doesnt need to be taken care of sooner than later. When we know more I will let everyone know for sure if it will require surgery. As of right now Cooper is getting his last dose and then we move on to hydration. They started him on magnesium today because they said this medicine could cause him to leak some through his kidneys. We will be here through tomorrow so that he gets plenty of fluids. Dr Grayson also informed us that they may not do the cd34 counts here at scott and white so we may be staying in S.A. for the entire week. This means a great loss of income and a struggle for the family. I will keep updated about his experience in S.A as the next week comes. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving Day!
-Mom
We got a chance to speak with the doctor yesterday about Cooper. Dr. Grayson discussed the MRI results and the bone marrow biopsy the other day. He had mentioned that the MRI results came back that the tumor was the same size as before.. When the bone marrow biopsy was originally done at the beginning of October, the results were devastating. His bone marrow only had about roughly 70% cancerous cells. When we spoke with the Doctor last Friday, he said that ROUGHLY 90% OF HIS GOOD CELLS ARE PRESENT…this means that the bone marrow is only 10% infected now.
Cooper starts his Next round of Chemo tommorow morning. This is going to be a heavier round of treatment and will probably take its toll on the little guy. He will be an in patient since the clinic is closed, so he will carry out his week there. He is going to San Antonio the following week to have his stem cells harvested for a future use.
Joshua Dixon
Our thanks go to KCEN News for the story they aired about Cooper last night. For anyone who missed it, you can view it by clicking here.
-Aunt Amanda
We were so surprised to see the news report last night on KCEN TV about Cooper! The interview with Jessica and seeing Cooper was especially great. The fund raiser set for December 12th at Sammons Golf will prayerfully draw a HUGE response. We love you!
Today we went in for Cooper’s MRI. He did great, nothing went wrong. He is still a bit clumsy from the sedation but all is well. We will talk about the results Thursday when we go in for his bone marrow biopsy. I also found out today that we will start chemo Monday and be out Friday maybe Saturday. That means we will spend Thanksgiving in the hospital. Then that following Monday, the 30th, we leave for San Antonio for stem cell collection. Nothing major, no transplant this time around.
Just a note to say that God can take a negative situation and let us see the good things about it. Friday, Jessica noticed that Coop had a scrape on his knee and on his finger that started turning red. By Saturday, she was on the phone with the doctors who told her it could turn serious very quickly. So yesterday while Jessie was working, I had the privilege of taking Coop to the ER to get him a shot of antibiotics as instructed. We were there from about 11 and got home about 7:30. In our mind, it should have taken about an hour but they were extremely cautious, taking his temp it seemed every 30 minutes. When starting his IV, they told me it was okay to leave the room and then I could be the good guy when I came back in but I couldn’t leave him. It was traumatic and I kept saying, “this is just not fair” and “they just want to help you get well”. He did have to have blood, platelets, and antibiotics to fight the infection which took a long time. He found the blue elastic thing that is used take blood, start IVs, etc. I became the patient named Cooper and he was Grammie. He tried to wrap it around my arm to make it stay and then used his shoe (my new port) to put in my IV. He then used his other shoe as a tape dispenser and made sure I had lots of tape. I pretended to cry and say “I’m done now” (his favorite phrase when he is being worked on). He told me “this is to make you well” and “it is not fair”. I think I had about 7 ports put in with him always telling me the procedure. At one point, I told him I had to go to the bathroom to which he told me, “Cooper, you not pee on the wall or you get spanking”. When one of the nurses came in, I told her what he was doing and she brought him his own nurse’s kit: stethoscope, thermometer, pen flashlight, and blood pressure kit. This led to me being “very sick” and needing another port. He was extremely tired and hungry and had a few meltdowns but most of the day was filled with laughter and fun. When we left, we passed his nurse that had gone off duty and he went and gave her a hug.
Grammie
Cooper has two upcoming tests next week. These are the ones we have all been waiting for. On the 17th we have the mri and on the 19th we have the bone marrow biopsy. I will post results as soon as I know them.
On another note, Cooper is doing fantastic! He loves cheese sticks and I’m trying to keep an endless supply but it doesnt work to well. He really loves his new playmate, Macy. I have never seem him act so affectionate to an animal. Oh, Macy is a two month old calico. She’s adorable. Cooper has not had one episode of throwing up or fever since his last day which was Friday. Things are good right now.
I will try my best to get the results up from the tests as soon as we find out.
-Mom
