Val & Collette Cook Family

Life keeps moving forward. So much has happened since I last updated my blog.  Summer has come and gone and school is in full swing. I had a visit with my UCSF doctor and she has talked to my uncologist and we now have a new working plan.  I have been on the chemo pills for twelve cycles which has been a little over a year.  They want to stop that and now I get to have a shot every 4 weeks.  This is something they give you when you are stable.  They will watch me to make sure things stay stable. Overall I'm doing great. I'm hoping I will be less tired. Which would be great. I'm so greatful for all me blessings.  I'm greatful for everyone that has taken interest and has been so helpful. Well I'm off onto the next part of my adventure. 

I had a PET scan done the beginning of July.  Dr Shi looked at it and said a whole bunch of numbers  for all the different sized cysts which all got jumbled in my head the bottom line is that the disease is stable, very slow growth.  This is good news.  I had a break from my chemo meds for a month while my Dr was on vacation so I took a vacation to.  I am feeling well pretty much normal. I also have a cyst on my ovary which is big enough for some concern but the PET scan shows that there is no growth from my last PET scan last August.  This is good news. What is a PET scan like you may wonder, well the day before you cannot exercise that evening you have to eat a high protein meal with no carbs you can have dark green vegetables.  No eating after midnight then just water.  When you arrive at the scan they take you to a room where you lie down they start an IV then they go get the radioactive sugar in a safe box then they give you this radioactive stuff then you lay there for an

We have started a new tradition.  Each year we are going to have a family vacation with our children and their children.  We have been blessed with a new trailer (Bernard) and Truck (Roxanne).  Bernard is used as a home-base with satellite tents to house us all.  For our first adventure we headed off to Mesa Verde in Colorado. All our children were able to come  Brianne and Dustin could only stay for the first part of the week so we arrived Monday and quickly took off to see the ruins.  We went on a ranger guided tour of the Cliff Palace.  Tuesday we went to more ruins and hiked all around.   Grandpa made a toy box with lots of cool stuff to play with in camp.  Everyone got a car to play with. Wednesday we had archry lessons from Brianne.  Adam and Kyle had fun shooting the bow.  Pictograph hike over two miles round trip.  Kyle touched all the number sign post this was the last one.  When he got to

We had good weather while we were there. It was not sweltering hot. In fact it rained yes rain in a rain forest. We woke up with water in our room. Trees ar not meant to make houses in so when you do it is hard to keep out the rain. It is part of the adventure. So we're the cold water showers which if it had been sweltering in hot would have felt good. There are trade offs I'll take a cold shower and not so hot temperatures. For our adventure this day we got in the long open air boats. They were low to the water. We floated off to the monkey island where there are a lot of varieties of monkeys. One monkey wanted to come in the boat. The guides positioned one boat so the monkey could climb in and the other so we could take pictures. Vicky loved the monkey. She said this is the best day ever. Lisa felt differently. Especially after the monkey grabbed a catipeler off a branch bit off the head and came back into the boat. After we went back to the lodge we had

It was good to be on land when we arrived at the treehouse. We walked down a boardwalk to the main lodge. There we were treated with refreshing fruit drinks. There was no need to worry about using bottled water they prepared food in the purified water they had brought in. When traveling in a foreign country you have to be careful of the water and anything that may have been washed in water. We even brushed our teeth with bottled water. Why worry about water there is different kinds of bacteria or other things that our bodies not being use to would make one sick. If one had time you could build up an immunity, we would only be there ten days. Not enough time to build up just enough time to get sick :) After our refreshments we were told which tree house we would stay in. There was one that was 75 feet height. It was the most sought after. I did not put my hat in the running for that one. Ours was 35 feet high and that was enough claiming. Our room had a queen bed and two