Update 9/8

Dear friends,

As you all know, Courtney has been a very brave and strong woman in her battle with cancer for over two years. On Friday, September 7th, around noon, God called Courtney home. Courtney’s mom, dad, and sister were with her when she passed. Below is the information on the services in honor of Courtney’s life.

A visitation with the family will be held on Sunday, September 9th from 4-9 pm at South Canton Funeral Home (3147 Marietta Hwy. Canton, GA 30114 Tel: 770-479-3377). A Memorial Service: Courtney's Life Celebration, will be held on Monday, September 10, at 3 pm at Hickory Flat United Methodist Church (4056 East Cherokee Drive Canton, GA 30114 Tel: 770-345-5969). Immediately following the Memorial Service, a graveside Interment Service will be held at the family’s church, New Hope Baptist Church on Bailey Waters Road in Dawsonville, GA.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers, please send donations to:
Loran Smith Center for Cancer Support
1199 Prince Avenue, Athens, GA 30605

If you would like to send something to the family, their address is:
The Cook Family
9873 Cumming Hwy.
Canton, GA 30115

Any additional information will be posted to Courtney’s Journal (Blog) at:
http://www.courtneycook.blogspot.com/

The family wishes to thank everyone for all of your prayers, love, and support of Courtney and her family throughout this journey.

Love,
Kristi Walton Fuller

Update, September 3

Dear friends,

This is Kristi writing an update on behalf of Courtney's family. I am going to try to let ya'll know some current information on Courtney, though I don't have all of the details since her mom's post in July. On Monday, August 27th, Courtney began having seizures, while she was in the hospital at North Fulton. She was given anti-seizure meds and was mostly unresponsive until about 3am on Wednesday. Courtney has since been responsive at times, but has appeared to be in considerable amounts of pain. The doctors are unsure as to what caused the seizures, but said that it could have been several different things. The staff at the hospital were doing their best to manage Courtney's pain and help her rest. On Thursday Courtney went home to her parent's home in Canton where she is being cared for by her family and also hospice. Courtney has had more rest since she has been at home and her family is also more comfortable. Please continue to pray for Courtney and her family as they take care of her in this difficult time. She is very blessed by an amazing family and dedicated friends who all love her very much.

Love,
Kristi

UPDATE ON COURTNEY (BY MOM)

I know a lot of you have been checking for updates on Courtney, but we've been so busy no one has had time to post one. Thank you all for being so patient and for all the calls, messages, cards, etc., to let Courtney know you are thinking of her. Here's a brief update...

Courtney is back in North Fulton Hospital and has been in since Friday, July 13th. She was admitted with severe pain in her abdomen that we couldn't get under control, and increased nausea again. A CT scan that day revealed that the chemo she had been taking for the last two months had not been effective; the tumors had grown and she had some new ones in her liver and abdomen. After conversations between the doctors in Tampa and her doctor here, the decision was last week that she would return to Tampa for assessment and possibly a new clinical study. We were frantically trying to make travel arrangements, etc., so we could go down last Friday. As the week went on, Courtney's condition just didn't seem to improve a lot; she was not eating and was on so much medication she couldn't even stay awake but for short periods of time. None of us thought she was in any condition to travel, including Courtney, but of course she wouldn't say that. She was willing to give it a try.

As it turned out, she didn't qualify for the initial clinical trial that her Tampa doctor had in mind, so it was decided that she would start on a new chemotherapy here in GA. They also have a new study that she may qualify for that would only involve testing some of the slides from her tumors that were removed in March, and all she has to do is sign a consent for them to test them. If her tumors contain a certain enzyme that causes rapid cell division, she will qualify to be started on a new medication that is being tested to slow (or hopefully stop) cell division and rapid tumor growth. In the meantime, she is waiting approval from her insurance company (again) to receive the new chemotherapy and hopefully that will be started today or tomorrow. Courtney was happy not to have to go back to Tampa, and her condition has improved a lot since last Friday. She has been eating much better and her pain is more manageable. They have determined that the severe pain in her side was partly due to some nerve damage, probably from her last surgery. She is on a new medication for that and it seems to be helping. The plan now is to start tapering her IV pain meds so she can get out of the hospital soon.

I ask that you all continue to pray for Courtney, that God will give her strength and that her faith will be renewed daily. I know that God is able to heal her and that He has been with us each step of the way through this battle, and for that I am so thankful. And again, thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers for Courtney and our entire family. I can't tell you how much they are felt and how they lift us up when we are down.

May God Bless You All,

Melody Cook

Matthew 21:22 'And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.'

"It's Time to Start Believing Again"

Courtney is back in the hospital at North Fulton for her continual digestive and nausea problems. She has continued to have some tests run, but the cause for these problems has not been determined. The results of the CT scan I mentioned in the previous post did show that Courtney's cancer has returned both in her abdomen and also in her liver. Three weeks ago she was started on three new kinds of chemotherapy. She will have her second round of those treatments tomorrow. The new chemos have been pretty tough on her body which was already weakened by the last couple months of sickness. Eating has been difficult, and she has lost some weight but is holding at around 110. The news that her cancer had returned was, as you can imagine, quite a blow to her and her family. Courtney took the news pretty hard at first, but just this past weekend, while lying in bed due to pain and medication, told me that it was time to start believing again that she could beat it.

At this point, the doctors do not believe that the nausea and sickness are directly related to the cancer. They believe it to be more a side effect of the surgeries and medicines, but are only able to control the symptoms as much as possible with more medication. Please pray that the doctors will be able to discover a real cause and a plan for treating the nausea and digestive problems. Supposedly the first round of chemo is the worst. Courtney is hopeful that she will be able to handle the following rounds better. She has been sleeping most of the time, and those of you who know Courtney know that she likes to be up and active and living her life! Please pray that she will have a return to a better quality of life soon!

With love, hope, and faith,
Ann

From Ann

Hello all,

Courtney is back in the hospital at North Fulton Regional. She had an endoscopy last Wednesday which showed nothing. This is both good and bad news in that it showed no cancer, but also doesn't give any insight into her current problems with vomitting. That procedure was at Northside Forsyth where they kept her for 24 hours afterwards. She was then released on Thursday morning, but was back at the hospital on Friday night. She and Darik were all dressed and headed for a date, but then she started throwing up uncontrollably. This has also been accompanied with abdominal pain. She was given a couple of different drugs for nausea that she didn't react very well to and caused her to be very out of it and hallucinate for most of the weekend. I spoke with her about an hour ago and she seemed to be coming out of that and was coherent. They did another CT scan yesterday but she has not gotten the results back from that yet. The plan of action at this point is unknown. She is very down and has been having panic attacks. Please keep her in your prayers.

Sincerely, Ann

Discharged for a Happy Memorial Day...

As many may know I pretty much have a new residency at North Fulton Regional. Things have been complicated lately by the intestinal problems I've been experiencing. After every scan and test under the sun, Wednesday an "upper GI" and "small bowel series" showed that my small intestines are detached from the mesentary (I imagine it as a net-like barrier to hold your guts in place), and are moving around quite a bit which is "possibly" causing all this pain and vomiting. Most likely this happened sometime in the last surgery.?. ahhhhh! Since the right lobe of my liver isn't present- the 33 feet of small intestines have a good bit a room to migrate around. Unfortunately, right when I feel like I'm getting ahead of the mess...this has really stopped me in my tracks. It's been rough, I must say. Two years of fighting was easier than these past couple months and it seems to just get worse every day. The reason I now seem to live at the hospital is b/c IV pain and nausea meds are the only way they can control it all, and when I think I can go home I just end right back up in the ER screaming. The plan...who really knows....the word on the streets is surgery again. Due to the long holiday wkend and my Tampa surgeon on vacation-things aren't rolling very fast, but a colonoscopy and endoscopy and one other test (forgot the name) sometime this week, then meet with a local surgeon is the tentative schedule if he'll consider the surgery. I hear they don't volunteer to clean up someone else's mess up...? My favorite nurse/tech, Marie, says constantly "what can I do?....pray.?. that's really all."
Side note to my little squister if you read this faraway in Africa...I miss you terribly and think if you weren't helping babies...i'd be one myself and demand you come home and be with me! :)
Happy Memorial Day everyone. Love.
Courtney

Smelling eggs and turkey bacon...

...on this rainy Saturday morning. I sit here looking out the window into the green trees overlooking the lake. I'm enjoying a weekend full of pride and celebration with my dear friend Susannah during her graduation into Physical Therapy. As I was attempting to check my emails, I thought this a perfect time for an update... I will start with the good news--we raised as a single team almost $4,000 (money is still coming in) at Relay for Life which was held last Friday at UGA. Dressed in our baseball/softball uniforms we "Took a Swing at Cancer" and did a great job raising money for a cure and cancer support. Thank you to everyone for your contributions and help with this cause. Secondly, I had a bone scan Monday and a Mugga scan on my heart Tuesday...and both tests resulted in good news. I am very thankful. My heart appears great and up to the challenge of the upcoming Adreomycin (a heart damaging chemo). Now, I was to start chemotherapy up again this past Wednesday, however at the last minute the wonderful caring insurance company BCBS denied my claim... Apparently, I am too healthy! ha, who'dve thought!! Bottom line-they don't want to fork out the money and forget who their dealing with...so we will of course continue with appeals until we get what we want...what a pain! The regiment will be a combo of 3 different types...cytotoxin, adreomicin, and ?...an old combination once used to treat small cell lung cancer (a similar "level" cancer as mine). It will be every 3-4 weeks for 4-6 rounds depending on how strong my body stays and assuming all scans stay clear. With any luck we'll be rolling sometime this upcoming week. I must admit though-it's been kinda nice. I say... it all works out in the end.
much love,
Courtney