Cole Cartwright Touquies Groupies

First post: Dec 14, 2017 Latest post: Mar 22, 2018


Hi Everyone, we are starting this blog so that everyone can stay up to date, as well as post messages to Cole, aka Touquie.  Lets start with why his nickname is Touquie...  It came about years ago after Cole finished watching George of the Jungle.  He loved how the bird was called Touquie, Touquie. Cole spent day after day repeating the name and it just stuck from there.  We have to thank Lori-Anne Eklund and her husband Danny for Cole's site name.  Ryan and I did ask Cole for his inputs on what his site title should be but the first one, with his twisted sense of humour of was not appropriate.  The second one Cole gave was what Malcolm Copithorne has nicknamed him, which was also just as inappropriate.... love you Malcom:)  So we sought out the creativity of Lori-Anne!!  Thanks LA for the title idea:)


So as everyone knows, Cole has been diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma.  In the cancer world, this is a good thing as it is highly treatable.  Cole is Stage 1a, which is also good.  His tumour size is 13cm in length and will require him to go through 4 cycles (rounds) of chemo treatment.  This started about a year ago when Cole was sick with a flu/cold.  The lymph nodes in his left neck area ended up swelling.  When we took Cole to the walk in clinic, they said it was probably just part of the illness being in this area and to come back if the swelling did not go down.  A few months later, we took Cole back as the swelling was still there.  At that time, they did an ultrasound which didn't show anything.  This is not uncommon in Hodgkins in its early stages.  We finally went to our Family Doc  in High River (which we love), who then referred Cole for a needle biopsy of the site, which is how the cancer was found.  The Oncologist said that Cole's particular cancer was from a virus he had previously.


Currently, Cole is in his first cycle, which consists of 21 days.  The first day, of 21, has Cole receiving his 6 chemo drugs, one right after the other.  This is a tough day for Cole, which we found out shortly after he finished a few weeks ago.  He was admitted to hospital on Day 1 as his body reacted poorly and he needed to be monitored.  The second day was not as intense and he was able to get an overnight pass to go home.  On route back to the hospital on the third day, Cole freaked his Mom out by going white, confused and lacking in his motor skills.  After being pushed into the hospital in a wheelchair, the nurses took over, stabilizing his blood pressure.  He received more chemo that day and was home that night.  Day 8 of the 21 day cycle went better then the first days but Cole then presented with a blood clot in the vein where his PICC line enters.  He also possibly has another clot in his upper chest where the PICC runs but is now on blood thinners to help any further clots from forming while his body works at breaking down the clots he has.  So he is now on blood thinners until March 30th.  Cole is not happy as it has put a severe kink into his winter of practice for saddle bronc rides.  We told Cole he is now going to be put in bubble wrap...  His Oncologist was funny as he didn't know what saddle bronc was and thought he might want to try it.  We told him to Google it and then see what he thought.  When we saw him at Cole's next appointment, we asked if he had Googled it.  He said 'Yes.....' with a pause.  We then asked if he still would like to try it, and he said 'No.... that he really likes his back':).

People are asking if Cole is losing his hair yet and not he is not.  He does check everyday though to see if that will be a side effect.  The Oncologist said that every patient reacts differently and it is not a given that Cole will lose his hair.  But just to be proactive, Cole's sister, Kayla, is knitting him a chemo cap just to be prepared:)

Ryan is the champ at giving Cole his needles and preparing drug spreadsheets to keep everything straight at home.  All of the cattle work Ryan has with med treatments gives Cole confidence in Ryan's ability to administer meds.  Kellie is to be the back up with med administration but Cole prefers Ryan steady hand:)  Connor comes home every weekend to check up on his baby brother, helping  to distract Cole with a good crib game. Kelsey keeps Cole bolstered from a far with constant calls and texts to keep his spirits lifted.


Anyways, with this site, we will post how Cole is doing with the roller coaster of treatment he will go through.  We did a similar site with his sister, Kelsey, when she went to Epilepsy and her brain surgeries (which were very successful:)).  Please feel free to post messages, questions and just plain old well wishes!!!

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