Colorado oncology nurse goes from treating patients to becoming one: "It feels good that I can tell my patients 'it's OK, it'll get better'"
Jackie Cooper has been a nurse for 47 years, with 10 of those years spent at the AdventHealth Parker Cancer Center.
"It's a hard job and there are hard days, but the good days make up for the hard days. Being a part of someone's life when they really need someone who knows what they're talking about," said Cooper.
And in that time, she's treated hundreds of oncology patients. A diagnosis can be frightening.
"There's a lot of big words flying around a lot of words that people don't understand," she said.
Cooper knows because she's been there.
Last October, she went from treating patients to becoming one of them. And this week, she shared her story exclusively with CBS News Colorado.
"I was two months late getting my screening because I wanted it to work around my work schedule. I never felt anything and wouldn't have felt anything because it was up against my chest wall. Honestly, it was like 'OK' - and here we go! We found the little spot and we started the process, from one appointment to another, biopsies to ultrasounds. By the time we did surgery, there were two positive lymph nodes," she said.
Fast forward to today. She's celebrating being cancer free.
"It's a long haul, a lot of appointments, and a lot of just grinding though those 30 radiation treatments," she said.
And she got treated, at the very same place where she helps her patients overcome their disease. She continued to work and treat others during that time as well. Living proof that they, too, can be victorious.
"It feels good that I can tell my patients it's OK. If (they) ask, I can tell them it'll get better. It does," she said.
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