Mascara & The Baby Era: Health update on the Coopsters!

Let me start out with this:

Real people insurance sucks.

BAD.

Had we had this insurance before when Cooper had his surgeries,

we would not be in the same position at this moment.

Thank the Lord he was watching over us and the timing was when it was!

Any ways,

Cooper has had some recent procedures done to figure out what is going on with him.

A few weeks ago, after we had The Neck X-rays done for the ENT doctor, we went back in and saw him for the results and to see where we were going to go from there.

The doctor was checking Cooper's adenoids to see if they were enlarged and if that was making it uncomfortable for Cooper to eat or swallow.

They were enlarged, but not at a concerning size.

He gave us his opinion on what he thought we should do next: a scope in office.

He said typically from what he saw from the results of the x-ray, and a baby was gaining weight and we were still hearing the noise when he breathed, he would say, "Let's just ride it out", but with Cooper specifically, his weight gain, or lack there of (1.5 lbs weight gain in 6 months), and his history, he wanted to do a scope in office to see where we go from there.

Mama was the bad guy and had to hold him down as they put a tiny tube down his nose to see through the nasal passages and the esophagus.

As he was going through this, the doctor asked if Cooper had a cold, I told him that he didn't and that concerned him a little. He said he has a lot of congestion for a little guy without a cold. He also saw ridges and bumps along the wall of the esophagus and was concerned about that.

He also said he saw a lot of excess floppiness and tissue from the previous surgery that could be removed surgically if needed.

He heard Coopers breathing and he said it is residual Lyrangomalatia (even though they fixed it before, there is still more that can be done).

He wanted to wait and hear back from the endoscopy we were having done in a few weeks to see what our next step would be.

I am so thankful this doctor is not a surgery happy surgeon.

He told us,

"If I could tell you, 'we can fix his eating issues with another surgery to get rid of the residual lyrangomalatia', I would do it in a second, But I can't be 100% certain. I want to see the results of the endoscopy to see if there are problems with GI that can be done or need to be done, then we have a few options on what we will do".

Some of those options are, a clinic where there are three doctors working together: himself, a GI doctor and a pulmonologist who are all at the appointment and discuss all the results and issues together to come up with a cohesive plan.

We can also potentially do the surgery if they don't find any issues with the Endoscopy.

He said if the only reason we were to do the surgery was so Cooper wasn't so noisy, he wouldn't do it. So that is really good to hear from your doctor/surgeon. You never want a doctor who is overzealous to do a potentially unnecessary surgery.

So we will see him again after we get the results from the endoscopy.

Then this past Monday, Cooper had the Endoscopy.

The Doctor gave us the results of what he saw, but we are waiting on the results from the biopsy's he did when he was in there.

Here is what we know so far:

Anatomically, apart from his small intestine being in the wrong place and how the previous surgeons tacked it down, from the surgery to fix the malrotation, he doesn't have any problems.

The Doctor did see ridges and bumps down Cooper's esophagus, so he is concerned with that being some kind of food allergy, or reflux.

The biopsy results will let us know.

He wants to put Cooper on an appetite stimulant to increase Cooper's hunger and food intake to hopefully get this kid growing.

We will hopefully hear back from the Doctor either Thursday or Friday with the results because he was going to try to rush them since he typically would get them back in a week and that would be Labor Day.

If I never have to watch my baby boy be knocked out with anesthetics again, that will be three times too many.

I almost made it out of there without crying like a baby.

Even thinking about it now makes me tear up a little.

It is so hard watching them do that.

I am so grateful that Jeff was there with me for this one.

I had family with me before when Cooper had his surgeries when Jeff was deployed, But having your husband there to comfort you while your baby is out and having a procedure really makes you feel so much better.

Also, We heard back from the speech therapist we saw a month ago and she is still looking into where we can begin feeding therapy and occupational therapy with Cooper.

So hopefully in the next few days we will have a better idea of what is going on and we can work to help Cooper gain some weight.

Here are some pictures from before the Endoscopy.