Today we had our pre admission appointment for Coop's upcoming surgery on the 18th. The appointment went just fine but we had one nervous boy. He could not hold still for anything. He was not crazy or misbehaving but he was up on the table, down on the table, up on Terry's lap, down, up on my lap, down...........and on and on. The appointment was long and boring for him but it is amazing to realize how much he remembers and comprehends from the past. The nurse and doctors simply say, "Ok Cooper let me check you out" and he jumps up on the table, lays down and lifts up his shirt and lies perfectly still not making a sound. He is a wonderful patient. His stats were all good but still a very low heart rate. We are still in the dark as to why his heart rate is so low but hopefully we will have a few more answers after his surgery on Tuesday. I have to say that it is like a reunion when we have appointments like these when we meet with the surgical team. We saw our very favorite surgical nurse today and she came in hugging and oohing and awing over us. I can't tell you how nice that is. They also are familiar faces to Coop which is also nice. She recognized Coop's anxiety and brought him a little something, Courage the Lion. It is a special stuffed animal that has a little pouch in it's tummy that has a heart and a worry stone inside for Coop to rub if he gets scared. Coop LOVES Courage. Courage has not left his side since.
Coop's upcoming surgery, in our world, is miner. They will be doing the procedure through a cardiac catheter which means it is NOT open heart surgery. They will be doing angioplasty in various areas and exploring to see what else might be going on. We are their first case on Tuesday morning so we should be out the following day if all goes well. The biggest factors this time have been keeping Coop's exposure to illness minimize for the weeks leading up to surgery and reducing his chance of infection post surgery. It has been recommended several times that we pull Coop from school and daycare to reduce his risk of exposure to illnesses but we declined because we feel Coop's emotional well being is as important as his medical well being. Coop is a busy body who loves his friends, loves school, loves daycare and would have been terrified and nervous if I had tried to keep him at home for the past 2 weeks. Our surgical nurse agreed today which was reassuring. We will call Friday his last day as Monday will also be an important day to chill and rest for him. Coop himself has been a completely different situation to deal with as well. He is able to express himself so much more now than he did at 3 1/2 years old when he had his last procedure. He also remembers things we never dreamed he would remember. Last night when I was putting him to bed he said, "Mommy can the give me that drink that makes me silly and makes you not cry so much?" Of course he is talking about a medicine they gave him prior to surgery that just makes him silly and is suppose to keep him from remembering anything. Because he doesn't cry when they take him, I don't cry either. I told him we would definitely request it! He has asked almost nightly when we say our prayers to pray that he does not die at his surgery. Then tonight he asked if we could pray that he would not be afraid. It all pulls at the heart strings but also makes me sooooo proud that he is able to express in words his feelings. He is such an amazing little boy who gives me my strength and more.
Coop's surgery is also on Raelynn's mind. She was so happy to see her brother today when we picked her up from school. She waited until Coop was out of ear range and then whispered, "How did his appointment go?" I let her know things went well and reviewed with her some of the things we have to do from now until Tuesday to reduce the risk of infection. Then she asked if he was scared. I let her know he was a little nervous but did really good. She said, "that's our Boo (our nickname for Coop), I will talk to him tonight about it." She goes so into mother mode at times I am astonished she is 7. Besides her wonderful relationship with Coop, I love her understanding of what is important. Tonight I was cleaning out her book bag and found this......
When I opened it up the card was signed by several students. I asked her about it and she said, "yea, I made the card and then when I was telling the other kids that Christmas was really Jesus's birthday and how the presents just represent the gifts brought to Jesus, they wanted to sign the card too." It made me smile, her confidence shined.
All in all it seems we are ready to go next week and I will be so happy when this is in our past and Christmas is dangling in front of us!!!
By the way.......our little elf sure is causing some problems this year....
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