Handsome Boys Ready for Church

Cooper's Heart

Cooper had his heart surgery with week, and it went perfectly!! Cooper was born with aortic stenosis. The stenosis caused pressure in his heart. Also one of the arteries in his heart is enlarged. When he was born he went to primary children's and had several tests and echos. After a year the doctors saw no changes (good sign) so we weren't expecting anything to go wrong.
In the past few months Jason and I have been noticing that his energy level is way down. He also has been sleeping tons. He took him to the doctor for another echo and she said that they needed to do surgery. It wasn't open heart surgery (good news!) but they did need to make an incision in his leg/groin area and use a catheter to go an balloon his valve to stretch it out.
We have been pretty nervous, but since we found out he needed surgery, we have been saying lots of prayers. He also got a priesthood blessing and several people were fasting for him. Thanks to all the prayers and the Lord's help, everything went perfectly!!!

When we arrived at the hospital they told us that one of the main risks was that this procedure would cause his valve to leak blood. They said it is really common, and almost always happens a little bit. The more you need to do this procedure, the more it will leak, until finally he would need a replacement valve. So we were pretty concerned about that.

Before they got things started, they have Cooper a really cool wooden train. They said it was handmade by one of the doctors.

One of my big worries was having Cooper get the IV. Good news! They put him to sleep first, then gave him the IV. They also gave him some medicine to help with anxiety. As soon as he got the medicine he was pretty loopy and very happy. He didn't care that we had to say goodbye to him before he was even asleep (that is what made me cry; I wanted to be there at least until he fell asleep).

We had to wait a VERY long 2.5 hours and then they paged us back. The doctor showed us a bunch of cool pictures of the procedure. They actually tried to balloon it with the regular size balloon and it didn't stretch, so they did it with a larger balloon and it stretched perfectly. He said that there was no leaking (something that he said never happens) and he reduced the gradient level from 80 (anything 50 or higher is bad) to 20. He said the procedure went perfectly!

We got to go upstairs and see Cooper, and he was pretty out of it. It took him a couple hours before he wanted to really talk to us. He didn't remember anything about the experience (including them putting him to sleep). He didn't cry and became pretty content and happy. The nurses kept asking him if he was hurting and he said no (he hasn't had any pain meds including Tylenol since the procedure). He had a pretty big incision, so he needed to stay overnight so they could make sure it didn't start bleeding. We watched lots of TV in the room, and Cooper became more alert as the night went on. We made him a gift basket, and put a gumball machine, a toy, some candy, a psp game and some movies in it. He loved the gumball machine. He asked if he could sleep with it (like a teddy bear). As the night went on you could tell he was recovering more and more. At one point he said "mom, I am hyper". He didn't fall asleep until after 11pm. I got to sleep in the hospital bed with him. The nurses came in and out throughout the night to check vitals and then we woke up a 6am for x-rays. He was a little grouchy waking up because the lack of sleep.
We met with the doctors in the morning, and they told us everything looked great! They told me that he has to stay down today, but tomorrow he can do his normal activities!
Putting him to bed tonight he was pretty hyper. I wonder if I am already noticing changes in the way he feels with his new and improved heart!
I love my Cooper, and I know that he was definitely being looked after throughout this whole procedure!

FHE Lesson - King Benjamin

Jason did a fun FHE lesson for the kids today. He set up a big tent/fort, and also a "tower". He talked about King Benjamin, and had me stand on the tower and read them a few verse of King Benjamin's verses on Service.

Here's a video of our opening song. Cooper LOVES "Follow the Prophet". That is the only song he ever requests.