Healing days

We are home and healing more and more every day!  The beginning of our recovery looked similar to the days in the hospital . . . more movies in the wagon! We battled through 5 more days of steroids and then waited for them to completely leave his body.   The steroids not only affected his mood, but also made him a nonstopping eating and drinking machine.  He has proclaimed loudly and frequently throughout his days, "I need food!" You can see from his bath picture below that he has put on a few pounds during the recovery process. 

One week after we came home from the hospital, we ventured back down to Children's for a post-op appointment with Dr. Mangano.  Coop had a great time in the waiting room playing mini golf as he waited to be seen.  We survived the suture removal, but almost had to reschedule for next week with sedation because this Headstrong boy even intimidates the director of neurosurgery!  After some convincing (of Dr. Mangano), Matt and I assured him we could hold Cooper tightly enough for him to remove the sutures. It took a little while and we were all sweating by the end, but we did it!  The top of the incision looks amazing!  In fact, our little boy was healing so quickly that the skin was growing over the sutures which made removal a little trickier.  The bottom of the incision had not yet sealed so the doctor decided another week of paper stiches was necessary.  These steri strips are not to get wet so we've been getting creative with bath time.  They will roll up and off in the next few days and we are anxious to see how he has healed.  We have stayed closed up in our house as he heals and washed hands often, but somehow the germs of the season still made their way into our house.  Connor has strep throat and Cooper has a cough and cold.  At first I got nervous and panicked, but then I realized a cold is just a cold . . . even after brain surgery!   The best news about the cough is that he has not complained of head pain!  Not once!  Prior to surgery a coughing fit would bring him to his knees in pain.  Today, plenty of coughing and not a single complaint of pain.  Praises!!

In the last three days, Cooper is slowly returning to his old self.  He wants to be up more then down.  He's acting silly, impatient, sweet and angry all within a 30 minute time frame. Sounds crazy, but that's more like the Cooper we are used to!  He has taken us on a roller coaster ride since before he was born.  We now understand that we actually have very little control and it is best to openly embrace and learn from the intense highs and lows that come with parenting Coop.
We are continuing to work through the emotional and physical aftermath of 2 weeks in the hospital and return to a new kind of normal.  We are a changed family . . . perspective will do that to you.  We are overwhelmed and grateful for the outpouring of love and support that has been shown by all of you.  The prayers, meals, texts, emails, cards, gifts and LOVE that has lifted us up will never be forgotten.  We are blessed.

"Be on your guard, stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.  Do everything in love."
1 Corinthians 16: 13-14