Mr. Cooper Lynn turns 4 years old!!!

This little guy had a birthday on Saturday, April 20. He had 5 friends come play with him at Blast Off. I had to post some other cute photos of him that were in my phone. He is always ready for the camera and willing to smile on demand, unlike his older brother. He lets his sister dress him up and he loves to pick out his own clothes to wear, which don't always match colors or patterns. I love that every night before he goes to bed he says his prayers and then says "I love you to the moon and back mom." We look forward to many more great pictures of our little Coopidty Dooper.

These are pictures of him "walking around the sun" for his birthday celebration at school. We made colored vanilla pudding snacks with Oreo's on top for his special snack. This is always a special day when the kids get to walk around the sun and present their birthday poster.

March 7, 2013 - Parker's 5th Birthday (and info. on Matt too)

On March 7, 2013, our middle child, Parker Magnus, turned the big 5!! He is so excited to be a kindergartener next year. That's all he can talk about these days. He woke up to presents and a tractor cake. He had a great birthday celebration at school, then Nana picked him and the other kids up and took them to Wendy's for frosties and fries. She then had a party for him at her house. I had parent conferences all day and Matt was working, but Nana sure made up for it. Auntie Sarah and Jason joined in on the fun and bought him Skylanders for our Wii. He had a birthday party with his friends on  the "Fun on Wheels" bus. This is a gymnastics bus that goes around to local schools and teaches kids gymnastics. I think he had a pretty great day.

Update on Mr. Mikkelson: He continues to be great!! He's not happy with the amount of weight the steroids have allowed him to put on...25 lbs. since his surgery. Hopefully, now that he is lowering his steroids, his weight will go down also. He continues to drink a lot of liquids to quench his thirst and dry mouth. He's trying to only consume water and not many sugary drinks. He kept track yesterday, and he used the restroom 22 times from the time of waking up. This definitely puts a crimp in his days having to go to the bathroom so much. He will be tested again for diabetes incipidus at the Kidney Center here in Idaho Falls next week.  As long as he continues to input as much as he is outputting, then there is no problem. I'll update again when we have more information.

Before "The Brain Tumor"...

The week before we found out about Matt's brain tumor; we were having a great time in Salt Lake City, Utah. On January 5, Sarah, Jennifer, and I took Scotlyn to her first ever concert at a grand arena. It was a last minute deal so we didn't get great seats but we had a wonderful time. We surprised her that night when we were on our way to the concert. She was so surprised that she threw up in a janitor's trash can. In the above picture, she is holding a $6.00 empty popcorn bucket that Auntie Sarah had to pay for because Scotlyn thought she was going to throw up again. We sat and watched her google over Justin Bieber and Carly Rae Jeppson. She said it was the best surprise ever!! Next time, maybe we'll spring for better seats so he doesn't look so teeny. Both grandma's were also there to join in on the fun. They stayed in the hotel room and had fun with the boys. 

February 21, 2013 - Update after Salt Lake Follow Up

We have returned from Salt Lake with some great news, good news, and some news that we will wait 3 months for the actual results to be completely in the clear.

 The great news is that from the neurosurgeons point of view, Matt is doing excellent. In his words, "He is doing far better than expected and exceeded all his expectations." We aren't quite sure how to take that, but we're ecstatic that he is doing so well. He was a little surprised to see Matt up and moving so much. He did ask him to continue to take it easy for awhile. He did take him down a dose on his seizure medication and he'll be off it completely in a week. They are also reducing the amount of steroids he takes over the next few weeks to be back down to the 5mg that he normally takes. 

The good news is that from the eye specialist's exam his eye sight is even better than before he had the tumor...it's only good news because we have to return in 4-6 weeks for him to be tested for Pigment Dispersion Disorder. This is a precurser to glaucoma (I think) but won't affect him until he gets around 80. So, maybe they are just telling him that he's aging. This isn't that big of a deal just another "thing".

The news that we will wait for is from the endocronologist. Matt gave about 7 vials of blood between the two days and they are running tests which we won't get the results back till Monday. In one test, things looked good. They are still a bit concerned that his body might be in the state of Diabetes Insipidus. This is why he was in ICU for so long. He continues to drink about 300 ounces of liquid each day and therefore uses the restroom a lot. There are a total of 4 tests to look at for this. The 1st one was good, but the doc can't give a final answer till she reads them all. If his body is not in this state, then she said it's a behavior issue that will need to be mentally taken care of, like coming off of drugs and weaning himself off so much liquid intake. That sounds like fun!!! One small area of concern is his production of the hormone prolactin (I don't know if that's spelled right). His levels are elevated now and this is not a worry because it can still be from swelling around the brain stem. He will be tested again in 3 months and if his levels stay the same or go up, then he will need to have another MRI because that might indicate that there is still residual tissue left over and he might need surgery again. We are staying positive and will cross that bridge when we get to it. So, as of now, we wait for liver and blood tests to come back with some more information. The bottom picture is of his head and how it is healing, with which the surgeon was also very pleased. 

February 17, 2012

Hair cutting and Mardi Gras (and yes, an update on Matt)...Oh My!!!!

Nana and Auntie Sarah took the kids to the Snow Fest a few weeks ago and I forgot to post this picture. I love the look on Cooper's face as he is yelling at Sarah to get into the sled. He was worried that it was going to leave without her and she wanted to take a picture. 

Scotlyn has been wanting to cut her hair and donate it to "Locks of Love". They require at least 10 inches and she wasn't ready to cut it up to her ears, so, she decided to donate it to a program sponsored by Pantene and does the same thing. She only had to cut off 8 inches. She loves it and looks very cute.

My school's annual fundraiser was held on Saturday, February 16, and we all had a great time. It was Matt & me, my mom & dad, my sister, Matt & Rechelle Hintze (friends of ours), and Debbie & Clark (friends of ours). We didn't bid on anything but did buy a bunch of cake pops for our table's dessert. We dressed up in an 80's punk rock theme and danced the night away. 

I love this picture of two of my boys. Cooper came in to snuggle with Matt one morning and gave him big kisses and a hug and sweetly said, "Daddy, when are you going to feel better?" Here's the part where I update most of you on the reason you're still looking at our blog. Things continue to remain the same as they did in the mid-week update. We are heading down to Salt Lake this week for two days of doctors appointments for some follow up tests and hopefully some answers for a few questions we have. Matt was able to see a GI doc who wasn't overly concerned with the way his gall bladder and kidneys were not working properly. He decided to take some more blood tests and see where we go from there when the results come back. We still have a long road to a full recovery, but the sun is shining and things are looking up for him. He continues to have headaches each day and hopefully those will diminish as time passes. The kids are aware that he doesn't feel well a lot of time and are very patient and good at trying to stay quiet. He has also noticed an indent on the side where they removed part of his skull. The swelling has gone down enough and we can see a visible difference from his left side. This will be another question to ask the surgeon when we see him. I'll post another update when we return from Salt Lake at the end of the week.