Jonathan Cooper Update

Wow! Can you believe it’s already 2007? It’s truly amazing. First of all, let me apologize for the problems with the website. Because I was being a delinquent updater, we did not realize that the website had been down for so long. We are trying to correct the issue and hopefully will have it up and running again soon. Some changes may have to be made to it but hopefully they will be good changes. Thanks for checking on us and for always keeping us in your prayers. Please forgive me for not updating sooner.
We enjoyed our Christmas holiday so much that we were not ready for it to be over. There is much to share with you as we ended one year and began another. We had a wonderful Christmas! We spent some time with both our families and just spent the rest of the time hanging out together. This Christmas was not without its stresses, but there seemed, to me, to be such an incredible peace that surrounded us and overpowered the stresses that were present. It was such a blessing. During the last week of the year, we had dinner with some special family friends and prepared for our Dec. 30th get together at our house. The night before when I was putting Jonathan to bed, he seemed a little somber. He asked me when the exact date was that he got sick. I told him it would be two years ago the next day. I asked him if he was okay and he began to cry. He had started getting a cold during the day, so I don’t think he felt real good, but I also think that he was a little overwhelmed thinking about that. We talked and I told him that he didn’t need to be afraid, that God had been with us then and He would continue to be with us on our journey, so there was no need to fear. We prayed for a little bit and talked a little and then I let him sleep on the mat beside my bed. I stayed in the room reading a book while he was going to sleep. He usually goes to sleep pretty quickly and I expected him to do the same this night. While I was reading, I heard some quiet whispering coming from him so I stopped to listen and realized that he was praying for God to heal him. This is something he does very often but this was the first time I had the privilege of witnessing it. I was so touched and moved by his unending trust in the Lord, even though he is so young and he has gone through so much. Jonathan remains a strong testimony and example to me – he remains my hero. We had several families join us at our house on the 30th. We had a nice time visiting and sharing about the things that God has done in our lives over the last year. New Year’s Eve was busy for us. After going to church in the morning, we all participated in the New Year’s Parade. It’s been a number of years since they have had this parade and they were trying to bring it back. First Baptist Dallas had two floats in the parade and Jonathan and I got to ride on one of them. Elizabeth and Sarah carried banners for the floats with their friends and Lamar shuttled people back and forth from the church to the parade. It turned out to be a lot of fun even though it was quite chilly that day. That took up most of our day, but we spent the rest of the year at home. Jonathan rolled in the New Year with a very nice drum roll on his drums. He’s getting really good at that. We spent the first week of 2007 just getting some things done and preparing to get back to our regular schedule this week. We made some more changes in our diet and exercise starting on Jan. 2. Lamar, Jonathan and I began drinking protein shakes for breakfast and lunch and eating a low carb, low calorie meal at dinner. In addition to watching our carbs, we have decreased our calorie intake significantly. It has not been too bad, although we really have to concentrate and work hard at making it through our day until we get to eat dinner. Jonathan and I have been walking or bike riding every day (except Sunday) for almost 2 weeks now. We were a little disappointed that we didn’t lose any weight after the first week, but we did have some positive things happen because of what we were doing. Jonathan’s blood sugars have been very, very good. I have been able to lower his lantus from 42 to 38 so far because he has been waking up in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s almost every morning. Because he is not eating any carbs at breakfast and lunch, if he is within normal blood sugar range (80-150) then he doesn’t get a shot at that meal. So over the last 2 weeks he has gone from getting 4-5 shots a day down to 2-3 shots a day. These have been great blessings that we have been so thankful for. We are hoping that as we continue to eat low carb and low calorie, as we exercise regularly, and as we hopefully can continue to lower his insulin intake, that all of this together will help us lose some of the weight that we have gained. This morning when we got on the scales, Jonathan had lost 3 pounds, I had lost 3 pounds and Lamar had lost 7 pounds! Praise The Lord! What an encouragement! Jonathan also woke up with a blood sugar in the 50s so I will be dropping his lantus again tonight to 36. Please pray for us that we can continue to see results from our diligence and discipline in this area. I ended up calling about his blood work results because I never heard from the doctor. The thyroid and metabolic profile tests that he had done all came back looking good. I did spend some time doing some research on this prader willie syndrome that he wanted to have him tested for. As I have had some time to ponder on the things that this gait specialist had to say, I feel as though none of these diseases that they are looking for are the problem. I have always felt like that but because I am not a medical personnel, my opinion doesn’t hold much weight. But God has placed us as Jonathan’s parents and I feel that God’s direction to me about this is that this is not where the problem lies. So after getting the results of his blood work, I canceled the MRI that was to be done last week and I am not having him tested for these other diseases. I still must decide about who he is going to see for an endocrinologist. We will either call Children’s and go back and see the doctor he saw originally, or we will try to find an independent doctor to work with Jonathan. As far as his foot goes, I plan to call Scottish Rite this week to get an application and find out if there are any other possibilities available for Jonathan’s foot. Another change that we have made with Jonathan is that we are slowing backing off on his sleeping medicine. On Jan. 1, we began taking 1 pill (0.5 mg.) instead of 2 (1 mg). The doctor told us to wait about 2 weeks between each change, so for the last two weeks he has been sleeping well with only 1 sleeping pill. Last night we took the 1 pill and broke it in half and will continue to take this for the next two weeks. So far so good. We are pleased with his progress in this area as well. If he sleeps well without any medication, we will be able to cancel our follow up appointment with the neurologist and we will have made it through another significant hurdle. God has been so good to us. Please pray that Jonathan will continue to handle sleeping normally without medication. So this is where we are with Jonathan at this point. We started back to school this week. Everyone is doing well so far and we had a good, productive week this week. On Tuesday we attended the open house of the new wing of Our Children’s House at Baylor downtown. We got to see most of the doctors, nurses and therapists that he had while he was there. Everyone remembered him and was thrilled to see him. Our Children’s House has a beautiful new wing with more rooms, offices, therapy rooms and a beautiful new gym. We told them we were not going to come stay but we were glad to be able to see the new facility. There was a baby in a baby bed in room 209 where Jonathan stayed. We are thankful for the way God worked in Jonathan’s life while he was there, but we are even more thankful that he no longer has to be there. It is a bittersweet feeling to be down there. We have much to be thankful for. We enjoyed the cold weather over the weekend, but wished we had seen more snow that we got to see. We were able to make it church on Sunday morning, but otherwise we spent the weekend together at home. Saturday was Jonathan’s first basketball game with Upward this year. It was a tough game and even though his team lost, they all played a great game. Jonathan did really well. He got to make two baskets with the “J play” and worked hard while he was in the game. Jonathan’s level of processing is extremely slow therefore it takes him a while (if at all) for him to hear what someone is saying to him and to do it. Hopefully we can work on this and help him to improve as the weeks go by. On the other hand, this time he didn’t just stand in his spot and wait for everything to come to him. He was in the middle of the game, yelling at his teammates, ready for them to throw him the ball so he could help out. When he was not playing, he was cheering on his team from the side. I couldn’t help but think of how far Jonathan has come since last year’s first Upward game. Jonathan was still crying every time he would get fatigued and need to sit down. Now he can make it through an entire practice without sitting down. Last year, he started to cry when I left him with his team as they lined up for the first game. This year, he never looked back. Once he was with his team, his focus was on his coach and what he had to say. One thing that is the same as last year is that his coaches and teammates love him, encourage him and cheer him on at every turn; even the new guys. How great is our God!
Well, again I apologize for being so late with this post. To be honest, I was just enjoying our time off and then we got busy. But as always, thank you for thinking of us and for checking on us. You all are our wonderful, precious friends and we are so humbled and so grateful for each of you. Please keep us in your prayers. Pray that we will continue to see progress with our weight loss and diet. Pray that Jonathan’s blood sugars will continue to improve and that we will be able to lower his insulin intake even more. Pray for his flexibility, strength and stamina as we continue to exercise. Pray for us as we determine what God wants us to do regarding Jonathan’s doctors. Pray that God will direct us regarding the correction of his foot. Pray that Jonathan will be able to improve in his focus and processing skills. And continue to pray for progress with his sleeping and that we will be able to successfully get off of the sleeping medicine very soon. You can pray for our family as well as we are facing some significant financial issues. Pray that God will guide us in what we need to do and that He will help us to trust Him for what we cannot do. We love you all. You mean so very much to us. We pray that God will abundantly bless you with His most incredible blessings in this Blessed New Year.

Psalm 37:3-5 Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, and He will do it.