Adolescence

I have decided that I might need to take up yoga or something to get me through the adolescent years that lie ahead in this household. Having a boy as my oldest was supposed to make this transition easier, but I think that is a myth.

I feel like I don't even remember when Cooper was little and it is all a big blur. He is such a great kid, but he has had to deal with some mild bullying at school and is just dealing with other aspects of growing up. He tried the 'girlfriend' thing for about a week, but when she started texting him all the time, he checked out and dumped her.

Then, on Friday he had his semi-annual pacemaker check-up and Dr. Schaffer decided to have him wear a 24 hr holter monitor to check the function of his SA node and to take a further look at his coronaries. Apparently, at his last check-up, Dr. Schaffer saw something that made him want to investigate further. His pacemaker is working great now after some issues with it over the last year and he was even able to turn down the amount of energy required to make it capture (meaning the battery still has 7 years left!), but Dr. Schaffer gave me the impression that there are just enough small anomalies that he needs to keep a close eye on him over the next few years.

I forget sometimes that the surgery Cooper had was only successfully done for the first time about 15 years before he was born. The coronary arteries that feed the heart itself were among those structures that were in the wrong place and had to be switched using stitches that are thinner than a human hair. It stands to reason that messing with them would cause some trauma and some issues later in life--I've just chosen to not think about it.

Anyway, the holter monitor is a very simple test--you wear a small box that you clip to your pants and you have 5 EKG leads on your chest. It gives excellent data not only about the electrical status of your heart, but can show things like ischemia in certain areas, hypertrophy, etc. I'm amazed what you can see from an EKG. Cooper was not pleased that he had to wear it (major understatement here). I think the culmination of what's been going on at school and then not wanting to feel different was the last straw. How easily I forget that middle school can just be ROUGH!!!

As we were leaving the hospital, we ran into one of Cooper's friends that just spent a month at Children's for necrotizing fascitis and nearly lost his arm. He, too, was there for an appt. God works in mysterious ways sometimes because there we were in the lobby at Children's and Cooper is not happy with his holter and his friend had just been poked and had some painful stitches removed and suddenly they didn't care anymore. They instantly forgot their own problems and we ended up having lunch with them. Of course, I had to get a picture of them without shirts on. :)

So, after a drama-filled week, I then got an e-mail from one of Cooper's teachers telling me he had been selected for a behavior award and his picture would be on the wall for the week (probably means more teasing, but oh well!). Here were her comments, "As teachers, we see many responsible students every day. They come to class prepared to learn. They have pencil and paper ready, and they come to class with a positive attitude and that's infectious. When they are missing something for class, they are the student who finds a solution, not an excuse. Although many of our students are responsible, we chose one student who best exemplified this train. It is with pleasure that the 7th grade team honors Cooper Lindhardt." Made my day and helped me remember that even though parenting can be so hard and such a roller coaster sometimes, it is worth every ounce of effort and the most important job I will ever have!