Craniosynostosis

Craniosynostosis is a congenital (present at birth) defect that causes one or more sutures on a baby's head to close earlier than normal. Sutures are connections that separate each individual skull bones. The early closing of a suture leads to an abnormally shaped head. Side effects could include: loss of hearing, blindness by age 6, 1% chance of brain damage and dental problems.
This is a defect that our baby Cooper has. It was not caught at birth nor at any of his wellness checks with our family doctor. A nurse at Kearney Clinic saw pictures of him and was concerned and recommended we go see a pediatrician. So we traveled to Kearney. While there, we were sent over to the hospital for an MRI. The MRI showed that his frontal cranial was prematurely closed. From Kearney Clinic, we were sent to Surgical Images in Omaha where we met with our plastic surgeon Dr. Richard Bruneteau. In just 5 minutes, he knew we needed to fix Cooper's skull. However while there, he recommended we see a neurosurgeon to see if there was possibly any brain damage. While meeting with Dr. Mark Puccioni, he reassured us that there was not any brain damage present.
So with letters to our insurance company, surgery was scheduled for May 17, 2010 at Children's Hospital in Omaha.
The day of the surgery, we had to be at the hospital by 5am. They preped him for surgery and gave him his happy juice and took him away. We went out and sat with our crew of family members that came to support us. It was nice to have them all there to help pass the time, but little Cooper was in our minds the whole time.
Around 9:30am, the surgical nurse came to say they were closing and near completion. Both Dr's came out to visit around 10:30am to reassure us that things went well and that they were taking Cooper to recovery.
We had to wait until about 11:30 to see our little Cooper. His poor little head was bandaged up, and his right eye was beginning to bruise and swell. He was coming out of anestisia and not a very happy camper. Nothing we did could settle him down, so they tried more pain meds. Finally we were able to calm him down enough that he could sleep.
Later in the day, they informed us that his heart rate was creeping lower so they wanted to change his pain meds. That helped the heart rate, but he began vomitting almost every hour. The first night was a very long night for all of us.
By Day 2, his eyes were swelling a lot more and his bruising was terrible and we were still in PICU. They were able to stablize him enough that we got to move to 5th floor which is pediatric floor at Children's. It was on this day that his sweet little eye opened up. It was close to 7pm and everyone was wanting to leave the hospital and his cousins were talking to him and all of a sudden he opened his eye. It was one of the most precious things I've seen!! We were all happy to see his little blue eye ball!!
On Day 3, Dr. Puccioni came in and noticed his little eye was opened and said that as soon as he ate something, we could go home. The nurse we had was not in agreement to that, but the little man wanted FOOD! We gave him some food and by noon, Dr. Bruneteau came in and said that we could be released. With all the paper work and consulting with Dr's, we were finally on the road home by 7pm.
The trip home was a great one. Cooper vomited once, but I think it was the pain meds on an empty stomache. We finally made it home at 11:30pm, and on the way home his other little eye opened up!! When we got home, my parents had the older boys here waiting for our arrival! Cooper was so happy to see his big brothers and they were excited to see him!!
Thank You everyone for all your continued love, support and prayers through all of this!