Jackson's Life Journey

I'm going to warn some of you now, you might not like what you have to read and you may not agree with it, but I encourage you to consider this position; especially if you care about our little boy. Jackson Cooley is on Medicaid and without the Affordable Care Act, he and I wouldn't be where we are today. When Austin got hurt in 2014 we got on Medicaid because we couldn't afford health coverage while he wasn't working... we were able to qualify due to the ACA. When we were in a better place financially we went to go off of Medicaid; however I was already pregnant with Jackson at the time. Because of my pregnancy I was kept on Medicaid which turned out to be a huge blessing. During my pregnancy with Jackson I saw 4 specialists, got over 20 ultrasounds, and lots of blood work and non-stress tests because of my bicornate uterus, Jackson's growth restrictions and his clubfeet. There would have been no way we could have paid for the extreme number of tests I had done to...

As we have approached this holiday season we are full of excitement to have our wonderful, blessed life we live. Our son is our greatest joy and blessing. We have gifts wrapped and are getting the tree ready for Santa to decorate on Christmas Eve. I can't wait to see the wonder I hope will fill his eyes when he sees the lights on Christmas tree. Since my last update he has grown so much. He clocks in around 20 lbs and 30 inches; he's a lean tall boy. We are cloth diapering and he loves his pretty diapers. He's a heavy wetter so we use disposables at night but that's okay. His physical therapy is going pretty well however there are still some concerns. He was saying dada and making other intelligent sounds but he may be digressing into just squeals, yells, and grunts which could be bad. We are working on getting him to crawl but are struggling; he works hard with Ms. Shelley. He seems to prefer an extension posture which includes locking all him limbs so we need to get ...

So Jackson is now 6 months old, actually pushing 7 months now. He had his six month physical a few weeks ago and he is thriving; as if we didn't already know that. He was 17 lbs and 15 oz and 28 inches. Now he's over 18 lbs. He got a few shots and took it like a trooper, a few tears after the needles went in but nothing past that. Jackson got the flu shot as well; he goes back in a month for the second dose. Since then we have begun dealing with our first real He had his orthopedic appointment as well. Dr. Oetgen was super excited about how well Jackson's feet are doing. He gave us the go to transition into night time wear. Jackson now wears his boots from the time he falls asleep until he wakes up first thing in the morning. We go back in January for a check to make sure he isn't relapsing or anything crazy. He also had his urology appointment! Dr. Kaloo told us the hydrocenes (fluid in his testicles) resolved but she still had concerns about his hypospadia so she pr...

So now Jackson is 5 months old and we are entering into the next stage of his life. We love Jackson so much and he has such a big personality. He loves when you rub on his belly or tickle his feet. He plays with his ball, but loves his elephant lovey we call Ellie and the elephant crib toy Horton. We never go anywhere without them. He finally enjoys bath time though he doesn't mind not having to take one. He weighed in at a whopping 16 lbs and 1 oz at his last appointment and was 27.5 inches at his 4 month check up; that's in the 97% for his age. We are pretty sure he is going to be tall like his daddy and his uncles :). He is all legs and does he have some power behind them. He will leave you with bruises when he kicks with his bars. He has finished his casting process about four months ago.We were so glad to be done with it. I never thought I would love the sight and smell of his little feet so much. And they do stink by the way. He had his heel cord release on May 3rd and ...

Today we went to Children's National Medical Center to meet with neonatal doctors as well as the orthopedic surgeon to discuss the plan for treatment of Jackson's club feet. It was confirmed that he does indeed have bilateral club feet; this was confirmed with a level II ultrasound that lasted around an hour to an hour and half. The orthopedic surgeon set out a treatment plan based on the Ponseti method of treatment. This method involves Children's being notified of Jackson's birth and scheduling his first appointment within the first week to two weeks after his birth. At this first appointment, he will be assessed and if everything looks good he will receive his first casts at that appointment. Depending on the overall severity of his feet he will have serial casting for 6 to 9 weeks; the casts will be changed every week during that time. Before his last casts are placed on he will have a quick procedure that involves numbing his heels and "releasing" his Ach...

So we were supposed to go to Children's National Medical Center today but that did not happen seeing as a record breaking blizzard was bearing down on our area. We have hopefully rescheduled for next week so that we can get all the information that we need to continue to support our baby boy's health as is necessary. More updates to come as we get them.

So on January 11, 2016 I had to go to an ultrasound at a prenatal specialist because my stubborn baby boy had not allowed any of the previous ultrasound techs to get good pictures of his face and of his umbilical cord insertion. While we were at the appointment they got a good look at his whole body including his face and cord. Because it was my first appointment at this office, they went ahead and check all of his limbs and parts just to be sure. While the doctor was talking to us about how wonderful our little Jackson looked, she stopped and asked the ultrasound tech to come in and take a few more pictures. The ultrasound tech stopped on one of his limbs and it was pretty clear that something was off due to the look on the faces of the tech and the doctor. It turns out that Jackson's right foot is turned inward and it is highly likely that his left foot is also turned in this way. This is known as bilateral club foot. Club foot's causes are not known; people think it could be...