Raising money for the continuing care of Cooper. Cooper has been battling illness since 2024. He fought two rare diagnoses and began to get better. Then things turned for the worse. Cooper started being unable to keep food down, experienced muscle loss, joint pain, headaches, and debilitating pain. There have been days where he was unable to get out of bed, with weakness and fatigue not fixed by sleeping. Even walking from room to room can be an exhausting event for him.

In January 2026, Cooper was admitted to Children's Hospital for severe malnutrition; he was down to 139 lbs. His heart rate was extremely low, and his blood pressure was extremely low, all due to the weight he had lost. We could've lost him! It wasn't due to him not eating; it was due to the inability to keep food down. He was placed on a feeding tube and had several tests to see if they could figure out what was going on. He was discharged home with a feeding tube and several follow-ups.

We have now seen Dr. Peeden at Children's in his Rare Diagnosis Clinic. After digging very deep into Cooper's health history, we are beginning to get a diagnosis of ME/CFS. This, again, is also rare, and not a lot of doctors specialize in it. We are going to be getting a referral to Johns Hopkins to see Dr. Peter Rowe. This will be an expense that we were not prepared for, and with being out of work with Cooper as we navigate this new diagnosis, things are tight. If you are able to donate, please do; if not, please share. Anything helps and would be a blessing. Thank you all!