Surgery Day

Right now Gavin is sleeping amidst tubes, wires and monitors, and he is minus one bronchopulmonary sequestration. Our little boy has been a trooper today. Everything went well; he is on the mend; and we should be home in a few days.

We started the day at 3:00 AM, wich was the last time that I could feed him. He went back to sleep; I did not. We had to be up at 4:30 to leave the house at 5:00, so I was just thinking too much to sleep. I wasn't anxious, just alert. We got to the hospital at 5:30 and got checked in ok. I was concerned that Gavin would be screaming by the time he went into surgery, since he hadn't eaten since 3:00, but he did really well--he only fussed once in a while. We met with a variety of nurses, anesthesiologists, and the surgeon. Gavin charmed them all. At 7:30, it was time to send him off to surgery. He did very well and so did we. We really felt comfortable and at peace with the whole process.

The nurse called us once from surgery to let us know everything was going well. Before we knew it, Dr. Saltzman showed up to let us know that the surgery was done and Gavin was in recovery. He brought us a picture of the artery that had been feeding the mass. He was impressed with the size of it: "Almost the size of the aorta," he said. The tissue that he removed was about walnut size. Gavin hardly lost any blood though the surgery. The scope worked well, except that one hole had to be wideded at the end of the surgery to remove the mass.

Gavin had apparently been very "uncomfortable" (hospital-speak for in pain) when he got to recovery, but the nurses had given him morphine and had it under control by the time they brought us in. He's been getting regular doses of morphine since then. We can tell that he is in pain when each dose starts to wear off, so we'll keep that up a little longer, but by tonight, we might try something not quite as strong. The biggest discomfort, and the thing that will determine the lenghth of our hospital stay, is a tube draining fluid from his chest. When the fluid buildup slows down and the tube can be removed, Gavin should be able to go home. The doctors expect that to be in 2-3 days.

Thank you for your prayers, everyone. We are blessed by you all. Please continue to pray for a speedy recovery!