What started it all...{part 5} "Saturday"

{I copied and pasted these entries from our family blog way back when I originally posted them!}

Gavin is doing well this morning. I stayed with him overnight so Andre could go home and get some sleep. They have him in the PICU (pediatric intensive care unit) but they are moving him back to the children's ward today. The rooms are a lot bigger and are decorated really cute, but the nurses come in way more frequently (like every 30 minutes at least) so it was hard to really sleep at all last night.

Plus, as a mom I guess you *never* really stop worrying, and I kept thinking "what if something happens and all of a sudden all the nurses come rushing in and I'm there all alone freaking out in the corner?!" Thankfully it was an uneventful night.

His nurse was about my age and she had a 4 month old son named Gavin, too. I thought that was kinda neat. We laughed about how "creative" we thought we were being in using the name Gavin, as it is quite apparent to both of us now that this name is going to be really popular!

Gavin is still really sleepy, but when he wakes up he is aware and has even smiled a few times. Mostly he's kinda cranky and keep sucking at his hands because he's hungry. He has to fast now for 2-3 days though! :X They have to wait until his bowels start functioning again b/c they go into shock during surgery and get "lazy". So if they tried feeding him now he would just throw up. As soon as he has a bowel movement they will start him on pedialyte, then move back to formula.

At least this time he can have pain meds though!!! They have him on a couple different pain meds and switch them off & on, but he will still cry out in pain every once in awhile. He was really puffy yesterday from retaining water...but it has gone done some today.

After the surgery the PICU physician was talking to us and said "It is a really, really, really, REALLY good thing that he doesn't have biliary atresia. Like...REALLY good." And later the specialist came in to talk to us and said "It is sooooooooo good that he doesn't have the biliary atresia." Its interesting how honestly they talk about the condition now, since Gavin for *sure* doesn't have it. It kind of made me freaked out inside though b/c he came so close to it, and now its completely obvious that it would have been VERY bad!!!

They are now leaning towards a genetic condition called "Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency" for his diagnosis, but the liver biopsy results will tell them for sure in a few days. They keep saying it would be a LOT better for him to have this, than the biliary atresia...but after reading up on it, it still seems like a scary thing to have. And a liver transplant is still a risk, although the probability goes down to 20-30% instead of 99% (a VERY good thing!).

I am mostly just concerned about him recovering from the surgery, and we'll deal with the rest when it gets here. We're still not out of the woods yet, but we're praying that his liver is still okay.

I called the kids last night to talk to them about how Gavin was doing, and I told Joenick about the surgery and that Gavin had a scar on his tummy now. Joenick said "Like Harry Potter??? COOL!!!" Hahaha. Good thing Gavin is a boy, and a big ole scar across his tummy will only impress the ladies, right?! :)

{ read part 6 }