the doctor came out once his surgery was over and told us that the anesthesiologist was able to take him off the ventilator and that we could make our way up to the picu and he would meet us there. we walked with the doctor as she told us how the procedure went....(i wasn't listening). all i cared about was seeing gavin. where was he? i knew he wouldn't be awake yet but i just had to see him and know that he was okay. we waited outside the picu doors for only a few seconds before we saw the anesthesiologist and a nurse wheeling him toward us. he was on a mask and the anesthesiologist was trying to stimulate him so that he would keep breathing. although they extubated him, they had him at 15 liters of oxygen. to give you some perspective, gavin (who has significant lung disease) is on 1 liter at home and our concentrator at home only goes to 5 liters. in fact, jeramy and i didn't even know that oxygen could go that high. we know enough about his sats that just by looking at the monitor we knew that gavin was still struggling. he was satting in the high 70s/low 80s for his oxygen and his heartrate was low (which is why he needed the continuous stimulation). the anesthesiologist said that if didn't begin to show improvment and wean down on his oxygen, it could possibly lead to reintubation......no!!!!!
thankfully, over the course of the evening, he was able to wean down to 10 liters and then down to 3 and this morning, he is back down to 1 liter. praise Jesus! indeed, He has protected gavin once again and He has brought us through another trial.
today, we have gavin on continuous feeds (for a time being, you have to do that with g-tubes). the doctors (and jeramy and i) don't want to change anything about how we were doing feeds at home so we want to try to reintroduce bottle feeds to him. he was eating about 2 ounces by bottle and then we gavage 3 ounces. we tried giving gavin a bottle about 30 minutes ago (just an ounce) but he instantly started gagging and spit it right up. it didn't even get into his tummy. the speech therapist was here with us and she told us to expect that since he was just intubated. his airway is now floppy and his vocal cords are more open than they usually are because of the tube so...it is probably going right into his airway. we are going to give it a few more hours and try again. please pray that he eats. we fear that they won't let us go home until he shows that he can take an ounce or two and the last thing we want is to stay another night here in the picu. there are sick kiddos in other rooms around us and g doesn't need that exposure.
thank you for all of your support and prayers during this time. we greatly appreciate it. gavin is such a fighter. he is inspiring. he has tubes, wires and IVs everywhere and all he wants to do is play! he woke up this morning all smiles. he was giggling and cooing like crazy. the doctors and nurses were all amazed. they all said it is not typical for them to see such alert (and happy) behavior for babies after surgery. i love that kid.
we will keep you all posted on his progress (hopefully from home)! thanks again for the prayers.
i think it is very obvious that there is One who is making all of gavin's progress possible. to deny that, would be ignorance. he's not just a "lucky kid". i get mad when people say that. his progress has nothing to do with "luck" or "stars aligning". he is a little boy loved by the Heavenly Father-who has a plan. gavin has touched a lot of lives already. he's touched mine. has he touched yours? i hope so.
let us never forget that God is good....all the time.
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