Little Miracles!

Today, my life is wonderful, and today I am smiling. I cry, but my tears today are happy and joyous and filled with relief. I have my family today. All of my family.

Unknown to us, we had a very sick little boy in our hands. At Gavin's birth, our doctor told us he heard a little bit of a murmer(might have spelled that wrong, but not to worry, because many babies are born with murmers and they usually correct on its own. Gavin's week appointment went well and everything sounded good. We had concerns about his purple feet, and that he could go 7 hours at night without eating. The doctor said the purple feet would correct on its own, and that we needed to work a little harder at waking him for feeding.
Friday, April 24th, Gavin still wasn't eating well(maybe 2-3 min on one side), and wasn't awake but an hour during the day. His last attempt at eating was at 7:00pm and it wasn't a great attempt. I tried my best to wake him througout the night, but even when he woke, he just wouldn't eat. I thought ok, they said that babies can be like this, and he will eat in an hour. At 5:00 am, he began to cry and looked as though he were in pain. I thought maybe a tummy ache and burped and bicycled his legs. Holding him close was the only thing that calmed him. This continued into the afternoon. His breathing seemed to be extremely fast and wierd sounds came from him. Shawn timed his breathing and called the doctor. Shortly after we rushed him to the emergency room. His color was a pale grey and he stared off. The doctors immediatly began working him and let us know his condition was critical and had we not brought him in, his heart would have overworked itself and given out sometime in the night.
Gavin was intibated and put on a breathing machine because his heart was working way to hard. Blood was drawn and IVs were started. Doctors performed a spinal tap to see about certain viruses or bacterial infections. They said he was in critical condition. After being sent to the PICU, we were told he had pneumonia and a bacterial infection. By Monday we saw no improvment, but were told that no improvement was better than his condition worsening. The doctor making the rounds that morning sent his "student" doctor in to check Gavin before he arrived at the hospital. Upon the doctors arrival, he said everything looked fine with Gavin. The student told him she thought she heard a little something with his heart, and so the doctor listened again and ordered an echocardiogram, which would take an ultrasound of his heart. The results were sent to a cardiac specialist. At 8:00 Monday evening, we recieved a call from the doctor stating that the cardiologist noticed a little something with what was sent to him via the computer, and wanted another echo performed. The cardiologist, Dr. Ow would drive from Chicago to perform the echocardiogram himself. Once he arrived and performed the ultrasound, he found a malfunction with Gavins heart. He had a corartation of the aorta, which is the main aortic valve that pumps blood from the left ventricle of the heart to the lungs and organs in the lower body. The valve was completely closed off and blood could not be pumped from his heart out. This explained the purple feet, lack of kidney and intestinal functions, lack of eating and low blood pressure in the legs. The doctor said that his condition was worsening and he would need to be transported to Hope Children's Hospital for open heart surgery. Upon our arrival (2:30 am), the nurses and doctors got to work. Gavin immediatly looked better, the puffy lifeless look was changing to that of my son. I could tell who he was again. The doctors said that had he stayed at Provena, he may have had another day or two to live, because the hospital was treating him for pneumonia, something he did not have.
The doctors started Gavin on a medication (can't recall name, but I wrote it down somewhere!) that would hopefully relax the artery that is open only when the baby is in utero. If the medicine worked, a little blood could get around his closed artery and supply a small amount of blood into his left valve and the lower organs of his body. This would help them to be just a bit stronger for the surgery. Unfortunatly, this intervention did not work for Gavin, and so the needed to get him into surgery immediatly before his organs and heart weakened even more. The surgery was a success, and the change in Gavin's appearance was phenominal! He looked a little stressed out, but so much healthier. We were told that a sack in his lungs collapsed, which would keep him on the breathing machines longer and he would be able to eat 48 hours after the surgery. We were estatic. We were once bug eyed, hunched over, smelly, and stressed, and now were a more relaxed, and smelly couple without the bug eyes. (will continue later)