Gavin is recovering.

Our big boy made it out of surgery! I'm so appreciative of all the support from family and friends! Mom came over today to watch the kids and got Olivia off to school! Mike had forgotten about Gavin's surgery and luckily, at last minute, was able to get today off. We arrived at about 7:45 am and was admitted. Our Pastor Joy was there to greet us and it was so awesome to see her! She is so personable and she gave us prayers and we all said a prayer together. Gavin was quite fussy b/c boys like to eat when they are hungry and I felt terrible that he couldn't even have a sip of water, but rules are rules. Around 9:30 they hauled him off to surgery. They have a new system in the hospital where they give you his ID number and you can keep track of the process on the flat screen. It was all color coded to go along with what was happening. I was able to see when they started surgery, when surgery ended and when he was in the recovery. The waiting process was sickening. I held my composure very well and poor Mike, he has been on call this WHOLE week and is going on pretty much, NO SLEEP. He was hanging in there and for ONCE we were getting a long great. I think a lot that has been going on in these last few days has been a real eye opener to him and he's realizing things. He's been nothing but nice and I LOVE THAT!! :) :)

The first procedure that Gavin had to go through was the process of taking a little microscope through the belly button to follow the vein to his man hood. From there, they were going to see if there was anything to work with or if he just was born without a testicle. Mike and I were both praying that they wouldn't find anything, that way they wouldn't have to do anything further to Gavin. The Dr. called me on the nurse line and informed me that he had indeed come across the starting formation of the left testicle, but it never made it so he would have to take it out and then, make another incision through the scrotum, to pack where the testicle should have been so that way the empty space would not fill with something it wasn't supposed to. ? (medical terms) Anyway, We were bummed to hear about that. The surgery took maybe a good hour. After speaking with the Dr in person about taking care of Gavin once he was healing, I was able to go up to recovery phase 1. Only one parent was allowed in that room until he was sent to recovery phase II. Then, mike would be able to come and be with us.

When I got to the recovery room, it was so sad. He was just lying there and when he seen me, he immediately tried to get up and he started crying. I was ready to cry with him, but I had to be strong for him. I was able to pick him up and hold him and give him some juice. He was very cranky and was trying to pull the heart monitor off of his finger. I could tell he was in pain b/c of the way he was acting and I asked the nurse if they could give him anything. She gave him antibiotic through his IV and after about 5 more minutes of struggling, he passed out in my arms. (fell asleep, not literally passed out) Anyway, she showed me his 3 incisions. I spent about half an hour with him there and then we were moved to the recovery phase II. Mike was able to join us and that's where the nurses filled out the paperwork, went over care, and made sure Gavin made at least one wet diaper before they could let us go. I was impressed with how fast we got out of there. It was right around noon.

Gavin was sleepy through the ride home. When we got home, mom took Olivia back to her house. Olivia has a birthday party to attend tomorrow and so mom is taking her to that, so she got to spend the night. Mike had to go back to work and so I took Channing and Gavin for a very long walk around our neighborhood. It was such a beautiful day! Gavin did great! When we got back home, you couldn't even tell that Gavin had just gone through surgery. He was back to his happy little self and was trying to crawl around. I was scared for him, so I kept him limited as to what he could do. I held him and alternated with the swing. He did great! Mike and I are a little concerned with the bigger incision b/c there is a lot more blood then we expected. I did call the DR and he said to just keep an eye on it and if it looks worse in the morning, we are to bring him in. Gavin went to bed around 7pm. They told me that the day after surgery is when he'll act his normal self and I'm allowed to let him crawl around. We just aren't allowed to have him in his walker until after the Dr sees him in a week.

Channing is doing great even with Olivia not being here. Usually he is lost without her, but mom promised him that the next time was his turn to stay the night by himself and they plan on taking him up to the tractor museum in moline! Alright, well that was a long blog. :)