The Gavin Chronicles, September 11, 2007

Hello Everyone-

Just wanted to give an update on the events of the past few days.....Please bear with me.....I am running on about 4 hours of sleep in the past 48 hours....I have worn the same clothes for 3 days and taken 1 shower.....I have prayed without ceasing and had my faith tested on more than one occasion.

Gavin was airlifed out of Littleton Hospital at 3am Monday Morning. He has been taken to Pres St. Lukes downtown and will be there for several weeks. The nurses at Littleton noticed that his abdomen was quite distended on Sunday evening. They had major cause for concern that he had a perferated bowel and called the neonatologist to confirm. She called for the airlife team and away we went.

Yesterday was long and hard for Colin and I. While I know the team at PSL is probably the best in the nation with neonatology you just gotta understand that we literally went from the Broadmoar to the Motel 6....and I am not really sure they even leave the lights on for you.

Gavin was evaluated by the PSL team several times yesterday. On the morning XRays they did not see any evidence of a perforated bowel. So A ok.....now they start looking for him to have NEC which is a very intense infection in the intestines which can be fatal. We ruled out NEC yesterday afternoon after all tests pointed against it. Next they did an abdominal ultrasound which was perfect and revealed nothing other than normal. So the theory was that Gavin had been bleeding from around his liver which caused bruising on his abdoman and it to look so distended. Ok we are fine with that.....what is the treatment, let it run its course. So with that in mind they decided to do surgery to place a broviac port. Ian also had a broviac port and it is actually much better because they can stick him once instead of sticking him over and over again every time they need an IV. Surgery was last night at 9 pm. After surgery the surgeon took an XRay to confirm the placement of the broviac. In this XRay he found free air in Gavin's abdomen. This is a clear indicator of a perforation. Back into surgery they go. They placed a drain in his stomach that they drained last night and hoped to drain again today.

This morning Gavin's labs looked worse than yesterday and his drain was not working. It was determined that they HAD to do another surgery.....an exploratory laparotomy......at this time we were told they expected to find NEC and they didn't think that Gavin would live much longer.....Gavin was baptized before surgery and placed into God's care. Surgery began at about noon today and lasted a little more than an hour. I am pleased to report that Gavin does NOT have NEC and he is still alive and he is doing well. The surgeon did find that Gavin had 2 holes in his intestine and they had to put in a colostomy bag. This bag wiill be with Gavin until he is about 4lbs.

Bottom line, we need a lot of prayer right now. Colin and I are emotionally drained. Our family is torn apart and I am not able to see my other kids currently cause the hospital will not let them up there. This is extremely difficult on us financially and we are feeling it. The hope is that Gavin will be transported back to Littleton Hospital in a couple of weeks once he is stable again.

Please pray that they can get him stable and we can get back to Littleton. Pray for strength for Colin and I. Pray for strength for our family and most of all pray for strength for Gavin.

We appreciate all of the love and prayers you have given us so far and I feel very selfish to ask for more....but we really need them now more than ever.