Home Today???

Gavin is doing much better and there is talk of him being able to go home today! Yay! He was able to get through the night without any additional oxygen and slept very well! He is still coughing tons, but his lungs are sounding much more clear. Hopefully my next post will be from home! Thanks for your prayers and support! God is so good!

Thirteen?!

I can't believe that I am now the mother of a teenager! When did this happen?! I feel so old! I told Jacob this and he said, "Mom, you are probably the youngest parents out of all the kids in my class." Thanks Jake for trying to lighten the shock, but I can't believe that I actually have a teenager! I also can't believe that he is one inch away from being as tall as me!






Happy Birthday Jacob!!!!!

We love you and are very blessed to have you as our son! Now would you please stop getting older and taller?! And, Have a great day!

---------------------------------------------------------------------

As for Gavin:

He has had a great day! He has been off oxygen so far today except for when he was sleeping. As soon as he goes to sleep, his sats drop immediately. It's almost as if he has sleep apnea, but he's had a sleep study and he passed it, so hopefully it's just this illness that is causing this.

The doctors have decided that this is probably a case of bronchitis that was exasperated by his having congestive heart failure, which he has due to the leak in his mitral valve. He probably had too much fluid on the lungs and just couldn't handle the illness because of it.

He has made great improvement over the last 24 hours, so hopefully we will be out of the hospital real soon! He didn't even need to wear the breathing mask over night, just the nasal canula! A HUGE turnaround! I am very happy about this!





Gavin without the oxygen on today:



Keep those prayers coming! And, Have a great weekend!


"Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, But a good word makes it glad." Proverbs 12:25

Some Improvement

Gavin is headed in the right direction. He is slowly going down on his need for oxygen, although he really struggles to keep his sats up when he is sleeping. This worries me because they won't send him home if he continues to have such a high need for oxygen while sleeping. He has needed to wear an oxygen mask during the night because his sats don't stay high enough with the nasal canula alone. He HATES the mask and is quite irritated by it! He pulls it off, his oxygen saturation plummets, Joel or I hear beeping and have to wake up to put the mask back on, he gets mad and pulls it off again and no one gets much sleep! It's an ongoing cycle that I pray stops very soon!

He was able to get down to 1/2 a liter of O2 this afternoon while awake, so this is a huge improvement! I was beginning to feel anxious that we could be in the hospital for weeks until he showed us that he could stay stable on a low amount for part of the day. This made me breathe a huge sigh of relief! I was kind of depressed this morning watching him struggle to breathe and thinking that this seemed never ending, but this afternoon he showed us that he was capable, plus I got a long breather from the hospital today, which definitely lightened my mood! Joel's mom came to sit with him for a few hours and my mom came this evening for a few hours, (On her birthday at that! Happy Birthday Mom!) We are so blessed with caring and helpful mothers!!! So, I was able to run some errands, do homework with the boys, and we were all able to eat dinner together at home! (Meal supplied by a wonderful friend from church! Thank You friend! YUM!!) So, tonight I am feeling refreshed and so thankful for the help that God has supplied us with!





Gavin had a lot more energy today and was kicking and 'talking' up a storm, not to mention spending lots of time playing with his tubing and trying to remove the tubing from his face! He has to have at least 8 hands it seems! He's quick and determined and it seems to be the only thing on his mind! His little face is raw from the tape that holds the tubing on his face. It looks so painful! I told the nurses that they couldn't use tape anymore. He will pull the O2 off his face whether he has tape on it or not and when it's on, his skin gets ripped off from the force that he pulls the tubing with! He cries so hard when this happens! A nurse finally made a sign that says NO TAPE because everytime I left the room to get a drink or something, someone had put tape back on the tubing to stick it to his face. Hopefully the sign will help because I don't think that his face can handle much more!

We were told to expect to stay through the weekend at least. We figured this, but were hoping to all be home by tomorrow for Jacob's birthday, but we'll celebrate another time!

Check out the decorations that are hanging up in Gavin's hospital room:



Nolan's third grade class made Gavin cards! I thought that this was so sweet and thoughtful of his teacher! The cards are adorable and made my day! They are filled with such sweet 9 year old words of comfort and even perfect Bible verses to help us on this road! We are so thankful to be apart of such a godly minded school! I know that our boys are being supported through this crazy time at school as well! Their teachers are the best!


I read this on a church sign this afternoon:

"How to get rich quick!.....Count your blessings!"


This was a perfect sign for me to see today! We may all be going through a time of trial, but if we take the time to count the blessings that we actually have in our life, we are really very wealthy! I know that I'm thankful for our many blessings this week! Thanks for all of your prayers, well wishes and support! God has blessed us with all of you!

One more thing. Today Caleb and I went to the hospital gift shop to buy my mom a ballon for her birthday. While we were paying for it, he was looking at some coins that had angels imprinted on them. He asked the lady what they were and she told him that they were coins with angels that would bless you if you asked them to. Caleb said, "I don't believe that, do you?" She said, "Yes, I do!" He looked at me like she was nuts and then looked back at her and said, "God is the one Who gives blessings to us, not angels!" I tried so hard not to laugh and felt so proud that he wasn't afraid to set her straight on Who actually brings us blessings! He is a handful, but he sure is a blessing to have around!


"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning." James 1:17

Still in the Hospital

Gavin is starting to come around a little, but will be in the hospital a couple more days at least. He is still on oxygen, which is running at 2 1/2 - 3 liters, except for when he is sleeping, then he is requiring more. He is coughing less, but still quite forcefully when he does. He seems to be feeling a whole lot better. He's sleeping less, "talking" more and even gave me a couple of smiles again! It is great to see him acting more like himself! I am a little worried that he is requiring so much oxygen, but hopefully this will come around soon too!

I now remember why I hate being in the hospital so much! Life is just too hectic! It's difficult rearranging schedules, finding people to watch our other boys, trying to make sure that they aren't being neglected during all of this too, running back and forth from home to hospital, not getting enough sleep, not seeing your husband except for in passing as you switch shifts,etc............Not Fun!!! We are doing well considering, but only because we have wonderful mothers who are always there for us! THANK YOU MOMS!!! I just hate feeling so spread thin and worrying how our other boys are doing because of all the craziness! I hope they are doing well, they seem to being doing well, but who knows?

Gavin has been able to stay in ICU up until now, but will have to move to the dreaded floor this evening! This will make things more difficult, but we'll survive I'm sure. I just dread going there because this is where Gavin had his stroke and where he wasn't observed as well as he should have been, so it's kind of scary.

I am a firm believer of there always being a reason for everything. So, I'm always looking for the silver lining of why things happen. I think being back in the hospital will make me more thankful for the health that Gavin has been having up until now and make me happier being 'stuck' at home. I had been feeling depressed about things and found myself trying to control things that were just out of my hands. I am going to look at this hospitalization as a gift from God. It may be stressful and not where I want to be, but I am learning a lesson and can actually say that I'm thankful for it! I had been feeling so anxious and not giving all of my fears to God. This time of testing has made me realize that my fears are just that, fears.....I can let them consume me, or I can let go and let God. My fear of being back in the hospital and having Gavin become sick were seriously consuming me and it didn't feel good at all! Now that Gavin is in the hospital, I can see that my fears were out of control and that I should not have worried so much! It will just be another lesson to add to my very big book! Hopefully some day I will be able to look back on this time and it will help me when I am in a state like I had been in! I always say that our boys are slow learners when it comes to many things, but obviously I am too in this regard! :)

I am happy to report that Gavin's heart condition has nothing to do with this episode. They did an echo of his heart yesterday and his heart function is good, his pulmonary pressures are still good and the leak in his mitral valve has not worsened at all! YAY! Another fear removed from my always thinking mind!

So, although not where I want to be, there is still A LOT to be thankful for! Thank you for the many messages of support! Thank you for your prayers! And, Thanks to everyone that has helped us or who have offered to help us! We are VERY BLESSED!


""Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."" Matthew 11:28-29

Hospitalized

Gavin's cold has found him in the hospital again! He progressively got worse over the weekend, so I took him into E.R. this morning. He actually got worse while we were in E.R., so I guess it's a good thing that I brought him in when I did. I think that he made himself get worse when he heard that they were going to admit him to stay. He decided that if he had to stay he better get real sick so that they would put him in Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, instead of being put in a room on the regular floor. He knows that you get more one-on-one attention in ICU, so he dropped his oxygen sats real fast so that he could earn a trip to the more exclusive floor! I'm actually happy about this. If we have to be in the hospital, the ICU is a much better place to be. Gavin knows what's best!

Pray that they can figure out what is wrong. Right now they think it could be a number of things. (pneumonia, RSV, bronchitis, pertusis or none of the above.) I'm hoping that it's something bacterial, that way antibiotics will help to get him well and home again faster. He is struggling to breathe and is on about 4 liters of oxygen right now. Pray that he doesn't get any worse and that he begins to feel better soon. Right now he feels and acts miserable and it's breaking my heart! Thanks for your prayers!


"Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of righteous man avails much." James 5:13&16