Riding in the car, on the way to the hospital.

Gavin Pre-op, enjoying his words and letters on the drawing board.

Thank you for all the prayers.

Gavin was out of surgery yesterday at approximately 2:30pm. Dr. Deeney spoke with us, indicating that everything went well during the operation. He was able to expand 10mm on each side as planned. Gavin looked good, but was of course feeling a bit groggy. He slept for the majority of the evening, needing pain medication and now wanting to be touched much.

By 9:00pm, he was perking up a bit. Mike and I were able to have some quality time with him. He was very interested in a nature program on TV that just played music and pictures of flowers and trees (a hospital-sponsored soothing channel). He kept saying "pretty music", "pretty flowers", "three flowers", "red flower", etc. He was doing a bit of disjointed babbling last night, and although he made little sense, it was very cute. He was able to self-feed 5+ cherrios and really enjoyed drinking water. He did not want to sit up, as this was still painful for him. I was able to snap one photo (see below), where he was making his best effort to say "cheese".

Overall, he seemed to be recovering well. He did have a "plug" which gave us a little scare, but it was suctioned out quickly and his breathing returned to normal. This may be expected since he was immobile for the majority of the day, and he avoids coughing because of the pain, both of which cause secretions to settle in his chest/trachea and become less moist.

I am planning to see him within the hour and will update this site later today with progress.
Continue to pray that his recovery will go well, that he will be discharged this morning, and that he will feel comfortable enough to resume some play activities.