Gav's Update

I have been meaning to update on my little Gav forever now…but it has been such a mystery/roller coaster with lots of phone calls with the Dr.(s), Primary Children’s, Insurance…..it is a mess.

His CT scan was basically a waste of time in my mind. They found the tumors, but they are considered “inoperable” for several reasons. So the Dr. has decided to do a new scan called an Octreoscan. It is basically a fancy X-Ray. The bad thing about it is that we have to stay in SL for 3 days. It is done in the nuclear med. Department at the hospital. Something about the word nuclear makes me scared. He is injected on a Wed. They scan him 4 hours after, 24 hours after, and 48 hours after-hence the 3 days.

By doing so we are looking for where his little tumors are secreting the most serotonin. Serotonin is a chemical we all have. It is actually a mood regulator. In Gavin’s case, his intestinal tumors are secreting it….and the side effects are diarrhea and malnutrition, which he has both of. So we are trying to find the place it is coming from the worst, and then hopefully remove that. The Dr hopes it is from the appendix, because that apparently is the most common place, and also the easiest to remove. If not, there is a chance he will have to have a section of his bowel removed.

There is a lot more to the story…I am giving the short version. I don’t like not knowing EXACTLY what is going on, and EXACTLY how to fix it… Guess it is the perfectionist in me.

All I do know is that I am so tired of medical bills I could scream. Our insurance year goes July-July. So we have had to pay for Kayler’s penny incident, my surgery, and all of Gavin’s VERY expensive tests the past 3 months. It is at $20,000….and counting. Thank goodness we have a $1000 deductible per family, and then a $4000 maximum out of pocket. So that is $5000 total, but that money was needed much worse other places. And that makes me sad.

What doesn’t make me sad is realizing that although these medical problems are a big deal to me, they are so small in comparison to others. Just being at Primary Children’s for 5 minutes my attitude is automatically changed when I look at the terrible and devastating things other children and their parent’s deal with.

So that is that. I will of course keep you posted after the test on March 10th.

p.s. I don't know why I posted the picture of Gavin as a baby. I guess it is because that was before all of this stress.

p.s.s. The Ensign came in the mail today. I found time this afternoon to read it. I cried and cried as I truly felt that almost every article was written specifically for ME. Especially this one http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=a68dea00a8bf6210VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

I hope that link works. I hope you can all take the time to read not only it, but the whole Ensign!