Our Champ

Today Gabe is resting semi-comfortably in bed recovering from his 13+ hour surgery. It was an exhausting day for my dad and I waiting without knowing what was going on, for the surgeons who refused to rest even for a lunch break, but especially for Gabe, whose vitals remained as solid as a rock while enduring the equivalent of a 13 hour boxing match.

His wonderful surgeons were able to reconstruct most of his face using hundreds of screws and plates in order to piece it all back together again. The head surgeon said that it was the most difficult and intense facial reconstruction that he's ever had to do. Gabe will still have to have more surgeries in the future mostly for cosmetic purposes concentrating on his nose, but the surgeons were successful in protecting his brain, and building up a nice support for his future surgeries.

Gabe has been asking me through his notes to take pictures so that he will be able to see the results and the progress he has made. His doctor from Boise e-mailed me the picture of him today taken the day of his accident. It was amazing to see how much improvement has already taken place with the wonderful doctors here. I know this is the best place for Gabe to be and I'm so appreciative of the doctors in Boise who were able to admit that they weren't able to handle the surgery as well as the doctors here in SLC could, and then getting him here as soon as possible.

Gabe's face is starting to swell up again and has been sleeping all day. When the doctors moved him back down to the Surgical Intensive Care Unit this morning, Gabe became very agitated and slightly "combative"--surely a combination of the anesthesia wearing off and an indication of the amount of pain he is having to endure. It took 5 people to contain him and they ended up having to restrain his arms and ankles so he doesn't keep trying to run or pull out any of the tubes. He has also been heavily sedated so we haven't been able to communicate at all with him today. However, just previous to this fiasco, he squeezed my hand and rubbed my fingers. Hopefully he will continue to get some good rest today.

The surgeons and the opthamologists were concerned about his left eye since they had to do so much surgery around the orbital sockets. However, when they came back to check it today he responded to the light. As for his right eye, it appears that it is still unresponsive.

Overall, Gabe has shown that he is a fighter and can endure just about anything. He is going to get through this and be stronger than he ever was before...I'm sure of it. That which doesn't kill you can only make you stronger.