Sunday Update On Ben

Lynn and I got to the hospital around 8:45 AM or so. When I walked into the room Ben said "Where have you been"?
They sat him up in a "cardiac chair" for a few hours today. They had to use that chair because they didn't have any other kind they could use. All three of his doctors came by early this morning. The surgeon is the one who told them to put him in a chair. He said that laying in bed on his back prevents his stomach mechanism from moving like it should. They said even though he has been having BMs, they are coming from his lower intestine and they need his stomach to start working again. They still are not hearing the normal stomach sounds in there. The therapy people are hopefully going to start working on him tomorrow to get him moving around and they said that now, moving around is the ONLY thing that is going to help his stomach start moving again. There is no medication that can do that. Ben is improving each day, but it is a very slow process. He still tries to talk to me and sometimes I can understand him, but there are times I can't and he and I both get so frustrated. He's still begging me to bring him home. Even though I tell him that he has to stay there to get well and he says "I know", he still tries. Ben's brother Lanny and his wife came by around lunch time and spent some time with him while Lynn and I went outside to eat the sandwiches we had made and taken with us. Tomorrow I have to take his last 2 work checks over to our bank to see if they will let me deposit them into our joint savings account without him signing them. I also have to call the American Medical Transport people because they billed me for one of my ambulance rides instead of sending it to my insurance. Our ambulance transports are covered 100% so I have to have them bill Kaiser. I don't know why, but I get so exhausted just sitting over there at the hospital all day. Lynn has to go home tomorrow, so I'll be alone. But at least I know that Ben is pretty much out of the woods now so hopefully I won't need a babysitter anymore. But it sure is going to be lonely here alone.