Thursday Update On Ben

Ben made a turn for the worse today. My friend Sandi came to drive me down to the hospital this morning and was I ever glad she was with me. We walked into his room and they had him on a portable ventilator. I panicked. His temperature had spiked to 102.6° and they had him on a cooling pad and they told me they could not arouse him this morning when they came in to take his vitals. He was having trouble breathing on his own too. They immediately called the floor doctor in who sent him to ICU. They then sedated him some and put him on a regular ventilator again. They got his temperature down pretty quickly when the changed the antibiotic they were giving to him. The surgeon who is on his case ordered a Cat Scan on his belly and on his brain. The belly one showed no reason for the spike in temperature. They were thinking a suture had come loose or something, but that was not the case. The brain scan was to make sure he had not had a stroke, which they told me he DID NOT (thank God). The surgeon told me now it is up to the medical doctors to figure out why he got the fever. I decided to have Sandi bring me home because I started becoming very stressed and I was afraid that my B/P and my pulse were going to go sky high, plus it seems that when I am there, Ben becomes more agitated because all he wants me to do is bring him home. He keeps reaching for my hands wanting me to pull him up and when I tell him no, he gets upset and seems to get worse. So I think sometimes it's better for me to get out of there for awhile to let him calm back down. He thinks when I'm there, he's leaving the hospital. Both his sister and brother rushed to the hospital when I called them this morning but his sister had to leave to go home to Vegas and about 20 minutes after that, Lanny left to go home, so Sandi and I stayed at least until he was out of the Cat Scan. I don't think he even knew much that I was there today because he was so out of it. His temperature was 98.3° when we left the hospital. My friend Lynn is coming up in about an hour to spend the night with me because she knows I'm worried the hospital might call. Sandi is sitting with me until Lynn gets here. Sandi lives about 3 miles from me. Please continue all of your prayers for my sweet husband. I had the hospital chaplain pray with me today and when Ben's sister was there, she and I prayed together over Ben. My brother Keith emailed his churches website asking that they all pray for Ben too. I just called the hospital. Ben's nurse Alana says they had to give him something to go to sleep because he is so agitated, they were having trouble taking his vitals when he's awake because he's fighting them all the time. She could not give me a B/P for him yet because every time they try, he starts fighting them. She said his over vitals are ok now. His temperature is back to normal. She again told me that his brains scan and belly scan were normal. She said the Internist in ICU gave her instructions on what meds to give to him and that he will talk to me tomorrow when I'm over there. So he is resting right now.