Today's Update On Ben

Well, this morning I got a phone call at 5:50 AM from Henry Mayo Hospital. Scared me to death. I picked up the phone and the nurse tells me who she is and my heart stopped beating. Then she says she needed my permission to give Ben blood transfusions. It seems they didn't have me sign anything for that prior to his surgery and the Internal Medicine doctor who is handling his case wanted to give him 2 units of blood because since they are pumping so many fluids into him to keep his kidney functions working and bring up his B/P the liquids are diluting his blood levels so they have to give him transfusions to keep it up. Needless to say, I was relieved even though they have to give him blood. The nurse assured me that this is common.

I drove over to the hospital around 8:15 AM. When I got there, they told me that they had also upped his sedation because they could tell by the way he was "twitching" and moving around and grimacing that he was in some pain. They want to keep him sedated for awhile so that his body can heal without him being awake and moving all over the place. Which is good because he is NOT a good patient.

They told me to hold his hand and talk to him, that even though it doesn't seem like it, they think patients can hear loved ones and recognize voices. I was holding his hand and leading down by his ear telling him that he has to be good and get well so he can come home soon. When I did that, he kind of shook my hand a little. The nurse said that he may have heard my voice and understood and he was trying to let me know.

They said his kidney function was somewhat better than it was yesterday. He has a catheter so his urine is going into a bag and they told me that there is more in the bag today than there was yesterday which tells them that his kidneys are working a little better. They said there are no signs of infection so that is very good because that's one of the things they have to worry about most. They said his B/P is stable even though it is lower than they'd like. He is still on the ventilator. His belly has not bloated back up again and it is soft now instead of hard like it was.

The nurse showed me his bandage on his belly. The sliced him from lower belly up to his chest. He's going to have some scar.

I sat with him for 3 hours and the nurse told me I may as well go home and rest because she told me I looked very tired. I have lost 5 lbs so far in one week. I'm eating but sometimes it's hard because I'm just not hungry. My friend Linda texted me asking if I wanted to meet for coffee, but I don't drink coffee, so I texted her and asked her to meet me for lunch because I needed to just get out and "gossip" with a girlfriend and it's easier to go somewhere and get something instead of coming home, not knowing what I want to eat and then end up not eating at all. We stayed out for about 2 hours.

Got home and called the hospital and they told me there was no change with Ben and that if I wanted to stay home and rest to do so and that they would call me if need be. They are taking such good care of him over at Henry Mayo that I'm hoping Kaiser doesn't come along and want to move him down to Panorama City. I feel they dropped the ball on this.

Will email again when I have more info.