Tuesday Update For Ben

Ben was very tired this morning when I got to the hospital. They had tried to wean him a little from the ventilator today, but he would not breathe on his own, so they could not do the breathing trial today. The respiratory therapist told me that this is very normal…a few good days and then a bad one. She said that he was possibly overtired since he was off the ventilator for over 5 hours yesterday. They will try again tomorrow. Ben vitals were good and he has no fever. When he woke up for awhile, he was responsive. Janice, Ben's nurse and I shaved him some with his electric razor this afternoon. Couldn't do very much because of all the tubes in his mouth and nose, but at least we got some of the whiskers off. Ben hates having a beard and mustache. They cannot use a straight razor on him because if they cut him, he will bleed really bad because of his high INR numbers. The surgeon came by again and checked his belly. She said it's working just fine, but that now it's the rest of his body that needs to heal itself, and again she told me "one day at a time". Ben slept more today than he usually does. He did let me do his joint exercises two times today…once when I first got there this morning and again before I left to come home. In fact, he was helping me move his hands and fingers. He was actually moving them on his own most of the time instead of me doing the movements for him. My friend Judy Arbogast came by at noon and bought me lunch at the hospital cafeteria. It's so nice how everyone wants to help. I don't know what I'd do without my family and friends. My niece Darrah gets on Facebook Chat with me almost every even to "keep me company". I like the days better when Ben is more alert but I also know he needs to sleep to gain his strength and he doesn't seem to want to do that much when I'm there. It seems he wants to stay awake for me. I kept telling him to sleep today and he did that some.