Tuesday Update For Ben

Ben was in a pretty good mood today. Linda was very surprised at how well he seemed to be doing. He is still able to "talk" a little and his printing is getting good enough that I can read it. They came in to do another set of x-rays on his belly, so it's true that Dr. Manek is not giving up. The doctor came in and I asked him several questions. Asked him if I could "insist" on them doing another colonoscopy on Ben to see if they could find anything on the inside. He said that he would mention that to the GI doctor, but didn't know what his answer would be because yesterday the GI doctor said he did not think it would help much. I asked about them trying to give Ben Reglan again to see if maybe that would "kick start" his intestines. Dr. Manek said he will definitely consider that. Dr. Manek said that the Barium is still not all the way through the digestive track, but that since it appears that all of the intestines are what they refer to as dilated, and none of them appear to be collapsed that this indicates there is probably no blockage anywhere in them. So again they are saying that it may just be a matter of giving Ben's body time to make his intestines start working on their own again. But Dr. Manek did say that his is still Ben's strongest advocate for talking with the radiologists and the GI doctors and that he still does not plan on giving up. He really seems to be the type of doctor who wants to find the problem and help his patients. I asked him again about bringing another doctor in from another Kaiser or elsewhere with a fresh pair of eyes that might come up with any ideas. He told me he was going to mention that to the GI doctors and see if maybe they could bring someone in form maybe Kaiser Sunset, but that it is up to the "specialists" to make that decision, not him. The physical therapist came in and worked with Ben. She was very impressed because she said a week ago he could hardly bend his knees without her helping him and today she told him what she wanted him to do and he did it all by himself. We tried to sit him up on the edge of his bed, but his back and stomach started hurting him really bad so we had to put him back down. A couple of weeks ago I told Ben that Linda and I had gotten rid of all the beer he had in the house, including what was in his keg in the beer tapper. And no….we did not drink it. Actually most of it had gone stale. Anyway, today, out of the clear blue sky, he asked me if I had taken the keg back to Stater Brothers and get his deposit back. When I said I had not done that yet, he insisted that Linda and I leave early and go over to return it and get his deposit back, plus he told me that I need to take his C02 bottle back to Praxaire and get his deposit back on that. I'll have to check into that one. After returning the empty keg, Linda and I went to Backwoods Inn for a nice lunch. She had never been there and I had not been there in about 6 months, so it was nice.