Sunday Update For Ben

Got to ICU at hospital around 8:30 AM. Ben squeezed my hand when I asked him to let me know if he knew I was there. Then he went to sleep for a little while. His heart rate is still pretty fast but much better than yesterday after surgery. After surgery it was 135 and today it was around 118. His blood pressure is still low, but coming up slowly. His nurse Lisa told me his kidney function is down again. I'm sure that's because of all of liquids that left his body yesterday during surgery because the surgeon had told me he seemed a little dehydrated afterward, plus Lisa told me that the B/P lowering medications cause you to be dehydrated. She said that hopefully his kidney function will get better once he's off those meds. He had a slight fever (99.6°) and the ICU doctor had ordered some antibiotics for him. Lisa said that they drew some blood to check for any infections. They have a little monitor on him that checks his abdominal pressure for his colostomy bag. Lisa said the bag seems to be working pretty good, but I noticed that they are still draining some fluids from his stomach through the NG Tube also. They lessened the dosage for his Dopamine because they said his B/P was better. Ben was moving around a lot and trying to communicate. He let me know that he was having a lot of pain in his stomach, so I told the nurse and she gave him a shot of morphine. I know he and I do not like them to give him morphine, but right now, I know he needs it for the pain. Ben's sister Donna showed up a little after 1:00 PM with her daughter Beth and around 1:45 PM I left to come home. Donna was still there, so I don't know how long she stayed. All in all, I think he was doing pretty good for only being 24 hours after the surgery.