Thursday Update For Ben

Ben was asleep and weak when I got to his room this morning. When he woke up, he asked me to find his nurse because he felt nauseous again. I told him that hopefully when the "fix" the blockage, his nausea with stop. Dr. Manek came in and said that they were going to do another sigmoidoscopy today to do a biopsy of whatever is causing the blockage, but he had no idea what time they were planning to do it. He said they will put Ben completely out for this procedure. He said that the biopsy will tell Dr. Rupp (the surgeon) what she needs to do. Around noon, Dr. Shantha came into Ben's room. She is still a "Kaiser Doctor" and comes by the hospital every now and then, but this was the first time I'd see her there. The first thing she said was "I told you there was a blockage". She told me that she was so glad that they finally found it and that they feel they can do something about it. She also told me that she still does not feel that his liver is as bad as they have been telling me. That was why she had wanted them to do a biopsy on the liver several weeks back. She said his liver may have a "slight" problem, but she feels that most of the problem is from whatever the blockage is. They don't know if it is a tumor, a polyp or even some scar tissue that is causing the blockage and this is why they are going to do a biopsy on it. Dr. Shantha said that after the surgery, Ben may have to be back on the ventilator because he is still very weak and she says she feels the hospital took him off of it too soon. She has always said, and still says that because of the size of his belly and the pressure on his diaphragm and lungs that breathing on his own is making him weaker and is very hard on him. But she told me that once they fix the belly problem and he gets back over to All Saints, she will get to work on getting him off the vent again and getting the physical therapy he needs to get back on his feet. Around 12:30 PM, Dr. Manek came back in and said that he still did not have a time for the procedure today, but that he would call me at home when the did it. He said he "might" know something from the biopsy today, but he's thinking that it may not be until tomorrow. He said Dr. Markarian will probably be with Ben tomorrow. I have never met this doctor. Ben wanted me to stay around while they did the procedure, but Dr. Manek told him that they still had no idea of what time it would be done and told Ben it was ok for me to go home. Ben slept most of the time I was there today, but he woke up around 12:45 PM and told me he wants me to try to get there first thing in the morning instead of going to my Caregivers Support Group over at the senior center because he wants me to find out what they found from the procedure, so I told him I'd skip my group this week and be there around 9:30 AM tomorrow.