A Tribute Video For Ben

Wednesday Update For ME!

Figured since so many of you have been checking up on me today that I would continue the updates for awhile, but the will be about me now. I called the hospital this morning to see what I needed to do about Ben's remains. They told me I did not have to come down unless I really wanted to and for me to call the mortuary and make an appointment with them to start the process. I got an appointment for tomorrow (Thursday) morning at 9:00 AM. I will sign the papers to have them pick Ben up from the hospital and for the cremation contract. I need to remember to ask them if they can give me a lock of Ben's hair for a keepsake. I'm also going to see about purchasing a cremation locket for myself. Keith (my brother) and I drove over to Ben's work and spoke with a few of his co-workers. They are all so sad about his passing. Some of them want to attend his memorial if they are not working that day. Linda came over and the three of us went out for a pizza lunch buffet. I am holding up pretty well, but now and then when we are talking, something will hit me just the wrong way and I'll well up in tears. I keep thinking that the people around me who do not know that I just lost my husband are wondering what in the hell is that woman crying about? But who cares! We started discussing plans for Ben's "Celebration of Life" Memorial. We started checking out some parks but most of them just didn't seem to feel right. We even considered an oak grove over in Placerita Canyon, but there seemed to be a lot of deer flies so we changed our minds on that. We ended up back at the community rec room here in Canyon View Estates where I live. Chris and Marcie (the ladies in the office) know me well, in fact, Chris lives across the street from me. We asked them about the rec room and they told me there would be no fee due to what I was using it for. We checked out the room. It is nice a big, air conditioned, has a full kitchen and a patio where we could set up a BBQ or two. We are penciled in for Saturday, July 23rd, but can change it if I have too. Hoping I won't have too though. The three of us have been discussing ideas for the memorial, about what we would do for food, about a time-line for the memorial, music, friends & family sharing memories and stories about Ben, etc. Linda is very good at planning these kinds of things, so she will be a great help to me with that. For you friends and family here in SoCal, I will send out an email invitation with all of the details when we get everything finalized so I hope you will SAVE THAT DATE! I received a call from my good friend Marilyn Forbes today. Marilyn and I go way back to before I met Ben. She invited me and Linda to come and stay a few days with her soon at her home in Palm Springs. My good friend Vicky Baskins, who also go way back with me, has also invited us to come and stay with her at her home in Temecula. Three other of my "Lockheed Sisters" want to get together for lunch on Monday if possible. This is such good therapy for me right now. Keith will be with me through Friday afternoon. I've been getting such wonderful emails and Facebook/Blogger/NOTH messages from my online friends. I want to thank all of you for your love and support. I love you all.

Dr. Manek

I have not mentioned to everyone that Dr. Manek, the doctor who finally advocated so hard to find out what Ben's problem was, came by Ben's room yesterday to say goodbye. He said he had heard that Ben's organs were failing. He said he felt so bad that the problem had not been found sooner and that Ben could have been saved. He was the only doctor there that really tried to help and even though he was able to finally find the problem, he was not able to do it in time. He was the ONLY doctor that had taken care of Ben that came by to see Ben before he passed. I just wish that some of the other doctors had been as intent on finding the real problem.

Ben Passed Away

Just got the call. Ben passed away at 1:07 AM this morning June 15, 2011.

FOR MY DEAR SWEET HUSBAND BEN

I WILL LOVE YOU FOREVER.

Tuesday Update For Ben

Today I did the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my entire life. I gave my permission to take Ben off of the support medications. We left him on the respirator because we just could not bring ourselves to "pull the plug". He was still alive when we left the hospital, but his heart rate was very erratic and his blood pressure dropped dramatically. The doctors seemed to think that just taking him off the medications will cause him to slowly pass on. His sister, her husband and Ben's brother were there along with me and my brother. We had a social worker and the hospital chaplain with us and we prayed and cried while we gathered around his bed, all of us hugging. I hugged and kissed Ben and told him how much I loved him and what a wonderful husband he had been to me. I thanked him for the 31 years we spent together as a married couple plus the 6 years we were best friends before we were married. I told him it was alright now to stop fighting and he could now give up and go peacefully. Both his brother and sister really took it bad. They both had to leave his room. Keith (my brother) and I stayed awhile longer and I continued to hug and kiss Ben and tell him I loved him and how he will remain in my heart forever. I have cried so much today and I am crying as I type this. My social worker made some phone calls for me to some mortuaries and I decided to go with one that the hospital deals with a lot. The were the most inexpensive and I know for a fact that Ben would NOT want me to spend a lot of money because he always talked about what a rip-off funerals, etc. are. I won't have a funeral for him. In a few weeks I will plan a "celebration of his life". I plan to have him cremated and take eventually take them up to Ferndale, CA (his favorite place) and scatter them there. I will keep a little bit of the ashes for myself. My brother Keith is here with me and we are waiting to hear from the hospital. If we do not hear something tonight, we will go there again in the morning and sit with Ben. I want to thank everyone for all of the prayers and kind words.

Monday Update For Ben

I don't know how to send this update. We were told by the doctors today that Ben is not going to survive as all of his organs have started to shut down. His kidneys are failing, his liver is failing, his intestines have already failed. His immune system is gone. His body cannot sustain a normal blood pressure without support drugs. They even said his mind is probably starting to go due to the other organs failing. We have no idea how long he has left. Linda was with me thank goodness when they gave me this news. I called Ben's brother Lanny and he came out right away. My brother Keith also came up to the hospital right away. Then I called Ben's best friend and he came up too. My brother is going to stay with me a few days and Ben's sister Donna is coming down from Las Vegas to see Ben. They should be in town tomorrow sometime. We were told by the dialysis specialist that doing dialysis would not make any difference at this point. It may even make him go faster because he is not stable unless he is on support medications and your body must be able to support the blood pressure on its own without support medications before they could even do the procedure. Eventually we will have them stop giving him the support drugs and he will eventually pass. I am totally numb.

Sunday Update For Ben

Not a good day. Ben was awake but very out of it. He told me he was cold even though he had 3 thermal blankets on him. I'm sure that's caused by his anemia. He didn't respond to me much after that. When I got there his vitals were…Heart Rate 96 (this was up from yesterday which is not good). Respiration 24 (also up from yesterday which is not good). Blood Pressure 106/51. Blood Level still 7.5 and as I said, this should be around 11 to 13. His temperature was near normal. They were waiting for a unit of blood to give him which came about an hour after I got there. His nurse Nida told me that his main problem right now is his kidneys. He's still not putting out much urine. His creatinine level is 5.5 milligrams but normal is 0.6 to 1.2 milligrams. His limbs, hands, feet and face looked swollen today from him holding water. Nida told me he is not bleeding from anywhere, but his blood level just does not seem to want to go up. He is not on any pain medications. Dr. Han (ICU doctor) came by to check on Ben. He told me they have called a dialysis doctor to evaluate Ben to see if they need to give him what they called "acute dialysis". From what I've read online acute kidney failure is usually reversible. Dr. Han is very concerned that Ben's stomach is still distended even after the last surgery. They just cannot seem to figure out what is causing this problem. Dr. Rupp (Surgeon) came by. She said that been "doesn't seem to be turning the bend". Didn't like hearing this. Both doctors said that his kidneys are their main concern right now. Ben's B/P kept dropping while I was there. He was not on the B/P supporting drugs. It got down to 66/37, so they ordered another unit of blood, which made two unit today so far. They also put him back on the B/P supporting drugs. These two things brought his B/P back up and they said that if it stayed up, they would take him off the drugs again because the drugs cause organ failure and do not make the kidney problem any better. Nida explained to me in detail what happens when they put a person on dialysis. She said Ben would not be in any pain if and when they do it. She said once they do it, they will continue to monitor his kidneys and blood levels to see if it needs to be repeated. He was so weak today and just starred off into space the entire time I was there. It was all I could do not to fall apart in front of him. I asked when the dialysis doctor would be there, but they didn't know. They even said it might not be until tomorrow, so I left at 1:00 PM and they told me that they would call if there were any changes, plus if the do decide to do dialysis, they will have to get my consent. When I left his vital were…Heart Rate 98, Respiration 32, Blood Pressure 105/53, Temperature 97.6°.

Saturday Update For Ben

Ben was awake when I come into his room and responsive to me and his nurse. His vitals were half good, half bad. His heart rate was 85 and his breathing was 19, but his blood pressure was 73/38 (but they had just repositioned him and that lowers it for a few minutes and usually comes right back up). His body temperature was only 94.6° which is "hypothermal". He is anemic so they were giving him another unit of blood while I was there. His blood level is 7.5 and it should be 11 to 13. He is no longer on the blood pressure raising medications. They really want his B/P to get normal on its own as much as possible because the meds are not really good for you. They can weaken your kidneys and Ben's kidneys are already not functioning as well as they should. To raise his body temperature, they put several thermal blankets on him and then put a full body heating pad on top of them. He kept pushing them off saying he was hot, but when they checked his temperature, it had only gotten up to 95.9° before I left. I think he didn't like the weight of them on his body. They put a rectal thermometer in him to monitor his temperature while they have him under the heating pad. Their goal is to get him up to 99.5°. His nurse Alana told me that his abdominal pressure is good even though I thought his belly looked a little bloated. She said he is in the "acceptable" range. She said he is still getting stool in his colostomy bag. The only problem they are having with the bag is that it doesn't want to stay adhered to his skin. Ben has always had a problem with any kind of adhesives irritating his skin and causing it to turn red. Because of the skin irritation, the adhesive on the bag won't stick to his skin. It keeps coming lose and then the bag leaks. He still is not getting much urine so his limbs, hands and feet are still bloated. They are giving him meds to try to make him pee more. Ben was actually more alert today than he was yesterday. He kept getting mad at me because he would pull the thermal blankets off and I'd put them right back on him, so he'd "silently" yell at me and give me dirty looks. I'd just laugh at him and tell him that it was good for him to get mad because maybe it would help his B/P go up plus it shows that he is having some kind of "feelings" and is reacting to them. They gave him an injection of Vitamin K to try to help his blood thicken up some. Around 12:30, Ben started to fall asleep so I decided to leave. I'd been there for 4 hours by that time. When I left his vitals were….heart rate 84, breathing 19, blood pressure 93/51.

Friday Update For Ben

Ben was awake when I came in this morning, but not really very responsive. When I first came in, his blood pressure was 113/49, his heart rate was 93 and his breathing was 24. No fever today, temperature was 96°. I think it's a little low due to his low B/P. I thought his belly looked a little bigger today and to me it felt a little harder, but Nick (Ben's nurse) said that maybe it looked bigger to me due to all of the dressing on the incision plus the colostomy bag under Ben's gown. That could be because they did have a lot of dressing on the incision. Nick also said that they are constantly monitoring Ben's abdominal pressure and it has been staying within the range it should be. It looked like there was some blood in Ben's urine. I mentioned it to Nick and he said he's been noting that on the computer for the doctors. Ben didn't seem to be focusing today, he just kept staring off into space. He acted like he was trying to tell me something but I could not read his lips to know what it was. The are still giving him antibiotics. They were giving him a unit of blood just before I left and they are still trying to wean him off of the blood pressure meds that help raise his B/P. When I left at 12:30, they had just given him some more Ativan to calm him down some because he was a little agitated. I just hope it does not knock him out as much as it did the other day when he didn't wake up for over 24 hours. His vitals just before I left were B/P 113/58, H/R 93 and breathing 30.

Thursday Update For Ben

Ben's eyes were open when I came into his room and he squeezed my hand when I took it. He was still a "little" out of it, but he was a little responsive today. When I got there, his blood pressure was 100/52, his heart rate was 100 and his breathing was 20. He had no fever. Last night they had taken him off of the B/P meds to raise his pressure, but they had to put him back on it. But again this morning after I got there, they took him off of it again. Some of the time, he would just stare off into space, but when I would ask him something, he would nod or "mouth" yes or no. He said he was not in any pain. Ben's limbs are still somewhat puffy. I asked Nick (his nurse) if he was urinating more than he was, and Nick said a little, but not that much. Our social worker Jennifer came in this morning as did Robin the hospital chaplain. Lanny (Ben's brother) came by around 11:00 AM. I was just so happy to see that he was awake this morning. I didn't sleep well because I was so worried about the fact that he had not come out of it when I called his nurse last night. Dr. Rupp (the surgeon) had told us that the first few days after surgery would be the most critical and Ben has seemed to make it through those first few days.

Wednesday Update For Ben

Ben was asleep when I came into his room this morning and he did not wake up in the 3 hours I was there. His nurse Lisa said that she had given him some Ativan yesterday evening and that it must have still been in his system because he is not urinating very much so his body is holding liquids and the Ativan would come out in his urine. I could not get him to even open his eyes. His heart rate was 96, his breathing was 22 and his blood pressure was 110/65. His arms, hands, legs and feet were still a little puffy, but as I've said, he is not urinating very much. His blood levels were down due to all of the fluids they are giving him due to his kidney malfunctioning, so they were giving him a unit of blood while I was there. His nurse Lisa told me that he did come back positive for MRSA but that it is inactive right now. It is in his nose. I was told he's probably had it for a long time, but they always test for it in ICU and that's when they discovered it. Because of this, anyone who goes into his room must wear a gown and rubber gloves. I picked up a booklet in the ICU called "Living with MRSA" and I've been reading up on it and researching it online. As long as it stays inactive, he should be ok. It's been around forever, but was not really discovered until the 1960's. It's very common in hospitals and a lot of nurses and doctors are even carries of it. My advocate (Lisa) from my attorney's office came by to see Ben today.

Tuesday Update For Ben

Linda and I got to Ben's room around 9:45 AM. He was awake and alert. You could tell he knew we were there and he was trying to communicate with us some. They told me that he was not on any pain meds and that he told them he does not have any pain, which is good. We noticed that he is off of a lot of the medications and fluids they had him on right after his surgery. His color was good. His vitals are improving every day. He kept trying to "mouth" things to me and some of it I could understand, but most of it I couldn't. The chaplain came in and prayed with us again. When his friend Ed showed up, Ben knew it was him and "mouthed" a greeting to him. When it got to be around 12:00 noon, I asked Ben if he was getting tired and he shook his head no, then I asked him if he wanted us to leave and let him rest and he mouthed "no", so we stayed another 15 minutes when the nurse came in and said she was going to empty his colostomy bag. I figured that was a good time for us to go. Today his numbers were:

Heart Rate = 100
Breathing = 30
Blood Pressure - 119/58
No Fever

We kept watching the monitor and sometimes his heart rate got down around 95 or 96. His breathing got down to 24 or 25. His blood pressure varied, but was still staying up pretty good. Saw the surgeon out in the hall when we were leaving, but she was busy with another doctor so did not get to speak with her. Ben seems to be improving every day. Hopefully he will be out of ICU and back up in DOU soon.

Monday Update For Ben

Got to ICU at 9:40 AM. Ben was a little bit awake and I took his hand and told him I was there and he squeezed my fingers. He looked like he is starting to hold some fluids again…not in his belly but in his arms, hands, legs and feet. They are a little bloated. I'm sure this is because his kidneys are not functioning at 100% again. The are giving him drugs to try to make him pee more. This morning his B/P was strange. The top number was very good, but the bottom was very low. His nurse Steve told me that it is much better though. Ben's heart rate was running between 110 and 115, his breathing was running between 25 and 30. His belly does not appear to be bloated now. He had a very low grade fever of 99.3° which Steve called "borderline". The hospital chaplain Robin who was praying with Ben up in DOU came in and prayed over Ben this morning. Robin is really a nice guy. Our social worker Jennifer came in first thing too. She said we were the first on her list this morning. Someone shaved Ben's beard, but he's got a little "Hitler mustache" going on right now. Don't know why they did not shave that off. Steve said that Ben seemed to be gasping for air, so he wanted to let him sleep and try to calm him down some. He remembered that when Ben was in ICU before that I had asked them not to give him too much morphine, so instead Steve game Ben some Ativan. Ben went right to sleep and slept most of the time I was there. They are still lowering the dosage of the blood pressure drugs that help to raise his B/P because it keeps getting better. When I left at 12:30 PM, Ben's B/P was 123/57. His breathing was 23 to 26 (normal is in the mid to high teens). His heart rate was 112 to 115. So he is getting better each day.

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.

Saturday (Surgery) Update For Ben

Ben's sister (Donna), niece (Beth) and I got to the hospital around 6:30 AM. We had to be there before 7:00 AM so I could sign the surgical consent papers. When we got there I asked Ben if they had told him he was going in for surgery today and he said no. I did not go into detail with him, but just told him that they were going to do the surgery to get rid of the blockage in his colon and he said "good". We sat with him until 8:00 AM when they took him downstairs to the OR. His sister and niece went to the waiting room and I went with Ben down to OR until they took him in and then I went out to the waiting room. Ben's brother showed up awhile later and my friend Judy Arbogast also showed up to wait with us. The surgery took about 2 hours. Dr. Rupp (surgeon) came in and she told us that Ben had Diverticular Disease. I already knew he had diverticulitus. I have researched this condition online. It is when there is inflammation of the diverticula. This causes erosion of the diverticular wall due to increased pressure in the gut. Dr. Rupp said that this condition causes Ben's colon and bladder to be pushed together causing a blockage in his intestines. She had to remove the last part of his lower intestines and attach a colostomy bag to him. Also, when they opened him up and removed all of the fluid that was in his belly, this cause his blood pressure to drop drastically so they had to stabilize him in Recovery before Lanny (Ben's brother) and I could go in to see him and before they could send him down to ICU to recover. She also told us that the next few days will be extremely critical for him, but she seemed cautiously optimistic. When we were allowed to go in and see him in recovery, his eyes were open and he was moving around. I took his hand and told him to squeeze my finger if he could hear me and he did. He also tried to talk to us a little and was able to "croak" a few words out. They moved him down to ICU around 2:15 PM. Donna and Beth had already left to attend Donna's grand-daughter's birthday party and Lanny left around 2:30 PM. It took them another 45 minutes to get Ben hooked up to everything in ICU and ready for me to come in and see him. I got in to see him just before 3:00 PM. He was still moving around and he looked at me when I came in. I told him that I was just checking on him before I left to go home because it had been an extremely long day for me and I had not gotten any sleep last night, so I needed to get home and rest. He croaked "Go Home" to me, so I kissed him, told him I loved him and he said "I love you too" and I left to come home.

Ben's Surgery

I am very upset and feeling very alone right now. Dr. Rupp, the Kaiser surgeon called me and said that I had to decide if they should do the surgery on Ben for his blockage. She told me that they will have to do a colostomy or a diverted colostomy on him, which means he will have a colostomy bag. The surgeon told Ben's brother that she feel's Ben should survive the procedure, however, she said that the first few days of post-op will be the critical time. She said there is no guarantee that the surgery will help him, in fact she said there is a possibility that it could make him worse., but if he does not have it, he will remain as he is right now and that is no better because he's getting weaker each day. She told me the best scenario is that he is able to tolerate tube feeding and eventually be taken off the ventilator and IF he can swallow, he would eventually be able to eat solid foods, but she is skeptical about that. The worst scenario is that he would not make a turn around to get better and maybe even die. I feel we need to at least try the surgery because either way I feel he could die. She said if he makes it through the critical days and eventually makes it off the ventilator and can swallow, that one day they would be able to maybe re-attach the ends of the colon and take the colostomy bag away, but she said that it's a 50/50 chance that that could happen. I am so upset. I've been crying my eyes out, but we have scheduled the surgery for 8:00 AM tomorrow. I have to be at the hospital before 7:00 AM to sign the consent papers, which should be no problem because I know I will not sleep at all tonight. I am here at home alone and there is no one who can come to stay with me. My friend Linda is out of town for the weekend. Ben's sister is in town for her grand-daughter's birthday and I'm hoping that she will be able to come and stay with me tonight. Waiting for a call back from her. Please pray for my dear sweat Ben, that he will survive this surgery and the next few days and that he will one day be able to lead at least some kind of a semi-normal life. This is just killing me.

Friday Update For Ben

Ben seemed very weak today. He can talk, but you can tell he really feels bad. He asks me to give him a "barf bag" every day because he always feels nauseous. He lies there in bed holding it like a security blanket. He never uses it though. He gets more crabby each day, but I know it is because he does not feel good. He keeps telling me that he feels like he's going crazy and he does not know how much longer he can take this. I keep telling him that he will eventually get stronger and get well. The physical therapist came in but Ben did not want to work with her. She said he really looked tired and that she would try to come back later to work with him. She told me she did work with him yesterday. I finally spoke with Dr. Markarian (this week's rotation doctor) and he is nothing like Dr. Manek. I wish so much that we could have kept Dr. Manek. Dr. Markarian told me that the surgeon (Dr. Rupp) has to analyze the results of the procedure from yesterday and then evaluate Ben before they know what they are going to do. Dr. Markarian said he does not have the results back from yesterday yet. Meanwhile, Ben gets weaker in my opinion, even though his vitals are still very stable. He just seems to tired. Dr. Markarian told me that Dr. Rupp should be by to see Ben sometime today, but he had no idea what time that would be. I stayed until 1:30 PM and never saw her.

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.

Wednesday Update For Ben

Normally what I'm about to say would be a bad thing and something we would not want but I am so happy to tell everyone…..

THEY FOUND A BLOCKAGE IN BEN'S COLON!

Ben opened his eyes and gave me a little wave when I came into his room this morning. Neelima (his nurse) said she was waiting for Radiology to send someone to take Ben downstairs to do a special type of enema. I'll refer to it as a "power washer enema" because she told me that it's like sticking a power washer up your colon and inserting liquids with special medications to try to remove any fecal blockage that might be there. I asked Ben if Dr. Manek had been in to tell him that because the sigmoidoscope would not go more than 10 cm into his colon that they were now really thinking there had to be some kind of blockage. Ben said that the doctor had told him. Ben was happy that I had returned his empty beer keg and gotten his $30 deposit back. Around 11:20 AM, they came and took Ben down to Radiology. He was gone for over an hour. When he came back, his brother Lanny had gotten there to see him. Lanny went out and found Dr. Manek to talk with him. The doctor said he would be in Ben's room in a few minutes to tell us what they found. When he got there, he told us that he had just looked at the images they took last night and this morning and that he could clearly see some kind of blockage in the lower intestines. He said that the intestines were dilated, then he saw a "pinched off" part and then another dilated part, so the pinched off part is where the blockage is. He said he was already on the phone with Dr. Rupp the surgeon and she was very surprised to hear that they had found something. So Dr. Manek is now working with her and the Dr. Zweiban (GI doctor) to decided exactly what they are going to do. We also found out that we will have Dr. Manek on Ben's case for one more day, so that helps. Dr. Manek is very optimistic and says that he is so glad that it is no longer a mystery as to why Ben stomach is still bloated. He told Lanny (Ben's brother) that Ben should be in the medical books for this because it is very unusual. Ben said "why didn't they start at that end in the first place?". They are probably going to do more procedures tomorrow to get more images to find exactly where the blockage is and they probably do surgery to go in and fix it. Dr. Manek said he does not think Ben should have a problem with surgery because he is now off of the ventilator and his vitals are excellent. Dr. Manek has truly been a God Send. If not for him being so aggressive, the other doctors would still be "waiting for Ben's body to heal itself" and he probably would have gotten worse and eventually die. THANK YOU GOD FOR DR. MANEK AND FOR HELPING HIM FIND THIS BLOCKAGE.