The Puddles

Ben has had his eye of this Little Tykes Police Car since we took a tour before the surgery.  So as soon as we got down here we grabbed it and parked it in the room.

Ben took his first lap around the cardio floor this morning.  We went to the fish tank and checked it out.  We tried to find the shark that is suppose to be in there, but we couldn’t find it. Yet.  We are still making laps and checking out the tank.

Ben is completely without wires now (except for the IV port). So he is free to move about the floor.

He has to eat, pee, and move.  So we are working on that.

Yesterday, he wanted to talk on the walkie-talkie in the car, so Grandma G. moved the car to the top of the table.  He had so much fun.

Tomorrow we are going to wear real clothes and keep working on our jobs.  We don’t have any appointments until Monday.  And if the tests all go well on Monday we may get to go home.

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Chest tubes out. New jammies on. The boy is ready to go.  He quickly climbed out of the bed, so that he could look out of the window at the water wall.  This is as close as mom wants to get to the window.  I hate the 15th floor.  Let’s face it.  I would hate the 2nd floor. Ben climbed up on the couch faster than I could tell him not too.

He has been waiting a long time to look out of the window.

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The doctor just came in and took out Ben’s chest tubes.  He now has three belly buttons.  Cute!  The boy did great.  No flinching and just a little whining.  Perfectly normal.  Just ask any person who has had a chest tube yanked out of his body.  Ben did awesome.

When they were done, Ben said he didn’t want anymore yanking, pulling, or tying.  Deal.  At least for the next hour.

He has his ipod touch on and is watching Bolt.  We will go for an xray soon to make sure that his innards look good.  We will go soon.

On the other hand, Madie has decided to start vomiting. Poor thing.  I think that she is under so much stress right now.  She has had to be good for an entire week.  No backtalking, no refusing to do chores, no typical almost-eight year old behavior.  Grandma G. is on her way to Aunt Deb’s house to rescue Madie, Ainsley, and Aunt Debra.  Aunt Debra has had a rough night with poor Madie.  She needs a break too.  Grandma G. is taking the girls home with her.  The Kennels arrive Sunday at the house to take over parent duty.  I hope Marsha and Lonnie are well rested.  Take your advil now Marsha!

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I am going to run out of adjectives to describe how well my BenBen is doing.  Chris is here for our shift change.  My dad is here to be Chris’ backup and my mom and I are ready to depart for some sleep.

Ben had his central line removed and when he moved down to his new regular room, he was taken off all constant monitoring.  Ben managed to remove the IV out of his foot during the night.  So we are slowly getting rid of all of our “strings” (that is what Ben calls them). There is great hope that we will remove his chest tubes tomorrow, but then again maybe not.  We will just have to see.

We go for an xray tomorrow morning and he has to get up and walk more in the morning.  He did walk to the bathroom and back to his bed.  He truly is a hard workin’ dude.  He is determined to go home soon.

Right now he is figuring out the pleasures of a bed with remote controls.  Up. Down. Up. Down.  Almost folded the bed in half with him squished in the middle.  That is my BenBen.

More great nurses have greeted us on this new floor.  We are in room 1517. Chris tells me that this was the year of the reformation, so this is a GOOD room with EXCELLENT Lutheran vibes.

I know that tomorrow will be another awesome day.  God is good.  He has given me back my boy in great shape.  We have a few more hurdles to jump, but we will get there with God by our side.

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Madie was very sad today.  She missed her brother badly. (Ainsley asked if we were going to bury Ben in the backyard next to Abby. A week ago I would not have done well with that statement but we are on the other side of our drama, so I can see the  humor now.)

So Daddy sneaked Madie upstairs.  He asked the front desk, “Does she look 12?” (you have to be over 12 to get in the hospital).  The nurse said that if Chris says Madie is 12 than she has to take his word for it.

So Madie came inside (did I mention that Chris had a lot of explaining to do with Madie about why he lied.  Not pretty. glad it was him and not me.) There was such joy in the fact that she got to see her brother and talk to him.  She stayed for about 10 minutes and then Daddy wisked her down the elevator again.

It was worth breaking all of the rules to have Madie reassured that Ben was ok.  She is my little worrier.

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Thank you Nurse Katie and Nurse Shannon.  You have helped me get out of my ICU room and into my regular room.

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Yes. We passed our tests this morning.  1. Pee on our own and 2. Remove central line. So . . . we are in our new room!!!!  We have orders today to get up and walk.  The “Marriot is closed.”  (as the nurse explained to us) So we must take every meal sitting up in a chair.  He is taking a quick nap before he has to get up and move.  He said he doesn’t need PT to help him.  He’s got Mom and Grandma and they help Grandpa H. all the time get up (especially Grandma). His words.

We will be in our new room for a while.  We have to get an xray tomorrow and we have orders for another xray and sonogram on Sunday.  There are orders written to take the pacing wires (external pacemaker kind of thing) out on Monday.  So they are telling us that we will probably be here through Tuesday.  Who knows.  I have stopped predicting this kind of thing.

I was waiting to eat lunch until we got to Ben’s new room. But now we are trapped on this floor.  The firewall unexpectedly came down and now no one (well. the staff elevators aren’t having a problem) can leave or get here.  So now I am starving and waiting.

Mom is working all of the angles to try to get downstairs to get us something to eat.  Hopefully she will work her magic.  Knowing her she will find a way.

Aunt Debra is bringing the girls up to see me today.  I am so excited.  I didn’t realize how much I miss them.  My brain has been engaged in other places and I know that they are well taken care so I don’t need to worry.

Well I was right.  Mom found a way.  She has brought sustenance. We will let you know more and the day goes on.

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