The Puddles

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.

Here is Ben today.  Dressed in his new jammies and sitting in a chair.  We are eating lunch.  And as soon as Ben finishes, he gets to go to a regular room.  Of course, he is a slow eater so this may take a while.

Did I mention that we are going to a regular room on the cardio floor?  Yeah!!!!  Ben is so excited.  The nurses removed his central line a little while ago.

We will report more when we get down there.  I need to stop so that I can get him to eat more, so we can move!!!

Ben has had a really good day.  I mean a really really good day. He didn’t fuss much during the procedures and did a great job of vocalizing what he needed when he needed it.  He managed to sleep rather well off and on during the day and I expect a good night tonight.  His blood pressure is still higher than they would like but not bad enough to not take his arterial line out.  He kept down two meals and a couple of popsicles.

He watched a lot of tv today (thank God for Disney channel!).  I think that his head is permanently leaning in that direction.  He hardly turned his head today at all except when he was sleeping.  And of course he laughed really hard during Hank the Cowdog.

Nurse Shannon has left and Nurse John is on duty.  He opened Uncle Will and Aunt Michele’s present and enjoyed the cards and pictures from his cousins.  He really liked the transformer and monster truck.  Papa really like the transformer too.  We had to remind him that he needed to give it back to Ben before he took Grandma home.

We are waiting for another hour to pass before Daddy and Uncle Dave come on the night shift.  I expect Daddy to return my BenBen in even better shape than when I left him tonight!  Ben is amazing everyone with how well he is doing.   Good night, sweet boy!

Ben is eating brisket and corn.  There is pink in his cheeks again. He is a Nebraskan.  He needs his cow and corn.

There is other good news.  He is wearing his own underwear.  Boxers.  He is finally looking like a young man again.  I was trying to help him with dinner and he told me that he doesn’t need me to feed him.  Of course.  Why didn’t I think of that.

The doctor just came in and he said that Ben will be here during the night, but should be moved to a regular bed on the cardio floor by tomorrow.  Yeah!

Maybe we will be home by the end of the weekend.  Maybe.  We can only pray.

Ben is working on a little lunch. Chicken nuggets and mac&cheese. So far so good.  He hasn’t thrown anything up yet.  Sparky and all of the blankets have arrived to the room via grandma’s laundry service.  We had a little episode where his blood pressure dropped from 120s/50s (don’t ask for specific numbers)  to 60/30. Not good. But of course, Shannon (our nurse) was right on it and handled it smoothly.  The blood pressure medicine that they gave him to lower his blood pressure worked a little too well.

We read two chapters of Hank the Cowdog.  We love that book series.  It is by far one of our favorites.  We read about Hank saving the ranch from giant silver monster bird (aka an airplane) and how Hank doesn’t understand why they think he smells because he takes a daily bath in the septic tank.  Hilarious!

The Ronald McDonald House served Thanksgiving Dinner today.  I had turned down several offers of dinner being delivered to me today.  I thought that it would just be easier to grab something at the cafeteria and dart back upstairs to Ben’s room.  Well . . . the cafeteria is closed today.  Thank you Ronald McDonald House.  The food was homemade and tasty.  Not as tasty as my neighbor’s dirty rice that she offered to bring.  But still tasty.

I truly believe in the power of prayer. Thank you for all of your prayers.  They were with the surgeon yesterday and with the nursing staff today.  Thank you.

Look how good he looks.  He is even eating a popsicle.  He just ordered chicken nuggets for lunch.  Lucky boy!

See the monkey.  That is George.  George has been to every medical procedure and even the last surgery.  George has seen many things.

Grandma and Papa Grace are here to help today.  Grandma is washing Ben’s Monster Truck blanket (sorry, Ms. Diana).  He threw up last night all over it.

Papa is finding a cup of coffee for me.  Thank God.  I got a cup of coffee from the 17th floor today.  I think that it is the same coffee that Mr. Larry made yesterday.  It was good yesterday.  Not so much today.

Our nurse, Shannon (who is wonderful!!), is working hard to get Ben better and in a regular room.  He even got a popsicle for breakfast.  It is good to be Ben today (besides the whole open heart surgery thing).

Daddy and Uncle Will had the first night shift.  He did awesome.  When he first got out of surgery, the doctors let us back a little early because Ben insisted on seeing Mommy.  So Mommy went back to calm him down.  He wanted the goop out of his eyes so that he could see.  Of course, the real problem was that he was still coming out of anesthesia.  And he wanted a sprite.  Not ice chips. Sprite.  They finally gave him some gatorade later in the evening after mommy left.

I went back to the apartment that we are staying at (thank you Mrs. Tippen).  It was so nice to sleep in a real bed.  I went to bed as soon as I called the girls. It was a good sleep for so many reasons.

Woke up early this morning and rode the metrorail to the hospital.  I left so early and it still took me an hour to get to Ben’s bedside.  The buildings are all locked because of Thanksgiving, so it took me over 30 minutes to get inside the hospital.  As soon as Ben is better, we are definitely going on a train ride.

Dr. Fraser just spoke to us and Ben is doing well.  They removed all of the membrane and repaired the aortic valve.  The membrane was attached to the valve and have scarred the valve.  He said that many other doctors would have replaced the valve today but he didn’t.   Thank you Dr. Fraser.

They are trying to get Ben off the vent right now and to wake up enough to move him to the ICU.  We will see him there soon.  

The doctor doesn’t know why Ben keeps regrowing this membrane.  He is just special that way I guess.  But he truly thinks that Ben will grow this membrane again.  We will just keep watching it.  

Thank you God for the good news today!  Now onto recovery!  Game on!

They just called.  They have saved Ben’s valve!!!!!!!!  There is no need to replace the valve right now.  YEAH!!!!!  Everything looks good. We will hear again in two hours.  Hopefully that update will be from the surgeon and he will be back in the CVICU.

They have resected the membrane and repaired the aortic valve.  They are warming Ben up and getting ready to take him off the heart-lung bypass.  They will test the heart valve and see whether or not it needs to be replaced.  We are waiting to find out.  We know more in two hours.