Seeing The Difference

Last August when Ben left I set out on a goal to lose 100 lbs before he got back. Well, that didn't happen. Losing a small 2 lbs a week isn't as easy as it sounds. I am excited to report that I have lost 25 though. That may or may not seem like a big deal to you, but it is huge for me. I've always had trouble losing weight, but no trouble putting it on. That is partly due to me having PCOS. But between exercising, changing my eating habits, and starting a medication for my PCOS, it has been amazing. I will admit, I've been a bit of a slacker the past few months when it comes to working out. I don't go to the gym nearly enough. But I haven't put any weight on in either. So I guess in a way it kinda balances itself out.

A before pic. This one was taken about a week before Ben left.

An after pic. This one was taken about 2 months ago.

It's so good to feel like I have partially achieved my goal. I feel better, I look better, and some certain things have become more "normal" meaning hopefully we're going to have some very exciting news to share in the near future. :)

Heidelberg, Germany

So it turns out Ben going to Germany hasn't been such a bad thing. He's been very well taken care of by the doctor there, and he has gotten to do some sightseeing. We've always wanted to go to Germany (not necessarily this way...), so this has been good for him. They really take care of the soldiers that are medevaced there. So even though I'm jealous that I can't be there with him, I'm glad he's doing better.

Saturday there was a trip that he got to go on that went and did some sightseeing in Heidelberg. He got to go to an old castle and on a river cruise. He had a good time and took tons of pics for me. Over 100. So I thought I'd share some of them with you. :)

Chillin' on the couch before leaving. Group photo.



Look at that handsome man. :)

Yup he took this photo. View of the country side.

Really cool pic.

Ben thinks we need to be stationed in Germany now. And from the looks of the pictures he took, I think it could be really fun. We'll see if we make it there though. Gotta finish our time in Japan first. :)

He's Leavin' Germany...

TOMORROW!!!! He'll be flying out of Germany Tuesday (Germany and Japan time) and should be here sometime Wednesday (Japan time). We don't have exact flight info right now, but he'll go get that shortly. YAY!!!! I am so excited! Seriously, this is the happiest I've been in a while.
So he had his colonoscopy today, and the doctor did some more biopsies. We won't know the results until Friday, but they are going to let him come home tomorrow. He wanted to keep him until Friday because he thought Ben was supposed to head back down range (back to Kuwait), but he's not eligible to be there (for medical reasons). His unit will be home in a few weeks anyway. The doctor is pretty sure he has Chrone's, and because of the kind it is he thinks the kidney stones are probably a side effect from it. So if we can get one or the other taken care of, it should help the other too. It is soooo good to finally have some answers. FINALLY! A doctor who knows what he's talking about!
I have some pics he took Saturday from a trip he took with some of the other "Wounded Warriors". I'll try to get that done in the next couple days, if not tonight. It might be tonight since I'm pretty much too excited to sleep now. He's coming home! No more dumb deployment! WOO HOO!!!

Good Bye Kuwait

Ben is in Germany now. He was finally able to say good bye to the hot desert of Kuwait. They medevaced him out this morning. It was a long and not so comfortable flight. One of the flight doctors ended up giving him an IV while in mid-flight. Poor guy. But he survived the flight and made it to the hospital. He met with the doctors and discussed what's gonna happen now. They will do another colonoscopy Monday. His doctor in Germany is not happy with his doctor in Kuwait. With his last colonoscopy the doctor/surgeon didn't record what he found or include any pictures or anything, hence why they are doing it again. He's not to thrilled with that and I don't blame him. The doctor in Kuwait also didn't do a great job with the meds he's on. He put Ben on several meds to treat several things, but none of them were strong enough to really do anything for him. So this new doc put him on a stronger pain pill and we'll see if it helps. So he'll be there until at least Monday, probably more like Tuesday. Depending on what they find with the colonoscopy and how he's doing with the pain, will determine where he goes next. If the pain gets better they'll send him back home to me in Japan. If not, they'll send him back to the states, probably Hawaii, via a military flight so he can have a flight doc go with him. I'm hoping he's feeling better and just comes back to Japan. I'm so ready to see my husband again. And his new doc is really trying to help him. So hopefully we get this all figured out and taken care of quickly. So cross your fingers, pray, wish on a star, whatever it is you do, and we'll hope he's home next week.

Headed to Germany

Ben will be headed to Germany within the next couple days. They released him from the hospital Wednesday, but hasn't really gotten better. His commander made him go to the ER Thursday, and the dr there put him on quarters for 48 hours and said if he came back he would be medevaced out. So he was off Friday and Saturday and went back to work today. He and a few others tried convincing the commander to just send him back to Japan, but being the retard (I have meaner names for him but I'll keep it clean) he is, he made Ben go back to the ER this afternoon. So guess what, now that the drs are involved he has to be medevaced out. He'll go back in in the morning to finish the paperwork and will be off to Germany within the next few days. From there, they will more than likely have to send him back to the states because they don't have the drs he needs to see in Germany. They don't have them in Japan either, which is why they won't send him back here. There's a very small chance that they may send him from Germany to Japan and then on to Hawaii, but I'm not gonna hold my breath. But we have no idea how long he'll be in Germany or the states. I don't know when I'm going to get to see my husband again. We were so close! The end of the deployment was in sight. He was supposed to be home in a month. Now I don't know if I'll get to see him then or not. This sucks! I'm trying really hard to stay strong and positive, but I don't know how much longer it's gonna last.

Diagnosis

They are releasing Ben from the hospital today, and we have a pretty good idea of what's going on now. The colonoscopy went well and wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. Probably because they gave him a sedative that knocked him out. They did some biopsies that have to be sent to the Pathologist in Germany, so it'll be a couple weeks before we have any definite answers. They do think it's a mild case of Chrone's though. There's not really much they can do for it other than treat him with lots of pills. So he's taking like a hundred different pills (ok closer to 20 but still a lot). We don't know what causes it, other than it is genetic and hereditary. But they think that the Naproxen he takes for his shoulder causes it to flair up. He'll be staying with his unit in Kuwait and shouldn't have to go to Germany. It's so close to them coming home now, that it would probably take longer for him to get back to Japan if they sent him there first. So he'll just stay all drugged up for now. We'll go to the dr here when he get's back and see what we're gonna do from there. They don't have a Gastroenterologist here in Japan so they may have us move back to the states where he could be seen on a regular basis by the specialist. Oh darn, we might have to leave Japan. (Note the sarcasm... I'm sooo ready to go back to the states.) So that's what we know now. He is doing better and sounding like he's feeling a lot better. Now if we can just make the next month fly by instead of crawling like it has the past couple weeks, we should be all good.

Update on Ben

Here's the latest news:
Ben is still in the hospital in Kuwait. He passed the two stones he had over the weekend, but was still in a lot of pain. They did another CT Scan yesterday (this one with contrast dye) to see if the pain was possibly caused by something going on with his intestines. They found out two thing. 1) He has another kidney stone. We'll be going to the dr here in Japan when he gets back to see if we can figure out what's causing these. It's kinda ridiculous how many he gets and how often he gets them. 2) There is some swelling of the colon on his left side. So the next step is they give him some stuff to completely clean him out this afternoon/evening and they do a colonoscopy tomorrow. Neither which sounds fun to me. Right now they are thinking it's either Colitis (an infection in his colon) or Chrone's Disease (google it because I don't understand it enough to explain it yet). If it's colitis, they can continue treating him in Kuwait with antibiotics and such and he should be good in a couple weeks. If it's Chrone's Disease (which we are thinking it might be), they will do all they can for him in Kuwait, but will probably end up sending him up to Germany and then back to Japan. It's been thought before that he has Chrone's but for some reason it was ruled out. Not sure when or by who, but it's been a possibility before nonetheless. So he may end up coming home early. It wouldn't be much earlier since they'll be home in about a month anyway (sometime between Aug 21 - 25 are the dates we have right now). So yeah. That's what we know right now. They've got him on Prednisone and something else to help with the pain and everything. It doesn't take the pain away, but makes it more tolerable. But until they do the colonoscopy tomorrow we don't know much else. It's nice to have an idea of what's going on though. And we're both glad he finally went to the dr. He wasn't going to go, and just kept putting it off because he thought it was just kidney stones, but the pain finally got to the point where he had to go. I wish he wasn't so stubborn when it comes to stuff like that, but then I'm the same way so I really shouldn't be saying anything. We are seriously going to have the most stubborn kids on the planet. :P But anyway, as soon as we know anything else I'll update again.

Kidney Stones

Just to let you all know, Ben is in the hospital in Kuwait. He was admitted last night. He's been having problems with kidney stones again/still. I guess they never really stopped after the first ones a year and a half ago. But he went to the dr at Buehring yesterday, and they sent him down to the hospital at Arifjan. He's got two stones in his right kidney, a lot of pain in his left, and possibly an embedded stone in one of the tubes and a UTI. So needless to say he's in pain. They've got him all drugged up right now, so it's not too bad. And he sounded a lot better this afternoon than he did last night. There's really not a whole lot they can do for him right now, other than give him pain meds. They don't have a Urologist in Kuwait. So they are going to keep him there until he passes these two stones and is feeling better. If he's not feeling better after they pass, they may have to medevac him up to Germany to see the Urologist there. Hopefully there's nothing too serious wrong. Not that kidney stones aren't serious, but you know what I mean. He'll be home in about a month, so if he can just hang on until then. He promises me they are taking really good care of him now. I'm still kinda skeptical though, just because I'm not there to see it. I was debating with myself which is worse: being by his bedside seeing him laid up in pain and not being able to do anything or being half way around the world and not being able to do anything. I decided it's worse to not be with him. I'm not there to hear what the dr has to say and to see that he's getting the best care. Atleast when I'm with him I can hold his hand and really know that things are ok. I wish they would just send him home, but that's not the way the Army works. I know, one month. July is almost half way over and he'll be home in August. It's so close, yet still so far. I'm beginning to think the end of the deployment is just as bad as the beginning. You know they'll be home soon, but the days just don't pass fast enough. It's been a really long rough week. My best friend moved back to the states, my husband is in the hospital and there's nothing I can do about it, and it was that time of month on top of it so I've been all emotional and hormonal anyway. But anywho, that's what's going on right now. I'll keep you updated and what happens with Ben. Hopefully he's back on his feet soon.

Happy 4th of July

Hope everyone has a happy and safe 4th of July. Make sure you eat an extra hamburger and shoot off a couple extra fireworks for us! =)

Army Ball

The annual Army Birthday Ball was tonight. And even though I didn't have a date I decided to go anyway. One, I got to go for free; and two, it gave me a reason to play dress up. I've never been to an Army Ball before so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. As one of my friends described it, it's kinda like Prom for adults. And it kinda was. It started out like most military functions- Posting of Colors, National Anthems (both Japan's and America's), etc. Then they did the Streamer Ceremony. This was new to me, and I can't really explain how it all works. But basically they go through the history of the Army and connect these streamers/ribbons to the Army flag after each time period. I'll admit, I was a little lost then. After the Welcome Remarks and Invocation, they The Toast. This was new to me too. Every one's place setting included a wine glass and each table had a bottle of red and white wine. You pour yourself some wine and then do these toasts. No, I didn't drink the wine. I didn't even like the smell of it. And according to everyone else at the table it wasn't that great anyway. But anyway, the made a toast to the Prime Minister of Japan, the President of the United States of America, the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (the Japanese Army), the United States Army, Our Fallen Comrades, and then finally the Ladies. I found the toast for the Fallen Comrades really interesting. They have a table set for one, with no one sitting there, that represents those who have fallen in combat, who are MIA, prisoners of war, etc. And they go through all the different symbolisms of this table, followed by a moment of silence. I don't remember what each thing symbolized, but I thought it was really neat and a great way to honor those who weren't able to be there. After all the Toasts, the Army Band played the USARJ (US Army Japan) March and the Army song. So that was all in the first 45-60 minutes. It was a lot of sit down, now stand up, sit back down, now stand back up. Finally we were able to start eating and the entertainment started. The first thing they had was a Tuna Cutting Show. For those who don't know, Japan has the biggest fish market in the world, and it's actually not too far from here in Tokyo. But basically this team of chefs brought in this big tuna, and cut it up for us. Then of course it was served to each table.

I know these aren't the best pics. They had us at the table in the back corner and it was kinda dark in the ballroom. But that's a pic of them cutting the tuna of the big screen. It's really kinda cool and interesting how they cut it up. It's huge and in maybe half an hour they had the whole thing cut up and served. Amazing!

The final result! It's called Sashimi, and basically it's just raw fish. I didn't try any. I'm not a big fan of fish to begin with. But raw fish?! Yeah, I'll pass on that.

This was my dinner- Chicken Cordon Bleu, carrots and potatoes. It was actually really good. The carrots had some kind of honey glaze which was alright, but over all I was pleased. Could have had a little more food, but I have to remember that servings in Japan are smaller than those of the States. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

After dinner, the entertainment started with Taiko. Those are the drums that the Japanese play. I think that was the first time I had actually seen a Taiko performance in person. It was really cool! I don't know how else to really explain it. I'm sure you could find some videos on YouTube if you wanted to check it out. Then after they performed, a group called Ko-La performed. It's a group of 3 girls from Korea who play classical music on electric instruments (violin, flute, and cello). They were pretty good, but I was ready for them to be done after a few songs. Sorry, didn't get any pics of them. After they performed, they had the Cake-Cutting Ceremony, followed by the Guest Speaker. SMA (Ret) Jack L. Tilley came and spoke. He was the 12th Sergeant Major of the Army and served in the Army for 36 years. He served in Vietnam, was at the Pentagon on Sept. 11th, and really just accomplished a lot in his career. You know, I did pretty good through out the evening when it came to not having Ben there, until the end of his speach. He was talking about how we all have our parts to do in the Army, and then asked us to close our eyes and listen. They then played the song "I'm Already There" by Lonestar. The version where they have the wives and families talking about their family members who are deployed. Yeah, I couldn't help but start crying then. That song makes me cry anyway, but to be there without my husband who is actually deployed was almost a little too much. I know he'll be home next month, but I still miss him. But anyway, I'm glad he played that at the end, and that I had put some kleenex in my purse (not for that reason, but it worked). So then they had the Closing Remarks, Benediction, and Retirement of the Colors. They had a dance afterwards, but that's when I left. I didn't have anyone to dance with and I was starting to get a headache anyway.

All in all it was a fun night. And I learned some new stuff. We've been in the Army for 4 years now, and I'm still learning new stuff. I met some new people, and got to catch up with others. It was fun to get out and get all dressed up. Ben called just after I got home and we talked for a bit. He asked if I'd go again. I'd go again, but not without him. It's kinda awkward being there without a soldier on my arm. But it was worth it.

Just a few more pics. This is an ice sculpture they had at the entrance. It has the US Army Japan logo I guess you call it, along with all the different logos for all the units stationed here. I'm sure there's another name for them, but it's late and I can't think of them now.

Of course, it wouldn't be complete without pictures of me. I should have taken pics before I left, but seeing how I'm living here alone, it makes it kinda hard. It's been raining so it's all humid which makes my hair not so cooperative and you just start sweating when you go outside so my makeup didn't look that great, but oh well. I ordered my dress online, and it got here Monday night. I tried it on, and it fit in the waist but the chest was like 3 sizes too big. So I took it down to the alterations shop Tuesday and just got it back this afternoon. They did a great job, despite how busy they were this week. It fit great! I got so many compliments tonight. It's so fun feeling all pretty. What a fun night!