Not EA

Ben's surgery went great yesterday. The results are: it was adhesions in the same place as his last surgery and there was no sign of the epiploic appendagitis. So that is great news! He cleaned up the adhesions and did a thorough look around. Everything else looked normal. He said if this didn't fix the pain there was nothing else we could do, but Ben can already tell a difference in the pain. The pain he had before the surgery is gone and now it's just the normal after surgery pain. They kept him in the hospital last night just to make sure the pain was under control. My brother was awesome enough to stay home with the dogs so I was able to stay with Ben at the hospital. And it's a good thing I did. We are not impressed with the in-patient care there. By the time he left recovery and got to his room it was about 430 or so. We got him settled and everything and they went to call in his dinner order but the cafeteria people had already left. They knew Ben was staying the night, you would have thought they would have had something ordered for him. They didn't. So I ran to the commissary to grab some snacks and Burger King to grab some dinner. I was gone for like half an hour, and in that time no one came to check on him. He had been trying to get ahold of the nurses, but the call button on his bed wasn't working (and they hadn't bothered giving him the one that did), he tried waving to the camera but apparently no one was looking, and he tried yelling but after having the anesthesia tube down his throat for the surgery that didn't work too well. He was close to tears by the time I got back. So I grabbed the nurse and got him taken care of. The rest of the night wasn't much better. The only times they really came in was shift change and to do vitals every 4 hours. It was a bit frustrating. Not that it wasn't anything I couldn't handle, but I'm sure you get the idea. We couldn't have been happier to get out of there. Their discharge procedures aren't very good either. They basically told him what meds he's supposed to take, that his activity level should be as tolerated, his diet is as tolerated, and his follow up appt is in two weeks but they didn't give us a day or time. Then they had him just walk out. Seriously?! I was down at the pharmacy getting his meds and they tell him to just walk out?! No wheel chair, no escort, no nothing. He came out of the elevator just as I was getting ready to go up. So we were happy to get out of there. We left about 945 and were home about 11. But we're home now, he's resting, and things are alright. He's on convalescent leave for 2 weeks, we go back on Sept 2nd to get his staples out (he's got 15), and he probably won't have to go back to work until the Tuesday after Labor Day. So we're going to make sure he's all healed up this time. But yeah, that's the latest news from here. Surgery went well, and it wasn't nearly as bad as we thought it was. I'm still very glad it's over though. It's so much easier to be the patient than the one sitting in the waiting room. :)

Here We Go Again

Just a heads up, Ben's having surgery again next week. After talking to his doc down in Oki, we were able to get it worked out to just see a surgeon here. We were going to go down to Yokosuka, but only one of the docs there was comfortable with taking the case and she's still in processing. Luckily there is a doc up at Yokota willing to take care of it. So Ben went up and talked to him today, and they decided on surgery for next Tuesday. With how much he's hurting and the narcotics he's on, the sooner we can get it done the better. We don't want to go another year without it being taken care of. It's not exactly the best time for another surgery, but oh well. My brother just flew in today and will be here for the next couple weeks. So I guess on the plus side, Ben will be off pretty much the whole time he's here. Granted I don't know that he'll feel like doing much, but he'll be off. Ok, I need a second to just rant... Seriously, this is all stressing me out. This will be his 3rd surgery in less than a year (one for his shoulder, two for his stomach). I love my husband, and I'm gonna stand by him no matter what, but is it really too much to ask for him to just be healthy for a while?! I really feel like the reason I haven't been able to get pregnant yet is because God knows I would go crazy trying to take care of a baby and my husband. Life just doesn't seem very fair sometimes. Anyway, I'm done now. On a happier note, we've got some fun stuff planned for while my brother is here. We're hoping to be able to go to Disneyland or Disneysea, to Kamakura to see the big Buddha, have to hit up the 100 yen store for sure, and of course we'll head to the sushi-go-round. I'm sure we can come up with some other things too. I made him dive head first into the culture when he got here and we took the train back from the airport instead of sitting around waiting for the bus. It was a long train ride, but still got back earlier than we would have on the bus. The dogs are excited to have another friend here too. I'm excited too! Our first (and probably only) guest while in Japan. YAY! I'll be sure to make updates with all our fun adventures. It's going to be a fun couple weeks. :)

It's Baaaaack!

Ben's abdominal pain that is. Silly me for thinking it would be taken care of the first time. He started having some discomfort about a month ago. Nothing too serious, just kinda annoying. It got a bit worse over the past week, and then over the weekend it got pretty bad. He was back to the point this morning that he couldn't stand up straight. We spent the afternoon in the ER down at Yokosuka. (People are probably starting to think we really like hanging out at that hospital....) We explained the whole diagnosis and surgery for his Epiploic Appendagitis back in April, and everyone looked at us like we were crazy. Like I said before, it's not a common diagnosis. The ER doc reminded us several times it wasn't something he'd heard of since med school back in '98. So they did blood and lab work and a CT Scan with contrast dye. Guess what they found... NOTHING! Were we surprised? Not really. After 5 1/2 hours in the ER they finally sent us home. They drugged Ben up, gave us enough pills to fill the medicine cabinet, directions to start a pain management program for chronic abdominal pain, and told us to follow up with our PCM here at Zama and the surgeon in Okinawa. Oh and quarters for 48 hours (ie a doctor's note saying he doesn't have to go to work for 2 days). I had already set up an appointment for him for Wednesday (because that was the next available one they had) before we decided to go down, so I guess it's a good thing I didn't cancel it. I'm sure we'll have to get another referral to go back down to Okinawa, but I already emailed his doc down there to let him know what's going on and see if he has any ideas as to what to do. But I guess until then, it's just a bit of a waiting game. As for me, I'm doing pretty good. Tummy is still a bit sore and tender, but I'm sure that's to be expected only a week after surgery. We went shopping and to a friend's house Friday and that wore me out. Tried going to church yesterday, but that was a bit much. I'm pretty exhausted tonight, but it was a long day. I know, I'm probably crazy for trying to do so much so soon afterwards. But I'm kinda feeling like "ready or not" it's time to be healthy again. Don't worry too much though. Ben still lets me know if he thinks I'm doing too much. It's just a matter of if I listen to him or not. :)