Another Month Gone

Well another month has gone by. And a crazy month it was. We still haven't made it home (obviously), but are still hoping to soon. If things work out we'll be home for Christmas, but I can't make any promises yet. We'll know more in the next few days.
Anyway, like I said, November was kinda crazy. We spent a lot of time fighting with the Army about Ben's convalescent leave. His doctor extended it from 28 to 60 days, but apparently Army Regs say it can't be more than 30 with out the General's approval. We thought we had it figured out, but then it really wasn't and it was just a mess. And to make it worse, his first day back in uniform he rolled his ankle which caused him to twist his back which caused both his leads to move. So now not only do they not hit where they need to, they cause pain in other areas if he turns his spinal cord stimulator on. Guess who is always hurting and having surgery again... Surgery is scheduled for January 6th to go in and adjust the leads. Silly me for thinking we were done with surgeries. Needless to say they haven't started the med board yet. They'll have to wait until he is recovered from his next surgery, so we're looking at March before they get started. Which means it will probably be next November/December before we are done with the Army. That can be seen as good and bad. It's more paychecks, but longer that we have to put up with all the stupid stuff. It's a bit frustrating, but what do you do?!
We celebrated our 6th anniversary on the 21st. We went to lunch at Chili's and then to see Breaking Dawn (the new Twilight movie). It started out good. But as soon as they brought our lunch out Kaylin decided to scream and would not settle down. So we didn't get to eat lunch together. One of us ate while they other tried to calm her down, and then we switched. She was better during the movie. I fed her before it started and she slept through the whole thing. And that was about the extent of our celebrating. Nothing super special, which is alright.
Thanksgiving wasn't very exciting either. The battallion provided a "dinner" (which was really a lunch) which was just alright. It didn't have the same feel as when you eat with family and friends. The day over all was a bit depressing to be honest. We had been hoping to be home, but that didn't work out. And we don't really have any friends here to get together with. That's been one of the hardest things about living here. Things have been so crazy since we moved here that we really havn't gotten to know anyone well enough to hang out with and invite over for holidays and such. But that's another story. So anyway, yeah. Thanksgiving wasn't too special. We had lunch there then went to Wal-Mart. Super exciting, I know.
Kaylin continues to do well and grow. She's getting tall and is over 13 lbs now. She loves to talk and has the cutest giggle. I can't help but smile and laugh when she starts laughing. It's one of those things that just makes everything better, even when I'm having the crappiest of days. She is starting to get a couple teeth. It seems really early to me, but it could just be that I'm not ready for my baby to be that big yet. So she's been a bit cranky from that. We found out Friday that she also has Hand Foot and Mouth Disease. We noticed a rash on the soles of her feet earlier in the week and it wasn't going away. So we stopped by Pede's to schedule an appointment, but they just squeezed her in right then and there. I have no idea where she got it from. She doesn't go to daycare or anything and we don't leave the house all that often. But the doctor says pretty much every kid gets it by the age of 2. And she's just got a real mild case. She really hasn't had a fever. And if she has, we've been treating it with the tylenol we've been giving her for her teeth. She's been eating just fine for the most part. Yesterday and today she's gone a bit longer in between feedings, but still eats well. She still has plenty of wet diapers so we don't have to worry too much about her being dehydrated. So all in all we don't have to be too concerned and just have to wait for it to run it's course. Since it's a virus we can't really treat it. Only treat the symptoms. It typically only lasts 7-10 days, and it's been almost a week, so she should be about over it. It has made her more cranky though. She will start crying and screaming for no apparent reason, and be near impossible to console. It's wearing me out honestly. She may scream when I hold her, but she screams even more when Dad tries to hold her. She has been very much a momma's girl lately. She won't cuddle with daddy when she's tired. But as soon as mommy has her she'll be out. And I better not even think about putting her down if she's asleep. She does fine at night about sleeping in her own bed, but likes to be held during the day. So between taking care of her, taking care of a hurting daddy, and trying to keep the house in one piece, I'm starting to wear down. Ben does what he can to help out, but even that is limited because of how bad he hurts. Hence why I could really use a vacation. Everyone seems to think that living in Hawaii is a vacation. Try living my life for a little while and you'll see it's no vacation. But we make the best of it and continue to push on. I don't know how I make it through each day, but I do.
So although it was a crazy month, it is another one that we survived. I have so much to be thankful for. I've been blessed with a wonderful husband who does everything in his power to provide for us. I have an amazing daughter who even when she is spitting up and peeing all over everything still makes me smile and melts my heart. I have awesome parent's who I can call at any time I need, even if for no other reason than to just talk so I don't go crazy. I live in Hawaii, which is absolutely beautiful and awesome. We have an awesome ward family at church, who not only brought us meals for a week and a half after Kaylin was born, but also another week after Ben's last surgery and they are ready to do it again after his next one. We have our health, for the most part anyway. And just overall, very blessed.

2 Months

I really didn't mean for it to be this long in between posts. There were several times I was going to sit down and type and something would come up. Like the hubby needed something or the baby woke up and was ready to eat, and then I just never got it done. So I'm doing it now.
The past two months have flown by. Things have been so crazy and busy, I don't know what happened to time. Just after my last post my parents came to visit us for a couple weeks. It was so great having them here! I know they weren't ready to leave, and I wasn't ready for them to leave, but it was fun while they were here. We didn't get to do everything we wanted, but still did quite a bit. We went to the beach, visited the temple grounds and visitor center, went to the swap meet, hiked to a waterfall, and more.


I'm pretty sure Kaylin loved having her grandma and grandpa here. And I know grandma and grandpa had fun loving on her. It will be nice for all of us once we live closer. I love Hawaii, but we are ready to be closer to family.
Kaylin is doing great! She is growing big and strong. We have her 2 month appointment on Tuesday so we'll get all the measurement updates then. But at 5 1/2 weeks she was 10.1 lbs and 22.1". Last night we set her on our bathroom scale and she weighed in at 12.2 lbs, so we'll see how big she officially is at her appointment. We finally figured out the nursing thing. It's not as easy as everyone makes it seem. At least not at first anyway. But we've got the hang of it now. She's been sleeping through the night pretty good. We typically get up between 2 and 3, then again between 5 and 6. Granted it's not the exact same time every night, but we do have a pretty good eating/sleeping system down. She likes to cuddle with us, especially in our bed. I know, we shouldn't let her get in the habit of sleeping in our bed, but sometimes it's just easier that way. And I love cuddling with my little girl!
She's such a sweetheart and an angel. And she has the cutest smile! I love it! She'll smile when we smile and talk to her. We have little "talks" where she'll coo and smile while I change her diaper (which we can now do with out her screaming most of the time now). She's just a blessing and a joy. Granted we've had our moments where she drives me a bit crazy because she just wants to be held and cries if I put her down. But I don't know what I would do with out her.
Ben is doing alright. He had his spinal cord stimulator put in on the 21st, and although there were some problems with the anesthesiologist, everything turned out alright. During the procedure he quit breathing twice and was in so much pain that they ended up giving him ketamine (yeah the same drug they gave him back in July that wasn't a very good experience) which caused him to hallucinate. But they got it in and it seems to be helping a bit. Instead of his pain being between a 7 and 9, it's more in the 4 to 6 range. So he's still in pain, it's just not as bad most of the time. Right now we're working on getting him off the Roxicet pain pills. Going from 4 pills a day, down to 2. The goal is to get him off them all together. He's just been on them so long that we're going to have to take it slow so he doesn't have any major withdrawals or anything. So needless to say we haven't done a whole lot the past few weeks. We're making sure he takes time to heal and let the leads scar into place nice and good, so we don't end up having another surgery. 4 in one year is quite enough. Especially since 3 of them have been since July. Hopefully we're done with surgeries for a good long while.

We should be getting the med board started in the next few weeks. Now that the surgery is done and we're out of treatment options (other than medication control) we can get the process started. We should be done and out by next July-ish. I don't think it will take that long, but then it is the Army and they don't get much done very fast most of the time. But it's nice knowing we are getting close to the end. The Army has been great for us, for the most part, but it's to the point that we're tired of dealing with all the crap. It's time to move on to the next chapter in our lives. What that chapter includes, I don't know. But I do know we'll be back in Idaho closer to family. :)

As for me, I'm doing alright too. I've had my ups and downs in the past month, but I'm hanging in there. It's been stressful taking care of a new baby and a post-op hubby. It's getting better now that he's up and moving around more now though. I had my 6 week appointment on the 2nd and everything is looking great. My blood pressure was 128/69 which is great for me. My weight is back down to my pre-pregnancy weight already. It was actually there about two weeks after giving birth. So all the weight I did put on was all baby and water weight, nothing extra. I haven't really lost any more since then, but I've always had trouble losing. And I haven't put any on, so I can't complain too much. Plus everything appears to have healed up nicely so I don't have much to worry about. :) I've also made some big decisions in the past month. The first being that I no longer sell Mary Kay. I thought long and hard about it, and just decided it's not something that I have the time and motivation for right now. If you look at all the things we've been through in the past year, it's no wonder Mary Kay has been one of the last things on my mind. We found out I was pregnant, lived through an earthquake, moved half way around the world, Ben's 4 surgeries/health issues, had a baby, and we'll be moving again by next summer. My plate has been just a little full. Which is probably why I'm crazy for making my next big decision- I started an online photography course. It's all self paced so it's not like I have to rush to meet deadlines and can do it in my free time. It's through the New York Institute of Photography and the military is paying for it. I just have to have the 6 comprehension tests done by my birthday 2013. I plan on being done before that. I've started the first unit, which has been mostly "this is your camera and this is how it works." So it's been review for the most part, but it's been a good reminder. I do need to get me a new camera (oh darn!). One where I can change the settings, and not just a point and shoot. I can make it work with the cameras I have, it's just going to be a bit more challenging. I am excited for it though, and plan on having my own photography business when I'm done.

So I think that is pretty much the update for our little family right now. We're working on coming home sometime soon, but don't have exact dates yet. As soon as we know though, we'll let everyone else know. And I'm going to try and do better about updating this. Now that we're getting into a groove and I'm getting a hang of this mommy thing, things are starting to settle down a bit and I'm finding more free time. :)

SCS Trial

When it comes to Ben's pain, we've pretty much exhausted all our treatment options. The last thing for us to try before just managing the pain with medication was a spinal cord stimulator. It's a little device where they put leads in his back that sends electrical impulses to the nerves that helps to kind of stun them so they aren't sending the pain signals. He had the trial unit put in on Friday and then taken out yesterday. And wow what a difference it made! Instead of his pain being in the 7-9 range, it was down in the 3-6 range, which is a HUGE improvement. It didn't completely get rid of the pain, but it sure helped. They only put one lead in, when they usually do two. They were having some trouble getting the one in, and didn't want to keep torturing him trying to get the second. But even just the one really helped. We decided that he will have a permanent one put in, but it will be a month. We have to wait at least two weeks just to let the back heal first and then they can go in again. But due to scheduling conflicts, he won't be able to have it put in until October 21st. So it will be another month of hurting, but after that hopefully things will get better quickly. And there is really no reason why they shouldn't. They will put in the 2 leads giving him a wider range for relief. It's just a matter of waiting now.
On a plus note, as soon as this surgery is done we can start the med board. And since he'll have this put in, it's pretty much a guarantee that we will be getting out of the military. Yay! As good as the military has been for us, we are ready to be done. I don't know when we'll be getting out, it all depends on how long the med board takes. But we should be done by next summer-ish. :)

Meet Kaylin

Meet our sweet baby girl- Kaylin Michele Hulse! She was born 12 September 2011 at 7:08 pm Hawaii time. She was a whopping 8 lbs 4.8 oz and 20 1/2 inches.

So here's my story... It was all kind of unexpected. I had been having lots of braxton hicks contractions over the weekend, but nothing to make me think I was going to have a baby any time soon. I woke up about 1:45 Monday morning having contractions. I didn't think much of it thinking I would have had more warning before they started. They were averaging about 2-3 minutes apart, and gradually getting more uncomfortable. I tried switching positions in bed, going to the bathroom, drinking water, you know all that stuff they say to do. Nothing was helping. So after about an hour I called my mom to see what she thought. After talking a bit we determined I was probably in early labor. I tried a bit longer to get comfortable and see if things would change, but they didn't. Finally about 6 I told Ben it was time to go up to the hospital. I know, not the best time since we were going to hit rush hour traffic, but I couldn't wait much longer. So we get up to Tripler and they hook me up to the monitors. Baby's heart rate was good, I was contracting every couple minutes, I was dilated to a 2-3 cm, and my blood pressure was up a little bit. If my blood pressure hadn't been up they would have sent me home, but because it was they decided to admit me and would probably need to induce with pitocin. So they take me back to the labor/delivery room and get everything all hooked up back there. When the doctor checked me back there I was at a good 3 cm and 90%. I labored on my own for a bit more and it wasn't long before I wanted the epidural. I don't know why anyone would not want one! It was a bit uncomfortable going in, but once it started it's magic I was good to go! I wasn't feeling any of the contractions and was even able to get a little sleep. When the dr checked me again at 1:00 I was dilated to 4cm so she went ahead and broke my water. We slept and watched tv for the next couple hours, and when they checked me again about 3/3:30 I was fully dilated and 100%. That's right, I went from 4 to 10 in 2 ish hours on my own! At that point we sat me up and I labored down for the next little while. The nurse came back in about 5:30, we tried a few practice pushes, and decided to give it a little bit longer. We started the real pushing about 6:00pm. I pushed for about an hour and then she was here. I was expecting to have to push for at least a couple hours, but glad I didn't. Everything after that is a bit on the surreal side. I was waiting to hear Kaylin cry which took a minute. There was meconium in the fluid and she was a bigger baby so they had all the special pediatric drs there. That was the sweetest sound when she started though. She has quite the set of lungs on her! She checked out okay though. I had some mild tearing that the drs had to fix up, but overall it was a pretty easy and uneventful delivery. Not saying I want to do it again anytime soon though... :)

Overall everything was looking mostly good with the both of us. When they discharged us, Kaylin's bilirubin levels were a bit elevated. Rather than staying at the hospital, we decided to go home with a biliblanket to see if we could get the levels down on our own. At our appointment the next day they had gone up again, so they decided she needed to be admitted for some phototherapy. We weren't home even 24 hours before we were back up there. I admit I had a bit of a meltdown. I know it's totally normal for babies to be a bit jaundice and there's nothing I could do about it, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. So Kaylin and I stayed the night up at the hospital with her under the lights.

It worked though and her levels were down the next day and she was looking a lot better. Except now she was sounding a bit congested and had a stuffy nose. We mentioned it to the doctor when he did his morning rounds, but didn't seem to think much of it. So I went with Ben down to get checked in for his surgery (he had his trial spinal cord stimulator put in, but that will be another post in and of it self). I was only gone about an hour and was starting to have baby withdrawals, so I left Ben waiting and went back up to Kaylin. I got back up to her room only to find her surrounded by several doctors and nurses. It freaked me out just a little bit to say the least. I guess the nurse noticed her stuffy nose while I was gone and let one of the other doctors know and they were trying to figure out why. I'm not even sure who all was there. I know they had called down a few different specialists, but I don't remember who all they were. But they had her hooked up to the monitors, were suctioning out her nose, took some chest x-rays, and I'm not sure what else. Nothing was really explained very well to me. So it was a bit scary. They couldn't really explain why she was so stuffed up though. It was all in her nose and upper respiratory system though, and not her chest which was good. The doctor said she had probably gotten some milk up her nose while feeding and that's why she was so stuffed up. I don't know if that's really it or not. But she was sounding better by the time they were done. They kept her on the monitors a while longer and finally gave us the okay to go home about lunch time. Granted we still had to wait a while for the discharge papers, but we were finally able to go home later that afternoon. We then had another follow up appointment the next day to make sure her bili levels were still good and to check her stuffy nose. Her levels were where they should be and she was sounding a bit better. She is still pretty congested, a week later. We'll see what the doctor says Monday at her 2 week check-up. But all in all she is doing great.

We are so in love with our little angel. She already has her daddy wrapped around her little finger. She is a great sleeper. And we are getting the hang of nursing. She tends to have a bit of trouble latching on at first, but we're getting better. She makes some of the funniest faces while she eats and I just melt. She is the sweetest thing, even when she's screaming upset and trying my patience. It's a good thing we have daddy around to help calm her down. She loves to snuggle with her daddy. But I look at her and I'm just in awe. It took us almost five years of trying, but she has made the wait all worth while. :)

38 Weeks

Here we are at 38 weeks! It's only a matter of time now. As of my appointment yesterday, things are progressing the way they should. The doctor went ahead and checked me- Kaylin has dropped and I was at 1 cm and 60%. She also massaged the cervix a little bit and holy crap that was uncomfortable! (I'm wondering if it helped a little bit though as I've had some contractions and a bit of cramping today.) She was impressed that I am already at that point seeing how I'm only 38 weeks and this is my first baby. But hey, I'll take it. Hopefully that means baby will come sooner than later. :) I also got the results of my GBS (Group B Strep) test back... it came back positive. Basically all that means is that I'll have to receive antibiotics once I get to the hospital. It doesn't cause any problems for me, but it can make baby pretty sick if it gets passed to her during birth. We shouldn't have to worry about that though.
All in all things are still going well though. I'm really ready to have this baby. I'm tired of always being tired (though I don't expect that to change once she's here), I'm tired of my feet being so swollen all the time (it doesn't matter what I do, the swelling doesn't really get any better), I'm tired of the heartburn (even though she's dropped, her long legs are still up in my stomach and ribs), I'm tired of not being able to sleep at night (it's nearly impossible to get comfortable and I don't remember the last night I didn't have to get up to pee at least once), and we're just ready for her to be here. We've got the nursery all set up, the bassinet in our room ready, the diaper bag packed for her, my hospital bag mostly packed, and the car seat in the car. Now we just need a baby! Haha! I just have to keep telling myself she'll be here soon. It's just a matter of time. :)
Just a quick update on Ben... He's doing about the same. Still hurts all the time. He's been back to "work" for 2 weeks now, and it hasn't helped the pain. Usually makes it worse in fact. Doing PT in the mornings (even just the limited stuff he can do) and standing in formation in the afternoon just hurts him more. His doctor gave him a profile so that he doesn't have to do PT and go to any morning formations before 0800 until after his spinal cord stimulator trial. That was supposed to happen on the 9th, but they had to move it to the 16th. I guess they have to do it in the OR now instead of the treatment suite they've been doing it in. Gah! So it will be another week that he'll be hurting. It's been a bit of a mess trying to get this done, but hopefully it will help. Even just a little relief will be great. We're not thrilled with the timing though... seeing how I'm due the 15th... Makes me hope even more that Kaylin will decide to come early. I think it will be slightly less stressful if she's here by the time this happens instead of coming during the middle of the trial. We'll see though. I know everything will work out the way it should. I keep telling myself that. I just wish I had a bit more control over it. Haha!

35 Weeks & The Next Step

I had another doctor appointment today and everything still looks good. Not much to report really. Kaylin is still growing, and I'm measuring about a week and a half big. Her heart rate sounded great (once she stopped moving long enough for the doctor to hear it) and was in the 140's. My blood pressure was back to normal, which means it was probably just the stress of Ben being in the hospital that caused it to go up last time. And my weight was actually down a pound from my last appointment. So all in all, everything is looking good. I really don't have much to complain about, other than when she decides she needs to stretch out and has her head down low and her feet up in my stomach and lungs. Haha! She is head down, but hasn't settled into place yet. She moves around way too much for that. She still doesn't like being spied on. You could see her kicking up a storm at the doctors office when the doctor tried to get her heartbeat. It's hard to believe we've only got 5 weeks left (give or take of course). We are ready for her though. Not only am I ready to be done being pregnant, but we've got the nursery set up and pretty much all the essentials. Now it's just waiting for her to be ready. :)
Ben is doing about the same. He's mostly recovered from the surgery, but still hurts quite a bit from the nerve pain. The nerve blocks didn't work as well as hoped. The second one they tried, they actually put into the spine and was supposed to last a lot longer. It didn't. It was supposed to take the pain completely away and last for a couple days. It took it down maybe a point and only lasted about 12 hours. His back hurt longer from the injection site than the block actually lasted. So the next step is to try a nerve stimulator implant thing. I'm not sure of all the details right now. Our next appointment is next week and we'll talk about it more then. But basically they will go in and place electrode type things in his spine which is connected to a battery box type thing that sends impulses and signals to the nerve to supposedly tell it that it doesn't hurt. Does that make sense? We'll start with a trial of 5 days or so, and if it helps they'll put in a permanent one. So we may be looking at another surgery. Well see though. But that looks like the direction we are headed. Then if the nerve stimulator doesn't work, it will just be pain management through medications. We've pretty much exhausted all our other options. On a positive note, we are one step closer to the medical board. We finally got what we needed from the surgeon saying there wasn't anything else they can do and we should just get the permanent profile. Now our doctor can write it, but we are going to wait and see what pain management decides to do (ie whether or not they will do surgery to implant the nerve stimulator). But as soon as we try everything with pain management, we can get the profile and get the med board started.
So that's where we are right now. Not a whole lot going on at the moment. If anything changes though, we'll let you know. :)

Relief In Sight?

Ben had a couple doctor appointments this morning. One of them was with a different pain management doctor. He is an interventional pain management doctor if I remember right. And guess what... He actually has something that works for Ben! Instead of just telling us it's "chronic pelvic pain" he actually has a reason for the pain. Due to all the previous surgeries, there is scar tissue built up around one of the nerves. The Ilioinguinal nerve to be exact. So while there today he gave Ben a nerve block, which was a shot of steroids and something else that I can't remember. It actually took his pain from an 8 down to a 4! Granted it didn't last very long, but it still took it down for a little bit. We have another appointment on Monday to try a different nerve block and we'll see if one works better than the other. And if neither of them works super well, we can try them together or try another type of block. This new doctor also changed his meds up a little bit. He upped the dose of one (so he'll be taking the max dose instead of minimum) and changed the narcotic he's on. So we'll see how this works out. He is much more willing to help us out though. We realize the nerve blocks won't solve the problem, but they will at least bring the pain down to a manageable and functional level.
We also talked to our case manager yesterday, and he was going to work on getting the paperwork we need to get the med board started. Since the surgery obviously didn't fix the problem and he's still hurting, he was going to email the surgeon and have him put a note in the medical system saying there is nothing else he can do, and then our primary care doctor can write up the profile. Hopefully that all works out so we can this show on the road. So that is where we are right now. We've got some options to try for pain relief and we'll hopefully be starting the med board process soon. The sooner this all happens, the better. :)

32 Weeks

It's hard to believe we're almost there! We're down to single digit weeks! Things are still going great. As of my appointment last week (at 31 weeks) everything still looks good. Kaylin's heart rate was in the 130's, I measured 32 cm (so a week bigger than where I was), and I've put on a total of about 15 lbs total since the beginning of the pregnancy. The only concern was my blood pressure was a bit high. I haven't had problems with it during pregnancy, it's actually been really good, but I have had problems with it being high in the past. The doctor wanted to get it checked out to make sure it was just the stress of Ben being in the hospital rather than preeclampsia that had caused it to go up. So she ordered some lab work and had me go up to labor and delivery and have them check it since I was going to be up there anyway with Ben. I guess she wanted me to go get it done the same day, but didn't make that very clear so I did it a couple days later. Oops! Everything was fine though. I went over and they hooked me up to all the monitors- the blood pressure cuff, the one that checks baby's heart rate, and the one that checks for contractions. The first blood pressure reading they did was a little high, so they had me lay on my side and the rest of them were great after that. Kaylin wasn't as cooperative though. The nurse was able to find her heartbeat right away, but as soon as he took his gloves off she moved off the monitor. She did that a few times. She kept rolling around and kicking the monitor. Stubborn little girl! But in the end everything looked great. Her heart rate was good, my blood pressure was good, all my lab work looked good, and I wasn't having any contractions. So it was probably just the stress of everything that had been going on with Ben that had my blood pressure up. Guess I just need to learn to relax... Easier said than done, I know. Haha!

We can't wait to meet our little girl though! She already has quite the personality. She doesn't like to share mommy's tummy. Whether it's monitors at the doctor's office, my cell phone, the puppies laying on it, or daddy touching or laying on it, she doesn't like sharing and will kick or hit whatever is there. She does like playing with daddy though. He knows exactly how to get her to move when she's sitting too low or has a foot or elbow in an uncomfortable place, and how to wake her up once she does settle down. I love how excited he is for his little girl! He's going to be such a great daddy! :)

Diagnosis: Chronic Pelvic Pain

I should have updated this several times, but I haven't. I've posted daily updates on facebook so if you've been following that, you pretty much know where we are. But if not, here's the rundown of the past week and a half...
Ben has been in the hospital since the surgery and was finally released tonight. They couldn't get his pain under control, and honestly it still isn't. It typically sits at an 8-9/10. We had a few occasions where we were able to get it down to a 4 and 5, but it didn't usually last very long. The doctors were not very helpful. The residents from General Surgery that did the daily rounds, really did nothing. They put in consults with Pain Management, Gastroenterology, Urology, and Psychiatry. To no surprise, no one found anything wrong. They did a CT Scan last Thursday, thinking maybe they missed something, but everything appeared "normal." That's what they said anyway, but when reading the discharge paperwork tonight and seeing their report I would think otherwise. But what do I know?! So no one knows what to do and why he's hurting. They start some new medications, but they typically take at least a week to kick in before seeing any results. They started those Friday. Still haven't seen much of a difference. We had decided after talking to Pain Management on Sunday that we were going to try an epidural on Monday, just to try and numb everything up and give the other pills a chance to kick in. Come Monday morning, that plan was changed. I think mostly because the doctor we were working with all week changed because he was off. So this new doctor said our choices were to try a new drug called Ketamine or stop all the narcotic meds and just send him home. Since he really wasn't able to function even with the narcotics, we opted to do the Ketamine. He really didn't want to do it, but felt that was his only choice. The doctors thought it would work, the nurses thought it would work, I thought it might work. It didn't work. What it's supposed to do is reset the pain receptors in the brain causing you to think the pain really isn't as bad as it feels. For those it works for there have been great results. What they didn't tell us before hand was that it only works about 50% of the time. It has some nasty side effects too. They had to give him another medication to counteract the side effects, and as a result doesn't really have any memory of the 36 hours he was on it. And while we had our moments where he gave me and the nurses some good laughs, there were also some very depressing kinda scary moments. Last night he kept asking when he would be done, when we could go home, why was he still hurting, etc. It was so hard to see him like that. It kills me inside to see him in pain all the time anyway. I really wish I could just make it go away. And I wish I knew why he was hurting and how I could make it better. The doctors have us a whole regiment of medications for him to take (6 different pills, most of them twice a day). And now we just play with the medications until we find something that works. I hate having to tell him that, but that's all we can do now. There really aren't any more tests we can do. The doctors are pretty much stumped and don't know what to do. It really kind of feels like the past week and a half was just a waste. The surgery was supposed to help, not make the pain worse. I don't know what to do now though. I'm doing my best to keep a positive outlook, and I keep telling him (and myself) that we will get this figured out. But it's hard when he's ready to give up and is feeling hopeless. It's not like we're asking them to make the pain go completely away. We just want it down to a manageable level where he can function on a daily basis and we can just get on with our lives. Is that really too much to ask?! The pain management doctor explained this morning that chronic pelvic pain is not uncommon, they treat it all the time. If they treat it all the time, why aren't they finding anything to help us? He also said most people with it are able to learn to live with it and are able to go on with life. They aren't pain free, but they are functional. That's all we're asking, to be functional. So I guess we just wait and see what happens from here on out. Since we didn't get the problem taken care of, we're going to push to get the paperwork we need to start the med board and be done with the military. We're not impressed with the military medical system and are ready to be done period. We don't feel like we have the support of his command. Only one person came to visit him while he was in the hospital. His staff Sargent, and she was only there for a minute, quite literally. The missionaries did come visit with us for a bit before we were discharged tonight. We have a senior couple in our ward that work on behalf of the military, which is pretty cool. One of the chaplains up at the hospital gave them a call and they came up to visit. They are a really nice couple. Very grandparent like. And they are from Idaho! They called one of the other senior couples in the area and they came up and the two elders gave Ben a blessing before we left. If nothing else, I was feeling a tad bit better after that. I have a feeling it's going to be a long hard road ahead of us. I was hoping to have him feeling better before Kaylin gets here, but that hope is starting to fade. I'm hoping we find something to help him soon. I can't stand to see him hurt any more, and I know he is way ready to feel better. We've done everything the doctors have asked, and then some, and still don't have an answer or solution. So I really pray we get this figured out soon. In the meantime though, I think we're going to need lots of prayers, love and support.

Surgery #3

What a long stressful day. Ben had his third abdominal surgery this morning. Well, technically 4th, but I don't count the one he had as a kid. Just counting since he's started having all these problems with pain. But here's the scoop for the day... We never had a super good feeling about this surgery. Yes we were/are tired of the pain and something needed to be done, but something about this just didn't feel right. After his pre-op appointment last Friday we were about ready to say never mind and cancel it. But we didn't. We reported to the hospital this morning, and it wasn't until we actually talked to the doctor back in the surgical waiting area that I began feeling a bit better about it. Naturally I still shed a few tears. Anyone who knows me knows how easily I get stressed out. You would think I would be a pro at this surgery thing, but I still don't like it. Anyway, they took him back to the OR about 1030, I headed to the waiting room, and by 1130 the doctor was out to talk to me. My first thought was "Crap! Something's wrong, that didn't take very long." But it was just the opposite. Things went great. They went in and found several adhesions on the left side. Everything else looked good though. So they took down the adhesions and used a product called Seprafilm which is an adhesion blocker. It's supposed to help prevent adhesions from recurring, so we'll see if it helps. I really hope it does. So anyway, he's back in recovery and I'm still sitting there waiting to hear how he's doing. 2 hours later the nurse comes out and lets me know they can't get his pain under control so they are going to admit him. So now my first thought is " Does that mean the surgery didn't work? Are we doomed to chronic pain forever now?" Well I still don't know the answers to those questions. But it could be that he has just built up such a tolerance to pain medications that they don't work so well for him now. Seeing how that's really all they've done for him, is bounced him back and forth between different pain medications, it wouldn't surprise me if he has built up a bit of a tolerance. So after maxing him out on all they pain drugs they could in recovery, they admitted him, which was another mess. The original plan was to admit him, but after the surgery went so well those orders were deleted. So they had to go through the whole process of finding him a room and getting all that figured out. Such a mess. They finally get him a bed and I finally get to see him about 1430. We get him moved over and settled in the room, which is tiny. Who knew they still put 4 patients in the same room?! His "room" is literally like 6' x 6'. And in there you have the bed, side table, IV pole, etc. There really is no room for visitors. I felt like I was constantly in the way when they came in to take his vitals and everything. Once they got him set up, they finally started a pain medication pump, called a CPA or something like that. I can't remember what it stands for right this second, but it's a pump that allows him to give himself pain medication every 10 minutes. It took a while for it to kick in, but he was starting to feel a bit better tonight when I left. It is miserable in that room though. Other than being small, it's really warm, the nurse call button on the bed wasn't working, and the chair they had for me was super uncomfortable. I didn't want to leave, but I had to. One, because I was hurting so bad from sitting there it was killing me. Two, because it's a 4 patient room I'm not allowed to stay the night anyway. And three, we left the dogs outside all day and I needed to check on them. To add to all the stress of the day, they had decided to misbehave while we were gone. They knocked one of the boards out of the fence, tore down some of the chicken wire what we have around the bottom to discourage them from digging, and two different holes where they decided to dig. It was mostly Smokey doing the digging I think, which is a bit surprising. Misty is usually the digger. But he is all red now. Gotta love the red Hawaiian dirt! I really should give them a bath, but I am so exhausted and sore tonight that I just don't have the energy to do it. So they are going to bed dirty, and will probably get a bath tomorrow. So that was my day, more or less. I'm doing my best to stay strong and positive and not stress. It's not very easy sometimes though. But I'm hanging in there. I have my next OB appointment Thursday, so I'll do an update and me and Kaylin after that. Until then though, we are doing good overall. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers on our family's behalf. They are felt and appreciated. :)

Change of Plans

Remember in my last post how I said in the military things can change in a second? Guess I should have knocked on wood or something...
We've had a couple frustrating/stressful days. We spent 12 hours in the ER yesterday. Ben woke up hurting really bad about 2am. We tried all our usual things- put the tens unit on, put the heating pad on, took some pain meds- but nothing was helping. So at 3am we left to head up to Tripler. We got there about 330, and sat there for the next 12 hours. They did the normal tests- blood, urine, etc. Of course everything looked normal. A bit dehydrated, but who wouldn't be after not being able to eat or drink anything for that long. They also did another CT Scan with contrast (he had the exact same thing done 3 weeks ago). And to no surprise, there was no "significant changes." It did show he has a kidney stone on the right side, but that wasn't noticeable compared to the pain he was having on the left. After that, they called General Surgery for a consult. We already had an appointment with them scheduled for today, but the ER wanted their opinion anyway. After consulting with 4 different surgeons, they decided there wasn't anything worth operating on. So they sent us home with some Hydrocodone and said to follow up at our appointment today where they would give us the profile we need to start the med board. We finally got home about 530pm (we hit rush hour traffic and had to stop and get food and gas on the way). The puppies were super good all day though. We had left them in the house thinking we would only be gone 3 or 4 hours. I was very happy to come home to no mess. It's so nice knowing they are that well house trained.
Then this morning we headed up to the hospital fully expecting to just get the profile. After going back almost an hour after our appointment time, the doctor made it quick. We told him about our time in the ER yesterday (because of all the surgeons they consulted he wasn't one of them), and he pretty much decided then and there that he is going to operate again. Really didn't even give us a chance to say yes or no or even ask questions. He then left the room to see when he could do it, came back with a date and sent us over to the appointment office to schedule our pre op appointment. So Ben's have surgery again on July 11th. Totally not what I was expecting this morning. Especially since it was the same surgeon we saw two weeks ago who said he didn't think surgery would work and didn't want to do it, and after 4 surgeons said yesterday that they wouldn't do it. Then all of a sudden someone wants to do it. It's a bit frustrating.
I'll admit I wasn't happy this morning after finding out they are doing another surgery. This will be number 6 in the past 3 years, number 2 in the past 6 months. The difference with this one is that they are going to use an adhesion barrier after removing the adhesions. Hopefully that will prevent the adhesions from coming back and we won't have to deal with this problem anymore. It would be nice to see my husband not hurting any more. But even with the barrier, we can't be 100% sure that the adhesions won't come back. At least if it doesn't work we can say that we've tried everything. So while I'm not totally thrilled that he's having another surgery, I think it's what needs to be done. After talking to my mom this afternoon I'm feeling better about it. The reasons I was telling her for not wanting to do it were sounding kind of stupid once I thought about it. And those that know me know that it doesn't take much to stress me out and make me worry. So naturally I worry that something will happen with the baby (like I'll be put on bed rest or she'll come early) and that Ben won't be fully healed yet. Or worry that this surgery won't work and that the adhesions will just come back worse than before. Or what if it does work, will we still be able to get out or will they keep him on active duty (we still have a little over two years left on his enlistment)? So really it just raises a lot of questions and "what if's" that I don't know if there are any answers for. And I may or may not have just been having a pregnancy moment this morning...
So that's where we are now. Having surgery puts off the med board longer, and we'll have to wait and see if it even happens at all now. We're back to the wait and see point now. Have to wait and see if the surgery is going to work. That will determine what happens after that. So I think it's going to be a few months before we know anything else. Hopefully he'll have some relief for at least that long. But we'll keep you updated as we find out what's going to happen from here on out.

One Month Later...

It's crazy to think that we've been in Hawaii for over a month now. It's been a super busy month, but things are starting to settle down now. The first couple weeks we had several appointments daily. For the most part we are down to 5 or so a week now. Granted the whole reason we are here for appointments and to get Ben feeling better, so the number of appointments is always changing. It's enough to keep us busy though. I'll talk about all that in a minute though.

Here's some highlights for the month of May:

We spent a total of 9 days in the hotel before we were able to move into our house. They had empty houses when we got here (which kind of surprised me), so we were able to get in pretty quick. Most of our stuff from Japan was already here by then too.

It's quite a bit smaller than our house in Japan. This one is a 2 bed/1 bath. Which is alright, other than the fact that we have enough stuff to fill a 3 bedroom. We had the extra room in Japan that we used as a guest room/office, so we have all that extra stuff to find room for. It's been a bit of a challenge, but I think we've got it mostly figured out.





The dogs had to spend the first 3 weeks in quarantine, per Hawaii law. We only got to visit them a couple times while they were there, which was depressing, but they were sure happy to come home.

They love the new car too. They have to really jump to get in it, but as you can tell by their smiles they don't mind much. Their behavior has been a lot better too. For those that missed it, the last week we were home they couldn't stand to be near each other. Smokey bit off part of Misty's ear, and they beat each other up pretty good. Ben got caught in the middle of one of their fights and we actually ended up in the ER on Easter. (No serious damage done and he's doing fine now). When we took them in to the vet to get their health certificates to come to Hawaii they were put on some medications for anxiety and aggression. They did help some while we were home, but we haven't needed them since we've been here. So that is good. It was just really weird as they have never acted like that before. And it was just towards each other, not the other dogs in the house. But anyway, they are doing good and seem to be enjoying it here too.

The weather has been kinda crazy since we've been here. Lots of thunderstorms and rain which is unusual (or so I'm told) for this time of year. And other than the fact that it causes the dogs to track the red mud through the house, I don't mind. The temperature has been pretty perfect. It's starting to get a bit warmer now, but nothing too unbearable as long as it's not muggy out. And when that happens I just stay inside with the a/c on. The rain makes for some awesome rainbows though.

Kaylin and I are doing well. She's getting bigger, and moves A LOT! I had another appointment Monday and everything is going fine. According to the scale at the office I've put on 4 lbs since my last appointment, but my scale here at home says I've only put on 2 maybe 3. I'll lean towards my scale at home. :) I had to do the glucose test a few weeks ago. My one hour test was slightly elevated, so I had to do the 3 hour test. I never heard back from the dr office saying there was a problem, and the midwife I saw the other day didn't even notice I'd had it done already, so I'm assuming everything was fine with it. She did say I'll have to do the 3 hour test again in 6 weeks or so to check for a late onset of gestational diabetes since I did it earlier than they usually do it. But that's what happens when you have a family history of diabetes and insulin resistance like I have. So overall things are good. I tire easily and have a hard time getting comfortable (especially at night), but it's all worth it, right?! And it's only a few more months...

Ben is doing about the same. Like I said in the beginning he's had lots of appointments. Unfortunately we haven't found anything that really helps with the pain. We talked to general surgery and the surgeon doesn't want to do surgery again. He doesn't think it will help, and would more than likely just make the problem worse. That's pretty much what we expected to hear from him. He did say he would give us the profile we need to start the med board though, just not at the first appointment. We go back Friday and will hopefully get it then. As soon as we get that they can start the med board. So hopefully we will have this whole process started by the end of the month. And as long as everything goes smoothly, we are looking at being out of the Army early next year (Jan/Feb time frame). Granted it's the military and things have a tendency to change in the blink of an eye. It's just one of those things we have to do step by step. In the meantime, we are trying different things with the pain clinic to see if we can find something that helps. The doctor ordered a few more tests and we're going to try some medical massage therapy. We'll see if that helps figure anything out. But that's where we are right now. Still doesn't feel like we've made much progress or really gotten any help period, but we have only been here a month. Hopefully we get something figured out soon. Even if it's just getting the med board started. I'll keep you updated though. :)

Half Way There!

It's been a while since I dedicated a post just about my pregnancy, so here you go! I am about 21 1/2 weeks right now, so right about half way. Yay! Overall things have been going really well. I'm doing well, baby is doing great, and right now things are right where they should be. My only complaints are that I tire easily and my feet seem to always be swollen. The swelling started on our journey from Japan to Boise, and took a while to get back to normal. My mom talked to some of her doctor friends at work and they said it's not really something to worry about. Unless my blood pressure goes up, but that has actually been really good. So I just get to deal with fat feet. :)

Like I said, baby is doing great! Right before leaving Boise we found out we'll be having a GIRL! We really thought it was a boy, but are super excited to have a girl on the way. We've already decided on a name- Kaylin Michele Hulse. And until now the only people we've told the name to is family and a few friends. It hasn't even been announced on Facebook yet. :) Kaylin is super active and loves touching her face with her hands and feet. The past few ultrasounds we've had done she's always bent in half with her feet up by her head and wiggling all around. I love that feeling! I love to feel her move, although her favorite time to do it is when I lay down. She's getting big enough that Ben can feel her a little bit too. He described it as the flutters I felt in the beginning, but she doesn't feel much like flutters to me any more. We went to a movie this afternoon and I would smile every time she jumped at a loud noise. I can only imagine how much more I'm going to feel as she gets bigger. I'm never going to get any rest! :) She's growing like she should though and has a nice strong heartbeat. Her legs are nice and long, so I have a feeling she's going to be tall like her daddy. We've already seen that she's flexible like he is. :)

And here's a picture to end with. At my ultrasound this past Thursday she finally gave us a profile shot! Not the best since she doesn't like to hold still, but still an alright one. We can't wait to meet our little wiggle worm! :)

The Sexy Beast

After being in Hawaii for less than a week, we decided we needed our own car. The WTB has designated drivers to take us to all of his appointments, but you have to wait on their schedule which can be a bit of a hassle sometimes. We could have had the mustang shipped over, but we decided that between the time it would take to get here (at least a month, give or take), the cost to get everything done here that has to be done (like inspections and stuff), and the road conditions (lots of tall speed bumps and some roads that could use some repaving), it would be easier to just get a car here. We've been looking for a while, and knew we wanted either a truck or SUV. So we did some internet browsing with some dealers that are known to have great military benefits, emailed a few, and waited for a response. The first to respond had just what we were looking for. He had a couple vehicles in mind for us to look at- a truck and an SUV. We looked at both and ended up with this:


A 2006 Ford Expedition XLS! The price was right, the dealer already had a loan approved for us, and all we had to do was decide what we wanted it and sign the papers. We took it for a test drive around the block and Ben fell in love. It took a bit more convincing on my part. It's a lot bigger than I'm used to, but it is what we've been looking for. There is plenty of room for the baby and the dogs (which is what we need).

It seats nine, and all six of the back seats fold down flat. There is some decent leg room in the back (at least in the middle seats I didn't climb all the way in the back) so my brothers/ passengers won't have to get all scrunched up when they ride with us. :)

It has just under 59K miles on it, which is actually less than the Mustang. It was taken care of really well by the one previous owner and is nice and clean and in great shape. The gas mileage is pretty decent for being as big as it is (16-18 city and 18-22 highway). Still costs a bit to fill it up (25 Gallon Tank), but it doesn't help when gas prices are over $4 a gallon. It was $4.37 on post when we drove by the other day, and that's one of the cheaper places. We'll survive though. It's not like we'll be driving down to Waikiki every day. :) So all in all, we are happy with our purchase. I'm getting used to it, and it is what we were looking for. Plus it leaves us with lots of growing room. :)

Aloha!

There is lots to talk about, but I'm going to try and make this quick. It's been a busy day and I'm ready to sleep. We made it to Hawaii safe and sound yesterday. The flight was a bit bumpy at the end, but overall it was a good one. Today was full of appointments and in processing. We met with Ben's doctor, who will actually be his doctor the whole time we are here. Which is a good thing, we really like him. He ordered a whole bunch of tests, including an MRI for his shoulder, abdomen, and knee. So it's good to know they will address ALL his problems while here. We met with his case manager, who actually happens to be from Idaho Falls. We like her too, but I guess she'll only be our case manager for the first 30 days. It's kinda crazy how that all works. From what I understand the first 30 days is more of just an evaluation time, and after that they'll transfer him to an actual battalion. We will be here for at least a year. The whole med board process takes about a year, but I don't know how soon they will actually start all that. The plan is also to transition out after the med board. So we'll be done with the Army once we are done here. And they will help us with all the transitioning stuff. That way we have a plan once we do get out. We also met with our social worker this afternoon. He seems like a good guy, and will actually be our social worker the whole time we're here. We also met with the housing office this afternoon. We are officially on the list, which really isn't a list. They have open houses right now, so we should actually have a house by next week. We have to go back tomorrow and talk to another guy, but should have a house soon. Looks like it will only be a 2 bedroom, but we'll have to see what they have available exactly. Then we also went and saw the dogs this afternoon. They have to stay in the state quarantine until the 21st. Bummer for them (and us), but we should have a house by the time they are done. So that is pretty much all the big news for today. We've got more appointments throughout the week. I think this will be a good place though and we'll finally get the help for him that he needs. I'll do my best to keep this updated. I've got more just everyday stuff I could write about, but it's time for bed. I'll try to do that in the next few days though. :)

Enough Already!

I've seriously had enough of the aftershocks, the blackouts, and everyone worrying and freaking out! It's been over a week since the earthquake, and we haven't been completely immune from the affects of it. We continue to have aftershocks and quakes, which really isn't surprising. That's to be expected for a while. We had about a 24 hour period where we had to boil the tap water before using it. That wasn't too bad since we really don't drink tap water and I just tried to avoid making anything that I would need water for. Because of the nuclear power plant problems they've had rolling blackouts across Japan. We've been hit with them 3 times now. Usually only goes out for 3-4 hours, but when you're trying to clean house and it's dark outside and you have no heat, it's not very fun. Then you have everyone freaking out. It started with all the aftershocks and now it's because of the fear of radiation. I find myself avoiding facebook because I get tired of reading about it from everyone. Starting today they are having VOLUNTARY evacuations. Pretty much all the women and children from our branch at church are leaving in the next day or two. Not everyone, but a good chunk. We are NOT! We leave in a week anyway. There's no sense in rushing things if we don't absolutely have to. They are still testing the radiation levels here at Zama every three hours and so far it's been in the normal range. Particularly the lower end of normal. So I'm not worried. Unless something drastic happens in the near future, I think we'll be ok for a few more days. Ben says if not we'll at least glow in the dark. :)
Ok enough complaining. Just had to get that out there. Now some happy news! All our stuff is gone! The movers came on Wednesday and the house is pretty empty now. We've got some major floor scrubbing to do, but the rest of the cleaning shouldn't be too bad. We have our final inspection next Wednesday. A couple of my friends threw me a baby shower last night. Turned out super cute! I'll make a post about that itself when I get the pictures though. I forgot my camera and the power was out, so I used my friend's with the flash. There was only 4 of us there (plus a couple husbands and kids) because of everyone getting ready to evacuate, but oh well. We still had a good time. They are some of the few people that I will actually miss when we leave.
So all in all things are still good here. We're still ok, the dogs are ok, and our move is on track. We fly out a week from today. YAY!!! We'll be home in a week!!!

Hold On! It's A BIG One!

Before I start getting flooded with phone calls and emails from worried family and friends, we are OK after Japan's big earthquake this afternoon. And when I say big, I mean HUGE! It was registered at an 8.9 about 240 miles north of Tokyo, so less than 300 miles from where we are. And we sure felt it! I was up at the office with Ben, and we actually had to evacuate the building. I couldn't believe how long it lasted! In the three years we have been here, that was the biggest quake we have felt. A half hour later we had to evacuate the building again because of one of the aftershocks. They finally told everyone to go home about 3:30, and that's what we did. I had left the dogs out on the back patio, and I'm glad I did. There was no major damage when we got home. A lot of things out of place and a couple broken glass candle holders, but nothing too serious. It moved a couple pictures on the wall, knocked some things off the entertainment center, moved the TVs, knocked over the surround sound speakers, knocked books off the bookshelf, scattered my craft stuff all over the guest room, knocked a bunch of stuff off the bathroom counter and shelf, spilt the dog water all over the floor, and opened the window in the living room about 4 inches, and moved other various little things. Crazy! But like I said, no serious damage. We are getting tired of the aftershocks now. It's been almost 3 hours since it first hit, and we are still having decent size aftershocks. Not good for the pregnant mama! It doesn't take much for me to get lightheaded, and the house swaying back and forth doesn't help at all. And they are happening every couple minutes. They don't usually last very long, but still enough to make us sick. The dogs don't like them either. Just one more reason why we can't wait to leave. Can't wait to get back to Idaho where they don't have crazy things likes earthquakes, tsunamis, and all those other natural disasters (at least not very often anyway). 2 weeks! And speaking of tsunamis, you don't have to worry about us being hit by one of those. We are far enough inland, that Japan would have to start falling off into the ocean before it would reach us. :)

Coming Together

Things are finally starting to come together for our move. Yay! It's hard to believe that we'll be home in two weeks and a couple days. We finally got our plane tickets figured out. It was a headache and a hassle, but they are purchased and we don't have to fly to Hawaii first. The transportation office that takes care of the tickets and travel was saying that they would only pay for our tickets from Tokyo to Honolulu. We finally got it worked out though. We had to pay for our tickets, and once we get to Hawaii we'll be reimbursed for the money that they would have paid to get us to Hawaii. It's all very confusing, I know. So we ended up paying out of pocket, and we'll get about half back. But this way the dogs can fly with us back home, making it so they have to spend less time in quarantine in Hawaii and saving us some money. So we fly from Tokyo to Seattle on March 25th, and then we have a rental car reserved in Seattle and we'll drive down to Boise. It's going to be a lot of traveling, but we'll finally be home! And our report date is still May 2nd (although the amended the orders so we can report early and have our car shipped over if we decide to do that) so we'll be home for about a month. We haven't bought our tickets from Boise to Hawaii yet, but I'm not going to stress about that right yet. There's enough to worry about in the next couple weeks that we can put that off for a little bit.
Our calendar is pretty full for the rest of our time here though. We've got something going on almost every day between now and the 25th. Ben has two more days of work (Thursday and Friday). He picks up his clearing papers Friday and then we can start out processing Monday. The past few days have been full of getting things scheduled to get ready to go. The movers are coming on Wednesday (a week from today) to pick up most of our stuff. Then they'll be back the following Tuesday to pick up everything else. We move into lodging on the 22nd, and have our final housing inspection the morning of the 23rd. A couple of my friends are throwing me a baby shower on the 17th and then I have one more OB appointment on the 23rd before we leave. The dogs have a vet appointment on the 21st and then we take them to the kennel on the 22nd. Plus we still have to find time to make trips to the Navy and Air Force bases to pick up our various medical records to take with us and do all the paperwork to sell our car. Then of course just other little various things that have to be done. The Relief Society sisters have volunteered to come help us clean. Not that our house is a huge mess, but it will be nice to have a few extra helping hands before our final inspection.
So like I said, things are a bit crazy around here right now. It's all for a good reason though. We can't wait to be home. Japan has been fun (for the most part), but we are ready to be back in the states. I just have to keep telling myself "soon." :)

Destination: Hawaii

We finally got our orders. We are headed to the Warrior Transition Unit in Hawaii. Our report date is May 2nd, but that's really about all we know. Things have become a bit of a mess and a nightmare since we got them. There are some problems with the orders. The biggest being they say we are not authorized to arrive/check in early and they don't mention whether or not we can have our car shipped over. Ben made some phone calls this morning, and both of those are supposed to be authorized, so they are working on getting them fixed. Another problem we are having is with our leave. The plan was to take leave between Japan and Hawaii and go back home for a while. We were also planning on the military paying for it. That's not going to happen. They will pay for our flight to Honolulu, but that's it. We figured because we are going from one overseas assignment to another (Hawaii is considered overseas) we would get COT leave. Makes sense, right? Well because we don't know how long we will be there, we are not eligible for it. Nor are we eligible for the 10 days permissive TDY which is typically used for finding a house and everything. All because we don't know how long we'll be there. It could be anywhere from 3 months to 12 months, if not longer. If we are there at least a year they'll give us the COT leave, but we won't know any of that until we actually get there and meet with the doctors. So then our next plan was we'll have them fly us to Hawaii and then we will either buy our own tickets to Boise or try to get on a Space-A flight back stateside. That plan kind of works, except for the dogs. We figured we would just leave them in Hawaii at the quarantine facility while we go back home. That way we don't have to try to find someone to watch them, and there won't be problems at home with my family's dogs. What we didn't realize with that plan is that the time they spend there, has to be paid for upfront. That will be nearly $2000. We can't afford that, plus tickets home. We may be able to fly them home with us, but we're still trying to figure out how much that will cost. It wouldn't be a problem if the military was paying for our flights home, but since they aren't, that's a lot of money that we don't have budgeted. It's a mess. Hawaii makes it very difficult to take pets there. It's ridiculous. They have a pet quarantine here in Japan, but at least we could do a home quarantine here. Hawaii's is a state run facility. UGH! So frustrating! So that's where we are right now. We are scheduled to leave Japan on March 25th. The movers are coming on the 16th and 22nd to pick up all our stuff. Things are going to happen quickly now, so hopefully we don't have any more issues. I'm very ready to be out of here and back home. A vacation would be wonderful right about now. And one that doesn't involve a bunch of medical appointments. So hopefully we get everything figured out soon.

11 Weeks

I had my 10-12 week appointment this morning. Everything looks great! The doc did an ultrasound and we got to see our little alien for the first time. :) I was so excited to post the pictures, but they printed out really dark so you can't really see the baby. :( Totally bummed about that. But things do look good. The baby is quite the acrobat and didn't like being poked, giving the doc some trouble measuring it. It was kinda funny. I can only imagine how active it's going to be once I can actually feel it moving around. But judging from the measurements he did take, I'm about 11 weeks. We went in thinking I was about 10 w/ 5 d so we weren't too far off. And actually this is about where I thought I was originally. I had been tracking my BBT and everything daily so I had a pretty good idea of when it happened. And I was right! Not that it's a huge deal, it's like a 2 day difference. And they didn't change my due date or anything, so I'm still due 15 September.
It's really starting to sink in now that I'm going to be a mommy after seeing our little one today. I mean it's still kind of surreal, just because after trying for so long it finally happened and I really haven't felt much different. I really haven't had any morning sickness. Nausea once in a while, but never to the point of actually throwing up. (Ben's actually been sicker than I have.) I haven't put on any weight yet. In fact, I weighed -.6 lbs less than I did at my first appointment when I did all my paperwork and everything. That one surprised me since we just got back from 3 weeks in Hawaii where we eating out most of the time. I mean really my only complaints are I'm always tired and I feel like I have a constantly stuffy nose, which I'm told is pretty normal. Not very fun, but it's not really much to complain about. It could be a lot worse. But in reality I've had it pretty easy. :)
We are still super excited though. We are slowly getting all the baby stuff we need. We finally found a diaper bag we liked and got some cute gender neutral clothes while we were in Hawaii. I want to start stocking up on other necessities like diapers and stuff, but we'll wait until after we move for that (which by the way, we are moving to Hawaii for those that haven't heard but I'll make that a separate post in the near future. We're still waiting on some more info...).
So all in all, things look good and we're excited. It's crazy to think I'm pretty much through the first trimester. Hopefully things continue to go as well as they have been. :)

3rd Time's A Charm???

Let me just start by saying I'm much better at updating Facebook with all the details of our life than I am our blog. So if you feel like you're missing something, chances are I probably explained it on my Facebook page. Just sayin'...
Anyway, Ben had his shoulder surgery this past Monday. Things went well, as far as we know. I say that because the doctor never came and talked to me after the surgery and only talked to Ben while he was still in the recovery room (where I wasn't allowed to be). So let me try and start from the beginning. We flew to Hawaii Wednesday (the 26th) and had he pre-op appointment the 27th. Things seemed to be great. We were impressed with the doctors and felt that maybe things might actually be taken care of right this time. They wanted an MRI done and said they would call us over the weekend to let us know what it showed. The MRI was done Saturday morning, and we never heard from the doctor. We get to the hospital Monday morning, get all checked in, etc. Everything seems to be going alright still. The staff is nice and helpful and the wait isn't too horrible. The surgeon comes back to talk to us while we're waiting and said the MRI looked alright (well as alright as it could be) and that there didn't appear to be any bone loss like he thought there might be. So the surgery should be able to be done with the scope instead of having to actually cut him open. That's a bit of a relief. The finally take him back to the OR a little before 10. I don't hear anything from anyone until 1. 3 hours later! And only then it is one of the anesthesiologists saying "we can't get his pain under control. We need your consent to give him a nerve block." He very adamantly refused a nerve block before the surgery because it caused problems for a good year after the last time he had one. But they let me go back to talk to him, and I could tell he was hurting. He's not one to cry, but he was. I tell them to do it, sign the paper and tell them to let me know when he's feeling better. I go back to the waiting room and 10 minutes or so later they come and get me. I go back for a few minutes just to make sure he's alright and he was already doing better. His pain had gone from about a 10 down to a 3. They keep him a bit longer before transferring him over to the other recovery area, and apparently that was when the doctor came and talked to him. About all he remembers him saying though (because he was all drugged up at the time) is that his shoulder was really loose and he tightened it back up. So that's all we know about his surgery. The doctor never came and talked to us in the other recovery area like he said he would. At this point my opinion of him has started to go down. We spend about another hour or so there before we head back to the hotel. We stop at Wendy's to get some dinner and spend the rest of the evening in the room. By about 6 the nerve block has started to wear off. It was supposed to last anywhere from 8-24 hours. His shoulder started hurting 5 hours later. The rest of his arm was still numb, but the place that needed to be wasn't. Not a very good sign in my opinion. It was a rough night to say the least. By about 130 the block had completely worn off, lasting only about 12 hours all together. (On the plus side though, his had isn't still half numb like it was the last time, so that's good.) We didn't do much the next day, Tuesday. We waited for the hospital to call and check up on him, but they never did. Again, my opinion of them went down. It's Friday and still no one has called to make sure things are ok. Not that we've had any major problems, but it has been a bit of a struggle to keep his pain under control. The only pills they gave us were a narcotic and stool softener. Every other time they've given him ibuprofen to help with the swelling, but not this time. So I had to go get some. Granted it's not as strong as what we could get from the hospital, but it's better than nothing. I've also had to make our own ice packs using the hotel ice and ziploc bags. We were supposed to get a machine to help with that, but because we aren't stationed here in Hawaii we couldn't get it for whatever reason. I don't know. So that's where we are. Surgery went well and he's still hurting. Hopefully he's still hurting because they fixed it right this time and this will be his last shoulder surgery. At least for a while anyway. This was his 3rd surgery in the past year (the other two were for his stomach), 4th in the past year and a half, and 5th in the past 3 years. I think that's quite enough. I think I handled this one a bit better than the past ones though. Could have been better, but we'll blame it on all the pregnancy hormones surging through me. (I've been blaming them for a lot of things lately...) I think that pretty much covers it all though. We go back for his post-op appointment on the 10th, and we'll see if we get the ok to fly home then or if he wants us to stay until the 16th as planned right now. Not that I'm in a hurry to get home. I'm loving the sunshine, warm weather and driving around a convertible. I'll try to get some pics posted soon. We haven't done a whole lot (mostly just shopping and eating out) but we did spend a little time at the beach this afternoon. Hopefully Ben will be feeling better soon and we'll be able to get out and see some more before heading back to Japan. Only time will tell though. :)

Changes

Things have been pretty crazy since Christmas. I keep thinking "I'll update the blog as soon as we have more answers" but we keep getting are more questions than answers. So I'll go ahead and update it now. Let's start at the beginning...
The Monday after Christmas I got my wisdom teeth out. Nothing too horrible. They took out all 4 at the same time, so they gave me an iv, put me out, and pulled them out. From the time they gave me the meds to pass out to the time I remember looking at the clock again was only about a half hour. So it was quick and easy. I was numb pretty much the rest of the day though. Recovery took a bit longer than I would have liked, but there were no problems. Only one of them isn't fully closed up yet. Just about there though.
We didn't do much to celebrate the New Year. Just stayed in and had a quiet night at home. It's hard to believe another year has gone by. And that we are half way through January now. Time seems to just fly. Not that I'm complaining too much. We've got some big changes coming this year that we're excited for.
The end of December we found out that Ben was to be deploying in May. Once we got to Fort Drum, he would have two week of training and two weeks to get his personal affairs in order and then he would be shipped out to Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. Needless to say that won't be happening due to all his medical problems. His orders to Drum have actually been cancelled. So we won't be headed to New York. It was decided that he will be sent to a WTU (Warrior Transition Unit) instead. We should know this week whether it will be in Hawaii or Washington. And we'll be there either until they get everything taken care of or we get the medical discharge/retirement. We are headed to Hawaii next week so he can have shoulder surgery again. Once that is taken care of they can start the Medical Evaluation Board. I guess they can't start it now because his surgery is already scheduled and once they start it, it has to be done within 30 days. Or something like that anyway. It's all very confusing. But we will be in Hawaii for about 3 weeks (Jan 26th - Feb16th) as of right now.
I guess that brings me to our next big announcement... I'm pregnant!!! I'm only about 5 1/2 weeks right now, and my due date is September 15th. Granted that could always change by a little bit, but our baby should be here early to mid September. We are super excited! We've been trying for almost 5 years. I find Heavenly Father's timing and sense of humor to be kind of funny though. At a time in our life when the future is so full of uncertainty, is the time he decided to bless us with a child. Not that we're complaining. We'll take it. But if you look at all the time we've been trying, we've been in the military so we've had money and insurance and everything. And now that it looks like we'll be getting out of the military is the time we get a kid. Kinda funny to me. But it's all good. Things happen when they do for whatever reason and we just have to go with it. We are very ready for this baby. Well at least we think we're ready... :) It's been great seeing every one's reactions too. My parents are thrilled that they are gonna be grandparents, and my sister in law started planning a baby shower as soon as she found out. We are grateful for all the thoughts, prayers, congratulations, and well wishes. Hopefully it's a smooth and uneventful pregnancy, if you know what I mean. And so far it hasn't been too bad. A little nausea here and there, but nothing really to complain about. Let's hope it stays that way. :)
So that's what we've been up to. I'll update again when we have a better idea of where we'll be moving (which hopefully we'll know in the next few days) and we'll go from there. :)