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. :)