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. :)