Surgery

Sorry, no fun title for this one.  This is just a quick note before I go to bed.  Ben's surgery went well.  It took just under 2 hours.  I talked to the dr afterwards and again tonight.  He showed me the pics and what exactly he did.  Everything looked pretty much normal, other than this epiplocy thing and his spleen is kinda enlarged (we don't know why).  But he removed the epiplocy, but because of the location of it, which was litteraly right next to the bowl, he decided to admit him for the night just for observation.  He's doing alright.  Hurting, but that's to be expected.  It's still kinda early to tell if this is going to fix everything.  Hopefully it does.  The thing was right where the pain has been, so we're crossing our fingers.  We have our post-op appt next week, after the biopsy results get back from path.  The dr said it's benign, but just to make sure.  But that's where we are right now.  I'm sorry if it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.  It's after midnight, I'm tired, my emotions have been on the fritz all day, and I really just need a hug.  So I'm gonna go to bed now and hopefully feel better in the morning.  I'll keep you guys updated as he improves and if we find out anything new.  Thanks for all the prayers and thoughs.  They are appreciated.  :)

One More Thing

I forgot to mention we got the biopsy results back... No infection.  So the gastritis was probably just some irritation from something he ate or all the pills he's been on (even though he hadn't taken them for about 2 weeks prior).  So nothing to worry about there.  :)

An Answer?

I think we may have found the source of Ben's pain...
We met with the General Surgeon this morning.  After talking, examing, and talking some more he said he would do an exploratory surgery.  He didn't think he would find anything, but if that's what we really wanted he would do it.  The only thing was he wanted to have a CT Scan done first.  We agreed, he called radiology and got it set up to have it done later that afternoon.  Radiology brought up the contrast dye and we sat in the waiting room while Ben drank the nasty stuff.  Couple hours later we head down to have the scan done.  They did the IV dye, and took the CT.  Guess what, they found something!  At that point we didn't know what it was, but there was definitly something there.  We go get some lunch and head back up to talk to the surgeon again.  After waiting a while in the waiting room (I think that's where we spent most of the day), we head back to his office and look at the Scan results.  He goes through them, and as we get towards the end, we see something that's not supposed to be there.  It's called Epiploic Appendagitis.  Basically what it is, is a fatty tumor that causes all his innards to get tangled up and pushed around and therefore can be pretty painful.  I don't think it's cancerous, but I'm sure they'll send it to the lab and have it checked out when they remove it tomorrow.  Yup, he's having surgery tomorrow.  He would have done it today, but we had just finished lunch right before going up so they couldn't.  They were able to fit him in tomorrow though.  It will just be a laproscopic procedure, real quick.  Should only take a half hour, an hour at most.  But he's going to go in, remove this thing, look around and make sure nothing else is going on that shouldn't be, and we should be good to go.  Just a quick little out patient procedure.  Hopefully this fixes everything too.  It's been almost a year and we're just finally now getting answers.  It's kinda pathetic and frustrating really.  This is the fourth CT Scan he's had done, and we're just now finding it?!?!  It's nice to have finally seen a doctor who actually found something.  I mean it's somewhat understandable that we're just now getting an answer, because it's not a very common thing.  As we were doing the pre-op paperwork, all the nurses were like "it's what?" and "how do you spell that?"  So it's not dealt with very often, as least not here.  So Epiploic Appendagitis.  The cause of so much misery and pain.  Hopefully this cures it!

What We Know So Far

 Here's a quick summary of our trip to Okinawa so far.  I flew down on my birthday on the Space-A flight because we were told I was not needed down here.  I'll get to that in a minute though.  Ben flew down on the 28th.  We met with the dr on the 29th and just kinda talked about what's been working, what hasn't, and what procedures he was going to have done.  On the 31st, we went in for him to have a colonoscopy and endoscopy done.  Everything went fine with the colonoscopy.  The dr did find some inflamation and swelling in the lower part of the small intestine, but everything in the colon looked fine.  He did some biopsies of the small intestine and we're still waiting on those to come back.  They went to do the endoscopy and that didn't go so well.  They didn't numb his throat very well (if at all), and his body didn't like that so much.  His heart rate shot up over 200, so they didn't finish.  We rescheduled the endoscopy to have it done in the OR at a later time.  We had a few days between procedures, so we went to the beach a couple times (pics and videos to come), but mostly just spent a lot of time in the hotel room.  Between him not feeling well and the rain, we didn't get out much.  Which is kind of what I expected anyway, so it hasn't been too bad.  Easter was quiet.  We had Dunkin Donuts and strawberry milk for breakfast, and went to Chili's for dinner.  I'll make a nice late Easter dinner when we get back, since there's only so much I can do in a microwave.  Anyway, Tuesday the 6th we went in and had his endoscopy done, this time in the OR where they could give him the good drugs.  And that is what they did.  He was out of it the whole procedure, which is a good thing.  I didn't get a chance to talk to the dr after this one, and they kept him in the OR recovery room before bringing him back to the APU recovery.  I'll admit, I was freaking out a little bit because I knew the procedure didn't take an hour and a half.  And it didn't.  Just took him a while to wake up before they moved him.  We did get to look at the pictures and report from the dr before we left, and he wrote that he had found Gastritis (inflamation) in the stomach.  He took biopsies of those, and it will take about a week to get back the results.  Needless to say, we didn't do much the rest of the day yesterday.  So today we had our follow up appointment with the dr.  We went over the findings of the procedure yesterday and he thinks it's an infection caused by a parasite or something like that.  Don't ask me what it's called because it was long, hard to pronounce, and one I hadn't heard of before.  We won't know for sure until we get the biopsy results back though.  We also talked about what our other options are and where we go from here.  We decided we're going to talk to a general surgeon about doing an exploratory surgery.  The next available appointment isn't until Monday, so our stay here in Okinawa has been extended for another week.  Not that that is a bad thing.  It's kinda been a nice little vacation, for me anyway.  While at the dr today, we also got him to sign the form saying it was required I be here as a non medical attendant.  We were told no, I wasn't needed, so the military would not pay for a plane ticket or anything for me.  Hence why I came down early.  Well guess what, I was needed.  He wasn't allowed to drive after his procedures and there is no way the hospital would release him to a taxi like the case manager said they would.  DUH!  So we got the signed form from the dr saying I was needed, and the people in Ben's office and command are involved too.  His boss told the General what happened and he wasn't too happy.  It's always a good feeling knowing the Post Commander is on your side.  So for all of those who were wondering if his new job would be beneficial in getting us some help, yes it has.  :) 
So that's where we are right now.  I'll try to post some more in the next day or so, although the rain is supposed to let up so I may head to the beach.  You'll get some pics and videos soon though.  :) 

All About Time

I went back down to Yokosuka this past Thursday to see my OB/GYN to see if we could come up with a reason for me not being able to get pregnant. The answer... we just need to get the timing right. From all the blood work and few various tests I've had done, everything is pretty much normal. I'm ovulating on my own (well kinda, with the help of the Metformin I'm on for my PCOS), and because I'm tracking my BBT every morning I can usually judge when that time of month is. So there is no reason for me to take the Clomid, which I'm ok with. It's really just about getting the timing right. I'm sure I don't have to explain this for most of you out there, but this is how it was explained to me... There is a very small time window each month in which it can happen. A 12-24 hour period to be exact, which is partly why it's so difficult. And granted a guy's little swimmers can last up to 3 days inside, that doesn't always guarantee anything. So with such a small time frame, a woman only has about an 80% chance of getting pregnant in a whole year. Meaning out of 100 women that try, only about 80 will succeed. That doesn't sound too promising. But anyway, so there's not really anything else we can do right now except keep trying. I mentioned to my dr how frustrating it is, seeing how we've been trying for 4 years, and every time I turn around I see another pregnant lady or brand new baby. They make it look so easy! But she reminded me that in those 4 years, I wasn't ovulating regularly which didn't help. And then you have to think of the year that Ben was deployed. So really we've only been "trying" since August. But it's still frustrating nonetheless. I guess now the plan is to just keep doing what we're doing. The ideas of further fertility treatments and adoption have kind of been put on the back burner for now. At least in my mind. We'll keep trying on our own for a little while longer and if it still doesn't happen we'll go from there. I'm crossing my fingers it just happens though.

Hey Good Lookin'! Whatcha Got Cookin'?

Every now and then I get in what I call a "cooking mood." Meaning I want to try new recipes and make something special. Saturday was one of those days. So what did I make? I made a homemade lasagna and cheesecake.

I thought it turned out pretty good. It was missing a little something, and I'm not quite sure what that was, but it was still good.

I served a Caesar Salad, garlic bread, berry blue jello with fruit, and sparkling cider. Ben asked what the special occasion was. Can't I just make a nice dinner every now and then?

I made a New York style cheesecake for dessert. This was my first time making this kind. I've made the no bake kind before, but was a little nervous about this one. I was really happy with how it turned out though. There were a few small cracks in the top, but it didn't stick to the sides of the pan, the color was great, and it set up really well. Didn't care for the crust, as it was a little soggy, but over all it was fantastic!

Doesn't that just look yummy?! I'm very pleased and proud of how it turned out. Speaking of which I think I may have some here in a minute...

Just a few other things that I've been cooking up lately... homemade chicken noodle soup. It's so much better than the store bought canned stuff. It's usually just the chicken, noodles, and carrots. Once in a while I'll add some celery, but Ben doesn't care for that really, so I don't add it very often. Also sloppy joes. I have a fantastic recipe from my grandma that we love! It's super easy and so good. I made it the last time we had some friends over and they loved it too. We like to change it up a little bit though. Instead of putting it on hamburger buns, we put it over mashed potatoes and top it with cheese. YUM! I love cooking!

Rash = Neglect???

This has been bothering me all weekend. We have some friends that we've become pretty close to over the past couple months. He and Ben were in the 623rd and deployed together. They've got a 5 month old little boy. Sweetest little thing ever! He's the one I usually get my baby fix from. That's another story though.

So Ben gets a call Friday evening from our friend. Someone had called the Commander and said that our friend was neglecting his son. How was he being neglected? He has a rash. He's had this rash pretty much since he was born. It's a combination of allergies and dry skin. Yeah sometimes it flares up, but it's gotten a whole lot better lately. They've got creams and everything for it, but it's really not something that just magically goes away. Anyone with kids knows that. The sad thing is we know this other couple that made this false report. I used to consider them fairly good friends. I really wish I knew their reasoning behind all this. Anyone who knows this couple, or even just meets them for 30 seconds, can tell how much they love this little boy. I mean really, is that the face of a daddy who neglects his son? It is quite the opposite. He loves that boy more than anything. Same with his momma. That boy is far from neglected. It is quite the opposite. He's more on the spoiled side. I wish there was more I could do to make all this go away for them. I guess they had someone show up at 1:30 am Sunday morning to check on the baby. Someone made an "anonymous" call to I guess it would be the equivalent of social services or child protective services. So they had to let this inspector person in to check out their house, check on the baby, and whatever else in the middle of the night. He's having so many problems out at work too. For example, they don't have a car right now and so he has to bike to and from work everyday. And mind you it's takes about 45 minutes to get there in the car. The 1st Sgt has said that the NCO's can't give the soldiers rides to work, even if they live next door to each other. Which in my mind is ridiculous. There's so much more going on out there too, it's just a mess. Makes me so glad Ben doesn't work there anymore, but at the same time makes me hurt for our friends who are having so many problems.

But anyway, my point is these guys are great. They love their son and are truly wonderful parents. We love hanging out with them. We have them over for dinner at least every other weekend, if not every weekend. They are fabulous. :)