Here We Go Again

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

It's Baaaaack!

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

Diagnosis: Endometriosis

For those that don't know, I had surgery this past Monday. Yes, it was actually me this time, not Ben. It was kinda weird having switched places, but we both survived. Just a little background as to why this came about... A little over two years ago I started noticing some pain during certain activities. I went to the doctor here on Zama, and he said it was probably just because I hadn't had a period in a couple months. I think "Ummm, ok..." It wasn't the first time I'd missed a couple periods, but it was a first time for the pain. We wait a few months, still have the pain, go back in and have them put a referral in to go see the OB/GYN at Yokosuka. Takes a few months to get in, but I finally do. In the meantime I've done my own research to find possible reasons for the pain. Over the next year or so, I go in every few months for whatever reasons, but always bring up the fact that I'm still having pain. We talk about the possibility of it being endometriosis, but we can't treat that and still try to get pregnant. We opt to keep trying to get pregnant. Now fast forward to about a month ago. I'm still having pain, and it seems to be getting worse. Not only does it hurt during these certain activities, I have pain during ovulation, I have extreme pain during my period (so bad that the first day or two I can't do anything I hurt so bad), and even pain just at random times. So I set up an appointment with my doctor to talk specifically about this. We talk and we have a "clinical" diagnosis of endometriosis, but it can't be confirmed without surgery. We could treat it with medications and such, but we opt for the surgery. With how much I've been hurting, we were willing to take the risks that go along with surgery. She was open to that option (which really surprised me, as I had one doctor tell me they don't like to do surgery for endometriosis because they don't usually find anything), and she went to see when the next available OR date was. It was July 19th, which we agreed to, and started getting stuff set up. That date was later changed to the 26th, due to a shortage of OR staff. So now it's Monday morning. We get up bright and early (4am to be exact) and get ready to head down to Yokosuka. Surprisingly it only took 45 minutes to get there (it took me 2 hours a couple days earlier). I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. I've never had surgery before. I've been through plenty with Ben, but never any for myself. So there were lots of firsts for me. Like my first IV. The gal who did it was great, even though my veins didn't want to come out and play. She got it the first time, no problems. We did the whole answer the same questions a hundred times. Talked to the doctor, talked to the nurse, talked to the anesthesiologist. The anesthesiologist was great and explained everything step by step. He didn't give me the versaid as early as Ben would have liked. It's fun talking to him when he gets it and is all loopy, so we wanted to do the same with me. But I didn't get it until right before they took me back. I could feel it working as they wheeled me down the hall though. I don't remember much after that. I remember being in the OR, with my doctor and everyone getting stuff ready, but that only lasted maybe a minute. The next thing I remember is the nurse asking me to open my eyes in the recovery room. That took some effort. I was starting to wake up enough to say I was hurting, what Ben's cell phone number was, and that my feet were cold. After a few more minutes, Dr. Stoker came and told me about the surgery. I remember her saying they had to make a bigger incision in my belly button than they had planned, there were three incisions all together, most of the endometriosis was on the right side, but there was quite a bit of scarring from old adhesions on the left, and I think that's about it. I remember hearing her call and talk to Ben, but I don't remember much of what she told him. And I remember her talking to the recovery room nurse or someone. I also remember asking at one point what time it was. It was about 1040, and I had been in there for about an hour and 20 minutes, which is about how long the surgery took too. They kept me there until a little after 11 because every time I started to fall back asleep my O2 levels dropped real quick. Not that I was having trouble breathing on my own, I just wasn't breathing very deep. So she had to keep reminding me to take deep breaths too. Ben was waiting up in my room when they took me back up. We got me situated in the other bed, Ben went to the pharmacy to get all my meds, and I laid there trying to wake up the rest of the way. I didn't have much pain at that point. I was feeling more lightheaded and dizzy at that point. So we had to wait for that to get better before I could leave, plus the usual go to the bathroom, get up and walk around, and eat/drink without being nauseous. We finally left just before 2. Needless to say, I haven't done much the rest of the week. I spend most my time either in bed or on the couch. The pain hasn't been nearly as bad as I expected it to be. It really only hurts when I get up off the couch or bed and if I spend too much time standing. It's been pretty tolerable without taking the pain meds for the most part. It's going to be a couple months before we can get back to trying to get pregnant. That's mostly to give me time to heal, but I think also because she wasn't able to remove all the endometriosis, we're going to use medication to take the rest down. She was able to remove most of the scars, the stuff on my ovaries and the stuff on my tubes, but there was some on the veins that would have been too risky to burn down. My post-op appointment isn't until the 17th, and we'll talk more about it then. Hopefully this surgery will have helped though and it won't take us much longer to get pregnant. That's what we've got our fingers crossed and are praying for anyway. :)

Smokey Vs. The Laser

Ben got out the laser pointer the other night and was playin' with Smokey. He's so funny to watch. He'll sit there and act like he's ignoring it, but then suddenly snap at it. Kinda like he's trying to sneak up on it. Silly puppy!

Taiko Drummers

Here's the video of the Taiko drummers from the Army Ball. These drummers are one of my most favorite things in Japan. So much fun watching them! Wish I could do it! :)

Army Ball 2010

The Army Ball was last weekend. It was great having a handsome soldier to take me this year, even if he was working while there. It wasn't much different than last year. I did have a better seat so I could actually see what was going on without having to watch the projector screen, so that was great. The toast they did with Sake instead of wine. Not that we drank it, but it was kinda cool.

We had the tuna carvers again.

It's amazing how big those fish can get. I did actually try the sashimi (raw fish) this year. The taste was alright, didn't taste too fishy. The texture... yeah, not so much. But hey, at least I can say I tried it.

Of course the night wouldn't be complete with out pictures of us.

I am so lucky to be married to such a great man!

I was feeling pretty cute that night. :)

We do make one pretty cute couple. The pictures turned out kinda dark, but you can still get the idea. It was a fun night. As soon as I figure out where my videos are I'll post them. They must still be on the camera... :)

Time Flies

Hmmm, guess it's time to update the blog.... So here's a quick glance at what happened in May.

We worked on the flower bed in the front yard.

(I've got more flower pictures posted on Facebook.)

And we got a couple turtles.

Ben has been busy with work. He still loves his job, which is great. I still love his job too. :) He's still recovering from his surgery. It's taken a bit longer due to the fact that they really didn't give him any time off afterwards to recover. That's a whole other issue though. But he is doing better. We ended up going to the Urgent Care clinic down at Yokota because he was having chest pain and his heart rate has been pretty high. Turns out his heart is alright, it's his lungs. What happened was during the surgery when they inflated his belly with the gas, his lung separated from the chest wall and caused his lung to partially collapse. Nothing super serious, it will just take time to heal. And yes we did talk to his surgeon about it. It is starting to feel better, but just like everything else takes time. His shoulder is doing pretty great though. As soon as his chest is better he can really start working on getting the muscle strength back. So that is a plus.

I've been busy being a housewife. I haven't worked at the school for a while now. Which I'm ok with. I've gotten myself into a nice little routine of getting up and making breakfast before Ben goes to work, heading to the gym after he leaves, come home and try to get a couple chores done before he gets home for lunch, make lunch, spend the afternoon doing chores and/or running errands, then try to have dinner ready by the time he gets home (or shortly there after anyway). Honestly, it's been working out pretty well for me. People ask what I do all day since I don't work and I don't have kids. Well that's what I do. I keep myself busy. There's always dishes to do, laundry to be done, floors to be vacuumed. It's enough. :)

Other than that, not much else happened in May. Hard to believe we're already half way through June. We are counting down until we leave Japan, which will be Mid-February. We're not sure where we are headed yet. We were hoping for Ft Lewis, but were informed there are no openings there right now. They did offer Ft Sill, but I've never had a desire to go to Oklahoma. When I think of Oklahoma I think of how we beat the Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl a few years back. Anyway, so we're thinking maybe Georgia or Virginia. But we'll have to see what's available. Don't worry, we'll keep you posted. :)