Friday, Feb. 12, 2010
Well today would have been the day that I was supposed to fly back home to NY. After dealing with the stressful recovery of Thursday you can understand why I had a very hard time saying goodbye to Ben. Lots of tears. After a couple of phone calls, my sister (who had Andrew) and my parents (who had Austin) graciously agreed to keep the kids for a few more days so I could stay with Ben. What a relief! Another Plus? Due to the winter storm on the East coast, the airlines didn't charge me a penny for changing my return flight!
Needless to say, Ben was thrilled to see me Friday morning at the hospital. They had changed his medication to morphine and Ben was finally able to get up and walk the halls a bit. As the day wore on and Ben's system began 'waking up' from the anesthesia the nurses began taking out all the tubes and such. Unfortunately, Ben was still in significant pain.
While visiting, Ben's parents and I played Skip Bo with Ben and we all got a good laugh at Ben's expense.
Ben lays down cards # 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Ben's Mom: Ben, you just laid down a 1, 2, 3, 4, 3. That's not a 5, dear.
Confused, Ben picks the '3' up again.
Later on in the game, Ben also tried laying an '11' card down insisting it was a number '1'.
Yeah. We laughed a lot at him.
A couple hours later, Ben complained that his pain wasn't under control with the morphine so he was given Percocet. Instant relief! Ben was back to himself again with minimal pain! His slumped over, shuffled walk was gone and he was walking almost normally again.
Ben eating his first meal in 3 days, clear liquids only!
View from Ben's room
Saturday, Feb. 13th, 2010
Ben is unhooked from everything!
Sunday, Feb. 14th, 2010
We say our goodbyes and I fly back to NY to be with the boys. Much easier saying goodbye now that's he's in the process of being discharged from the hospital! Ben stayed at his parent's house to recover for the next week and a half, returning home to NY, Feb. 24th, 2010!
***Warning!!! Surgery incision pictures ahead! Feel free to look away!!***
The following pictures are of Ben's incision 24 hours after surgery, then 2 days post surgery, then 3 days post surgery. He currently has no bruising!
Yes, they shaved his belly ;) Also, did you know they fill you with 7-10 pounds of fluid (water, saline?? don't remember) before they close you up after a donor surgery? Explains the swollen belly!
Ben's uncle is doing really well to date. Still accepting the liver and continuing to have his blood tested every other day. I'll post pictures of Ben and his uncle together as soon as I'm able. I'd do it now if Ben didn't leave his camera in Arizona! LOL
3 comments:
Wow! What a lot to go through for you both. I'm so glad you had family to watch the kids for longer so you could stay with Ben...I completely understand wanting to stay until he was unhooked! Praise God everything is going smoothly now.
I'm so glad that You are back together and that the recovery is going great for both Ben and his uncle! by looking at the pictures I can only imagen the pain he must have had! What a great thing he has done for his uncle! :)
So glad he is home and all is well!
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