Ben's surgery Part Two

After spending 15 hours at the hospital and getting Ben in his room in the ICU, I got to go 'home' at Ben's parent's house.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

I got to the hospital early Thursday morning to find Ben looking a bit better than the day before. He was currently on Toradol (for pain and immflamation) and Diloted (pain meds which the nurse told me is 3x the strength as Morphine). The Diloted was what the pain button was for and it made Ben very sleepy. If he pushed the button, he'd be asleep within 30 seconds! Needless to say, he slept A LOT! He also would randomly start talking out of nowhere or he'd sometimes comment on a conversation going on in his room. Here's an example:

This conversation didn't actually happen

Ben: ZzzzZzzzz (snoring softly)

Ben's mom: We're thinking of buying a new car. One that gets good gas mileage.

Me: Yeah that sounds like a good idea. I'd like one someday.

Ben: ZzzzZzzz....No, I want a truck...ZzzzZzzz

Conversations like that happened A LOT. It was so funny! It was as if his subconscious was hearing conversations even though he was sleeping!



For those of you wondering what tubes and such he has, here is the breakdown:

An arterial line in his wrist
an I.V. in each wrist
A NG tube in his nose to drain stomach acid so he doesn't throw up (OUCH!)
oxygen in his nose
A line in his neck
Circulation stockings to keep from getting blood clots
Electrodes all over his chest and back for EKG's
Blood pressure cuff
Catheter
The occasional shot of blood thinner in his stomach

Before I arrived at the hospital the nurses tried to get Ben to sit up in a chair and it didn't go well. That's all I heard. It concerned me but all Ben said was that he felt nauseous and dizzy. A bit later, the nurses tried again. This time Ben got to the chair. He immediately started sweating profusely and got real pale. Ben's eyes started getting droopy and he was acting slightly strange. Unfortunately a nurse was changing Ben's sheets on his bed (funny story about that later) so Ben had to wait a few minutes to get back in bed. While waiting, Ben's heart rate dropped quite a bit. A safe heart rate is between 60-100 and Ben had usually been around 75-90. While sitting it fell to 49-55. Not fun. The nurses had to keep Ben awake and smelling salts to keep him from passing out. It was a strange thing because Ben's blood pressure was just fine and his oxygen saturation was great. After a few scary minutes (and watching helplessly with his mom) Ben was able to get back in bed and over the next hour his heart rate sloooowly crept back up and his sweating stopped. The nurses consulted Ben's surgeon and came to the conclusion that Ben had a bad reaction to some medicine they gave him. (can't remember what it was, started with an H...)




Well since this post took longer than I thought, I'll post Part Three later!

As I wrote this post, I got word that Ben's uncle's body is trying to reject the liver so please pray!!