Monday, Feb. 8th, 2010
We started our trip to Arizona by driving one hour to the airport only to discover our flight to Philly was delayed an hour and a half. This meant we'd miss our flight from Philly to Phoenix so we booked another flight which unfortunately gave us a nearly 3 hour layover. Ben and I made the best of our long layover and enjoyed a leisurely lunch/dinner without the kids and then made our way to our gate which, of course, boarded 45 minutes late. Sigh. Instead of arriving in Phoenix at 6pm, we got there at 10pm (midnight to our bodies). Yuck.
Tuesday, Feb. 9th, 2010
After arriving in Phoenix late, Ben and I got up early so we could make it to an appointment at the Mayo Clinic. Headache all day from lack of sleep! Ben had labwork done and we spent the rest of the day together, kid free!
Ben talking to his Living Donor Coordinator
Wednesday, Feb. 10th, 2010
Ben and I arrived at the hospital (with his parents) at 5:45am for check in. An hour or so later, Ben and his Uncle Wayne were called back to get prepped for surgery. Once they were ready, I got to go back with many family members and pray with Ben and Uncle Wayne. While I was there two nurses put the circulation stockings on Ben so I took pictures of course!
After a slightly tearful goodbye, they took Ben off to surgery. Ben's surgery lasted 4 hours and at one time we had 14 family members/friends in the waiting room!
We played games, ate donuts, and I updated facebook as I heard news. After several long hours and after Uncle Wayne's surgery was started, the nurses let me go back into the recovery room since they didn't have an open ICU room for Ben yet. As soon as I got back and saw my extremely pale husband with tubes everywhere, Ben says "hey I know you!". A little joke between us...he wanted to see if he'd remember to say that while he was drugged up.
I was only allowed to be with him for less than 5 minutes (it was very busy) so I went back to the waiting room.
While waiting (once again), the Dr. performing surgery came out and announced that Ben's liver was working inside his uncle! Many "Praise the Lord!" were said! He also went on to tell us some interesting facts:
-Ben had a large liver so Ben got to keep more liver than they expected (Ben kept 35%, his Uncle received 65%
-Ben has an abnormally large and long appendix that runs up along his side, under his arm
Kinda funny huh?
Once again, the nurses called me back to recovery and allowed to me to stay with Ben while they waited for a room in ICU to be prepared. I didn't watch the clock much but I think I stayed with Ben for 3 hours which he doesn't remember at all. Ben was really swollen (especially his hands) and his voice was raspy from his breathing tube. He would chat with me for 10-20 seconds then fall asleep for a half hour. At one point when the Dr. was with us, Ben kept moving his hand all over his chest looking for his pain medicine button. He asked the Dr. where his button was and the Dr. replied with a grin "it's in your hand". LOL Don't worry, many more funny drugged up stories to come!
To be continued...
2 comments:
LOL I can't wait to hear more drug stories.
Go figure....Ben's insides wouldn't be "normal". Are we really surprised? LOL
I really cant wait to hear more storys you really have me laughing=). by the way i love Ben's shirt when he is on the phone:)
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