It's nice to be able to get out of the house in the mornings and have some time for myself at the Bible study and at our mom's group at church. It's refreshing to be around other women and moms who are going through the same thing as you. This is something I feel like I missed out on when I was working. I was a mom just like everyone else, but since I was working, I wasn't able to attend any of the mom groups, making me feel sort of left out from the other women at church. I am so glad that they started a working mom's Sunday School class at church because I feel like that is an area of great need for working moms. They also need an opportunity to get together with other moms who are in a similar position to them, sharing their struggles and successes with balancing work and family.
The weekend was approaching and once again, we had a busy one. My parents were planning on coming in town for a visit. Ben had a political science social event for bowling on Friday night, and I had plans to attend a Harvest Party for the families of our Mom's REST Stop group. However, even the most well laid out plans, don't always come to fruition.
Samantha took a really good nap on Friday afternoon, giving my parents and us a long time to talk. Ben and I finally had to go in and wake her up because we had to leave for our bowling night, and we didn't want her to wake up surprised that we weren't there. My parents agreed to let us have a date night, so Ben and I used that to go bowling with his political science group and then out for coffee afterwards. Samantha had a good time with Cago Ema Papa (as she calls them). They played with her for awhile, took her to Wendy's for dinner, and then to a park with Dolly. She was having a good old time playing and didn't want to leave the park, even though it was getting dark.
Throughout that night, Ben started to have a lot of pain in his stomach again. He tried to get up in the morning, but couldn't even drink his coffee before having to go lie down. He said the pain was worse than any pain he had felt before, which made me really concerned. I tired to convince him that we needed to go to the hospital, but he wanted to rest in bed for a little while to see if he would start to feel any better. Well, after lunch with my parents and putting Samantha down for her nap, Ben finally decided that it would be a good idea to go to the ER.
I drove him there and apparently they were the busiest they ever had been on a weekend, so it took us forever to get seen by anyone. Luckily, they took Ben back to a room to get him hooked up to an IV of fluids, pain and nausea medicine. We waited in that room for quite awhile, and after he was feeling a bit better he was explaining to the nurse about the Affordable Care Act and how to apply for the insurance online. I was glad to see him with a little more life in him.
After quite a while, a room finally opened up for him, but it was just in a small section where each room was only closed off by a curtain, so it was pretty loud, making it difficult for Ben to get any rest. It took us forever to be able to talk to anyone and the nurses we talked to were not very friendly or helpful. We had my parents bring Samantha by to say good night before she went to bed because we knew it would be a long night at the hospital. We were glad my parents were there to watch Samantha for us during the day, feed her dinner, and put her to bed at night. They got to have a lot of one on one time with her, and we were not worried about who would take care of her while we were gone.
Ben finally got seen late that night. They did another x-ray to check for air in his abdomen which would then signify a perforation in his colon. It then took a long time to get the results back from the x-ray. We realized that they were busy tonight, but it just seemed ridiculous to us to keep waiting with no end in sight and no idea of what was going to happen next. When we finally got the results back from the x-ray showing that there was no air in his abdomen, we got to speak to a doctor who said they wanted to admit Ben to the hospital and that the next day he would be seen by a GI doctor. I waited with him until he got taken to his permanent room, got comfortable, and got everything he needed before I went back home. It was around 1:00 am by the time I finally arrived home.
I did not hear any updates from Ben throughout the night and was glad to hear that he got pretty good sleep that night when I talked to him again around 8 am. As soon as I got ready, got Samantha ready, and ate breakfast, I went to the hospital to be with Ben, expecting to be able to talk to a doctor at any time. Again, it took quite awhile to see anyone. The nurses didn't even come in on a regular basis.
Since there was still no progress, I decided to go out to lunch with my parents and Samantha after church. We went to this great local place, Sweet Claire's, that was recommended by a friend, and I'm so glad we tried it. Their Eggs Benedict was delicious and so was the strawberry chocolate dutch pancake. I definitely need to go back to this restaurant for Sunday brunch again, this time taking my husband with me.
After lunch I went back to the hospital to check on Ben, and he still hadn't seen any doctor. He was getting a little tired of waiting with no further information, so I went out and talked to the nurse to see where our progress was. She said the doctor had procedures all morning (which she probably knew before but never told us), but that she would page him to see when he may be able to come by. A few minutes later, there was a knock at the hospital room door and one of our pastors, John Mangrum, came in because he had heard from a friend at church about Ben being in the hospital and wanted to come by and check on us, to see if we needed anything. It was really sweet of him to stop by. I know I really appreciated that, and I appreciated his prayer before he left.
Shortly after that, Ben's parents arrived at the hospital. They decided to come down in case we needed them that evening after my parents left to go back to Chicago. Then, just minutes after they arrived, the GI doctor finally came in to talk to Ben. He explained that all the tests and blood work they did came back negative, so he said this actually was not another diverticulitis attack. He said that Ben's colon was probably still very sensitive from his prior attacks and that something must have irritated it, causing him that severe pain. He prescribed him more medicine to help his colon and for pain and nausea. The doctor wanted to take him off the IV and have him try eating some low fiber food to see how his stomach would handle that. If it went well, the doctor would allow him to go home that night. I ended up going back home to visit with my parents while Ben's parents stayed with him in the hospital. He ate his food slowly over the next hour and a half, and although he did not feel one hundred percent, he kept his food down and was ready to get home and relax there.
It took quite awhile for them to get the discharge paperwork ready and then more time to get the wheelchair transportation. My parents left, Ben's parents came over to make dinner and hang out with Samantha, and I went back to the hospital to pick up Ben. We probably finally left the hospital around 6:45, tried to stop by Kroger to fill his prescriptions only to find that they were closed, and then were home by around 7:15. I ate some reheated food while Ben filled his parents in on more details before they took off. I got Samantha to bed and then Ben and I both crashed on the couch. We had had a long couple of days with not much sleep and lots of crazy situations and lots of waiting. After this weekend, we felt like we needed another weekend. I know I've mentioned this before, but hopefully our life will slow down at some point. Hopefully everyone can stay healthy and our life can get back to normal soon.
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