Ben Update

It's been about a month since I've posted an update on Ben. He is now 7.5 weeks post surgery. As I posted in January, he had quite the set back to his recovery when he contracted a serious staph infection. We are currently on week 5 of his 6 weeks of intravenous antibiotics via his PICC line (I say "we" because it takes both of us- mainly me- to administer the antibiotic every day).

Ben is very anxious to get the PICC line removed next week, mainly because of this:

After just a few days of having the PICC placed, Ben developed an annoying and very painful skin irritation to the adhesive. It literally burned his skin.

A close up of a cluster of blisters caused by the adhesive and bandage.

With his skin being so sensitive to the sticky adhesive they used to make the bandage stick, they had to discontinue its use. It got tricky after that, trying to find ways to make his bandage stick. With a PICC line, it is very important to keep the area sterile, which is why it is so critical that the bandage stays put. Without the trouble causing adhesive, Ben's bandages didn't stick as well and instead of going in to the doctor once a week to get his bandage changed, he was going in 3-4 times a week sometimes.

Then the blisters all popped, oozed and crusted over. It looks terrible and it is so uncomfortable for him. It itches like crazy and keeps him awake at night often. He has found that ice packs help alleviate some of the itching and pain, but for the most part he's had to endure nearly 6 weeks of itching and blisters.

A few weeks ago, Ben's parents came to town. When it came time to infuse Ben for the day, his parents wanted to watch, but Ben's dad is quite squeamish about medical things and could barely watch. To help him get over his aversion, Ben made him help.

Notice the bandage on his dad's hand? Just 2 days after Ben's surgery, his dad accidentally cut his hand severely and had to get surgery of his own to repair damage done to his tendons. We think he did it to show sympathy for Ben's surgery. We love sympathy, but didn't expect him to go quite to that extreme. :) They both had fun being cripples together for a few days and each enjoyed watching their wives take care of them. While Ben can't lift much or bend or twist, his dad can't cut his own meat, needs help brushing and flossing this teeth, and can't lift much with just one hand. Those two are quite the injured duo, I tell you what.

Due to the infection, Ben extended his medical leave of absence from work by another 2.5 weeks. With his parents in town and still off work, this gave him the perfect opportunity to smoke some baby back ribs for them. He is always looking for an excuse to cook meat.

Most people I talk to tell me they would go crazy having their husbands home for any extended period of time. I'll have to admit that the first 2 weeks or so was a bit challenging. Ben was on pain medicine that made him sleepy, and he couldn't stand or sit for long so he spent 95% of his time lying in bed. Trying to keep the kids quiet all the time while he rested was exhausting at times. And if Ben was ever up and moving around he couldn't help with anything.

But the last 3 weeks of his home stay was wonderful. He had lots of energy and no longer needed to be in bed. In fact, I think I spent more time lounging around and laying down then he did. I'll also admit that when he works from home (which is rare), it's challenging because he has work to do and the kids want to be with him constantly. But this medical leave at home was different because he had no work to do. He was home and the only thing on his agenda was doing nothing, or doing whatever he wanted. There was no deadlines, no bosses (except me!), nothing. With the stress from work gone, the pressure to have to get stuff done was gone as well and he actually became incredibally productive with his time. It was truly amazing to watch. He got more done in his last 2 weeks home than we ever have in "nesting mode" before a baby is born. Nice for me- I didn't have to endure a hard pregnancy or get any more stretch marks for so many things to get done! :)

Ben is also wonderful in the fact that he likes being home. I've heard so many men and women talk saying that they themselves or their husbands would go crazy with that much time on their hands, especially at home. Ben is proud to be our breadwinner and finds great satisfaction in the knowledge that he possesses to do the line of work that he does, but he goes to work truly because he has to- he has said more times than I can count that he would truly much rather be at home with us than at work.

Some of the high lights of him being home:

He walked Chloe to school and walked to pick her up almost every single day that he was home (walking was doctor's orders). It was something he's never been able to do and it was a really special thing that the two of them got to enjoy for 6 weeks. (And can I add fabulous for me too- I didn't have to wake babies up from naps or load everyone in the car to go get her).

He's had lots of doctor appointments over the past month and a half, and one day he took Mitch with him. Afterwards, they stopped at McDonald's for lunch.

Ben and I got to go out for a lunch date (with two 2 year olds) while he was home. Our only regret was that we didn't do it more than once!

Once he was feeling better and able to be out of bed most of the time, I was able to leave him alone with the kids for short periods of time during the day. I didn't think that would ever happen, since he can't lift the kids, but with the babies being 2 and pretty independent, I could slip away to run errands or go visiting teaching if I was close to home. I've always wanted a live-in nanny!

He got to play with the kids- a lot! So he couldn't "play" with them like he's used to- no wrestling on the ground, no throwing them in the air, no chasing them up the stairs. But being able to spend all day, every day with them doing daily activities was awesome for all of us. Mitch especially loved having his buddy home with him all the time, and the two boys spent plenty of time playing Mitch's current obsession- Mario Kart Wii.

We relived our kidless days and had a lot of fun staying up late every night. Ben said it was so nice knowing that he didn't have to wake up early every morning to go to work (he usually gets up around 5:45 a.m.). On his break, he would sleep until 8:00 a.m. and even later sometimes on weekends. With a very responsible and helpful 7 year old daughter, I was able to sleep in with him often as well.

It was so fun to have him along when I ran my weekly errands. I really hate grocery shopping, even if I'm alone with no kids, but having Ben along was a lot of fun. Although I'm pretty sure we got a lot of weird looks when we were at Costco and everyone watched as Ben made his wife struggle to put the 40 lb bag of dog food in the bottom of the cart. We should have made him a sign to wear that says "I'm not heartless, I'm crippled." Or even "My wife is stronger than your wife" would have made me feel better about doing all the lifting! :)

We got to go clothes shopping one day and when we were done, we stopped into a cowboy/western shop. We tried on cowboy boots, just for fun. I really should have been a cowboy, right?

Like I mentioned earlier, Ben was my little project fanatic the last 2 weeks home. Repainting, caulking and fixing cracks in the wall in this bathroom was just one of the projects he tackled (don't worry, I helped.) He was literally running circles around me getting things done. It was amazing. I would say I would lend him out to you, but I'm quite fond of my handy man. He does good work around here!

During his abscence at work, his team/group at work won a very prestigious award- Boeing Engineering team of the year for 2011. Ben was able to join his team for an celebratory breakfast last Monday, February 20. They also got a team picture (minus 2 guys) and no, the names are not in order.

Each team member also received a pin as well. Very proud of Ben- I have been told more than once what a wonderful engineer that he is.

Sadly, all good things must come to an end. Last Wednesday, February 22nd, Ben had an appointment with the surgeon. He was cleared by the doctor to return to work, with a list of limitations (no heavy lifting, no sitting for prolonged periods of time, etc).

We took the twins and Mitch with us to the appointment and the girls were fascinated by the nurse taking Ben's blood pressure.

To celebrate his return to work (although none of us were happy about it), we went shopping and bought Ben some new dress work clothes.

He started his first day back last Thursday, February 23rd. It was really weird not having him home that day. When the babies woke up in the morning, the first thing Lexi said was, "Daddy sleeping?", as she pointed to his bedroom door.

I failed to get a picture of him on his first day back, but here he is on his second day back, sporting his new dress shirt and sweater vest. Wouldn't you want to buy an airplane that has had the electrical work done by this man? I would.

Presented by his sister, Ben and I accepted a challenge to do a 3 day green smoothie detox challenge this past week. The challenge is just like it sounds- drink nothing but green smoothies for 3 days. The smoothies are made from nothing but fruit and leafy green veggies (spinach, kale, chard, parsley, etc).

Ben was a trooper to do it with me, especially since he had to take nothing but green smoothies to work for 2 days (our first day was on a Sunday).

Yes, they really were green. We both survived the challenge, and may now never eat a smoothie again.

Ben's boss has been very kind to us during Ben's leave from work. On 3 different occasions over the past 6 weeks, he brought/gave us flower and gardening supplies for our yard. The first time, he came and planted the bulbs/flowers in our yard himself. Last Saturday, the kids helped Ben plant these beautiful, colorful flowers in the big planter, all courtesy of his boss.

These flowers definitely help brighten up a dreary winter.

We were so glad to have Ben home with us for 6.5 weeks. We are missing him at home during the day, but are so glad that he is recovering and healthy enough to be working again. (And if you are interested in some awesome pictures of his incision, we have 7 weeks worth of almost daily pictures tracking it's progress from right after surgery, infected looking, really infected looking, split wide open, oozing, and finally started to close up, etc.)