This is a collection of all my blog posts leading up to, during, and after Ben’s cervical/Thorasic spine surgery 2020.
Ben’s health has increased exponentially in the last 24 hours. We have been transferred back to Shriners, which does our hearts all good. It again feels like coming home - these are our friends, our family. I am still overwhelmed by the emotion of coming back - they take Ben in and gently wash the [...]
So over the past few days, it became clear that Ben has an effusion (fluid in his lung cavity). It’s likely that blood seeped out and collected there post-op, which is somewhat common. This compressed a portion of his lungs and made it more difficult to breathe. His hemoglobin level was a bit lower from [...]
Despite my excitement over getting extubated in the OR, Ben had an awful first night. His oxygen sats dropped to the low 80’s, and he was visibly struggling to breathe. His heart rate and RESP rates were high, and it was apparent he was working hard to breathe. We used the oxygen mask for a [...]
We were up super early this morning. I woke up at 4:30, finished packing and got us ready. We will not be returning to our hospital room because when we arrive back at Shriners they will put us right across from the nursing unit. So...that means packing up, and it’s amazing how much crap you [...]
Ben is doing well after a 7 1/2 hour surgery - he is stable and still asleep. He has been extubated and is breathing on his own. He did not require ICU, which is great - he has far less facial swelling than last time. Will update later. Thank you to everyone for all your [...]
So tomorrow is the day we've been dreading since our last big surgery three years ago. We will start preparations tonight and we will be the first and only patient for our doctor tomorrow. I will head over the the other hospital at 6:30 to register us as inpatients and take care of all the [...]
So...I was sitting with my amazing nurse practitioner today, and we were scrolling through Ben’s CT scans. As the images were moving past, me (being the smart ass I am) said ‘I think I can see what the problem is. There is a puppy inside him’. We both looked again and burst out laughing! Hmmm...no [...]
When you are staying in a hospital, the staff tends to go out of their way to make every celebration important, so it wasn't a surprise when our Valentine's day turned into a Valentine's week. For the kiddos, it was a week filled with fun, fun, fun!!! Monday was a holiday here, so it was [...]
Well...we have had an exciting few days here in Montreal. Jesse and Hannah came out for a visit because Hannah had two pd days at school. Benjamin had company, and their visit gave us a little break from the redundancy of hospital life. The kids were able to play together and chat. I had an [...]
Well, we are a week post-op, and Benjamin is feeling good. I can't help but compare this hospital stay to our last one. The first thing I notice is that we know most of the staff this time. I believe Shriners is considered one of the best employers (could be #1) in Montreal, and it [...]
Crooked Journey 