On Wal-Mart

Yesterday Wal-mart stole a little bit of my soul.

I hate Wal-mart. Not for it's questionable business practises, but for the sheer volume of stuff and people they cram into a single building. I hate the noise, the lighting, the bright yellow price tags and the vast femullet sightings. I do my best not to shop at Wal-mart, not for moral reasons, but for sanity reasons.

Unfortunately, the nearest store to Ben in Kentucky is a Wal-Mart. Target and K-mart are a good 40 minutes away. This is the biggest downside to moving to Kentucky.

Yesterday I needed to get Ben some stuff to make staying in his room more comfortable. Like food. I had to go to Wal-mart. I also needed to pick up some cotton pajama pants for Ben. Target sells all kinds of these. Plaid, solid colors, prints. Target has vast quantities of PJ pants for men.

Wal-mart only sells Nascar print pants.

That's when Wal-mart stole a little part of my soul. When I realized that I would have to buy Ben Nascar pants and he would have to wear them, a little part of me died. At that moment I hated Kentucky and Wal-Mart.

So I took them back to Ben, cut all the sleeves off his shirts and trimmed my hair to be all business in the front and a party in the back.

Home!

Ben gets to go home today!

Which means if all goes well I get to go home tomorrow. I seriously can't wait. I am so happy he's healing well.

God is good!

Time for a little venting

I'm writing this post while the adrenaline is still pumping. Irrationality does that to me.

Ben and I have a drama queen for a travel agent. DRAMA QUEEN.

The day Ben got sick, we declined our travel insurance. Declined it. It was $140 to cover the CHANCE that we'd have to change things on our trip. We decided we weren't cancelling it - the worse that could happen was that one of us would get sick and we'd have to postpone it. We'd take the risk of POSSIBLY paying more for the assurance that we won't have to pay $140. Then Ben's appendix decided to revolt.

So I e-mailed our travel agent and told her we needed to postpone the trip until August and that we understood we'd have to pay the fees associated with that. I figured this probably happens all the time.

She called me today to discuss it and by the way she talked, you'd think I'd ask her to please stop the world from turning.

"Andi, you didn't purchase trip insurance. There's nothing I can do for you."

"I know we didn't purchase trip insurance. We aren't cancelling the trip, we are just moving it. I read the papers we signed. We still have the option to change things - we just have to pay more."

"I just don't know what I can do for you. If you had gotten the insurance that would cover this."

"I know. We took a risk with the insurance and we didn't win. I don't understand why you can't help me. I know you can move plane tickets, I know you can move hotel room dates. Not sure what the problem is."

"But it'll cost more than the trip insurance would have."

"I guessed that. We'll pay it. Just let me know what our options are."

"As long as you know you'll pay more...."

"Just call me back with our options."

There's nothing like walking out of the hospital room of your future husband (who's in intense pain) to take the call of a travel agent who tells you that your thousands of dollars are lost (when they aren't). There's nothing like that to get the adrenaline pumping. And make you want to strangle some one.

*Update on Ben - He still may get to leave tomorrow. They cleaned out his wound today and that was a lot of pain. They think the infection is pretty much gone. Praise the Lord!

** 3:00 update: The travel agent pulled through and got the changes made. We are this close to finalizing the changes and paying for the fees.

A new bed, and a healing Ben

Ben is healing. He's healing quite well. The doctor thinks he may get to leave the hospital on Wednesday! That's so great. I am sick of this hospital and I am sure Ben is too.

The other good news is that I am now sleeping on a real bed! Oh the joy of back support! I am staying with a professor of Ben's and his wife. It's like staying in a bed and breakfast. I have a large four-poster bed, a sitting area and my own bathroom. There's a wonderful, godly woman who has breakfast with me and prays for our day. God is so good to provide such a nice place to stay.

We decided to postpone our trip to Hawaii until August. Any suggestions of fun places to stay within an hour of where we are getting married?

Yesterday I was reading through sections from the book of Job. I always thought that it was interesting that God never gave Job a reason for his suffering. All He did was remind Job of who He is, which I think may be the more important thing. Going through rough stuff right now, it's easy to ask why God waited until He did to get Ben the help that he needed. Yesterday I realized that I don't need to know that. All I need to know is who God is. That's enough for even the toughest days.

Day 5

I am so tired. Tired of all of this. Tired of sleeping on an air mattress. Tired of eating out. Last night I just cried because I was so tired. Each day God gives me the strength to do what I need to do.

But the end, it's in sight. Ben started eating yesterday and he's pushing through the pain to get up and walk. He's ready to leave too. The doctor thinks he can go home maybe on Tuesday.

I don't think I posted the details of what happened. Ben's appendix had ruptured and created a grapefruit sized infection in his body. Because of that they had to remove his appendix, part of his colon and part of his small intestine. Major emergency surgery. They made an 8 inch incision. A couple more days without this surgery and Ben could have died. God is good.

He's doing as expected which is good. Please pray that he will be able rest and heal. Please pray that I will also get some rest. I plan on staying until Ben is discharged.

Any suggestions on the best way to postpone travel arrangements? There's a good chance we'll have to postpone our trip to Hawaii until August...

More proof that Friday's rock!

Today is a much better day! It makes yesterday seem like a loser day.

Today Ben is so much better. He's alert and awake. He is getting up more. He was able to brush his teeth. Today makes it seem like everything is going to be alright.

God is so good to us!

Now Ben has 29 days to get well enough to stand at the front of the church and say I do.

We're going to ask the surgeon today if we should push back the trip to Hawaii. I have no idea how quickly an 8-inch incision heals....

Not sure what to post....

I talked to my boss today and he made the comment that hospitals tend to drain the life out of you. Which is ironic since they are supposed to heal people....

Today may be Ben's worse day. (I hope so.) His body finally realized what had happened to it and decided it needed to hurt. Bad.

Keep praying for Ben.

He was able to get up and walk around twice yesterday, which is great! Today the goal is 5 times!

I thought about going back to Ohio tomorrow - but I don't think I could do that. Gosh, I love this man!