Surgery

The proceedure didn't work as well as the doctor would have liked.

Ben is going in for surgery this afternoon sometime between 3 and 5.

Please pray for him.

And me. Waiting to hear news from the operating room is torture.

Hi! I'm 24

Yesterday was my birthday and surprisingly, it was a lot of fun. I expected my birthday would be kind of ho hum since it would be spent in a hospital, but it wasn't. I laughed so much yesterday!

Here are the highlights:

- My family called and sang me happy birthday in whale. We've done that ever since the movie Finding Nemo came out. I know. We're dorks.

- Ben and I took a field trip down the gift shop where he bought me a stuffed animal. This trip was filled with laughter and odd comments to people in the hall. At one point I was laughing so hard I ran Ben's wheelchair into the wall. Oops. He stopped laughing after that and kept moaning for morphine. :-(

- Naming the pig stuffed animal, Breakfast.

I know it doesn't sound like much but it was a good day. Today has been a rough day, what with the people at work freaking out and the tests and the waiting for test results. I swear Ben and I were both ready to kill today; me - co-workers who kept calling about a problem I solved before they even knew about. And Ben - lab techs who were not so gentle or observant and caused him pain. I think we should have the test results within the next hour....

A post in which poop is the highlight

So Ben. He's been pooping. This so great. It means that the tube in his stomach is probably working and letting his body heal. Pooping is a very important part of health. To quote Ben, "The key to living is to keep on pooping." I think I may cross-stitch that lesson, frame it and give it away as wedding gifts... Monica - sorry to spoil what we are getting you for your wedding....

God has been good in working out so many other things as well. Here is a short list of things I was worried about and how God has taken care of them:

1. Moving Ben's stuff out of the dorm. Ben need to check out this week and I had no idea how it was all going to get done. Yesterday my dad and a friend came down, loaded up the truck and took Ben's stuff and my car back up to Ohio. Woo Hoo!

2. Money. Not being able to work makes the paychecks pretty small. My boss approved me to work remotely while I am in Kentucky. I work for a great company!

3. Timing of the wedding. Ummm... not sure how this one is going to work out, but I'm sure it will. I really, really hope that our photographer will be available for the day we pick... I was really excited about our photographer.....

4. Ben is currently homeless. They've kicked him out of his dorm and if the doctor requires that he stay in Kentucky for a while, I had no idea where Ben would live. I guess the couple that let me stay with them, offered to let Ben recuperate at there place... Hopefully we can just take him back to Ohio when he gets out of the hospital.

So anyway... things are going better. We'll know tomorrow if they need to do surgery. I really, really hope not!

God is so good. I think my next post will be about what I have learned...

Quick Update

We are just waiting now. Waiting to see if pumping Ben's stomach will relive the pressure and let his body heal on it's own. If it doesn't then they'll have to operate. 50% of the time this works. We are praying that it will for Ben.

We postponed our wedding.

Please pray that we will have wisdom moving forward. It's freaking me out to not know what the next step should be.

Thankfully, we serve a God who does. I am learning to trust Him in ways I've never had to before.

I just wish it was easier...

When you think it might be over....

I am heading back to Kentucky today. Scar tissue has closed off Ben's intestine and is causing problems. They are trying to remove it without surgery, but if it doesn't work, another operation will be required.

I am ready to be done with all this. I just want Ben to be well so we can get married.

Please pray for Ben. None of this is very comfortable for him...

New Post

I need to get that depressing post off the top of my blog. Umm... in case you were wondering, things at work are backing to being great. I was just in a funk.

So yesterday was my personal shower and bachelorette party. It was fun! I can't think of anything to write, so here's some pictures. Oh and the most useful gift I got was two toothbrushes labeled "Benjamin" and "Andrea". These were from Amberly; I used her toothbrush Thursday night.

Musings after a tough day at work

My advice to people when they are leaving a company is to not give too early of a notice. Like 11 months. That's too early. That's the notice I gave my company. I didn't mean to, it just came out in conversation.

I love the company I work for. They have been so great to me during the past 3 years of working there.

They signed me up for health insurance before I started full-time.

They gave me a flexible schedule when I wasn't feeling well.

They let me stay in Kentucky until Ben got out of the hospital.

But it's hard to keep seeing all of my projects get reassigned to other people. 11 months is too long of a time to get phased out of a company. All of the projects I have been pushing for the last 2 years are finally coming to fruition and someone else gets to run with them. I know it's the logical thing for the company to do, but it's hard for me. Watching other people get promoted to positions I helped create is tough. Listening while other people get credit for my ideas stings.

I'm excited to try my hand at a new company and the job I have now is not the job I want 5 years from now, but 2 months would have been an easier length of time to get pushed out. 11 months is just depressing.

Live and learn.

Oh, and I found out today that I have a cavity. :-(