Surgery

On Dec. 13th, Ben had to have hernia repair surgery.  He had a hernia that developed about 4 years ago, we think, and it had gotten progressively worse.  He finally decided to get it taken care of so outpatient surgery was the option.  He wasn't thrilled about the whole thing.  He hates having his blood drawn and this was his first time to have in IV.  The surgery went well and was shorter than expected.  Instead of waiting in the waiting room for an hour with Kira, she and I decided to take a drive.  They told me it would be about an hour long procedure.  The doctor called after 40 minutes while I was headed back to the hospital and said everything went well, and I'd be called back into see him.  We got to the waiting room and had to wait about 15 more minutes before they called us back.  Ben was awake but really out of it and drowsy.  After about 15 more minutes, they released him to go home.  On the drive home he talked to his co-workers and manager at work, his brother, and his mom and to this day doesn't remember most of those conversations.  We stopped to pick up his prescriptions and Mackenzie who was at a friends house too and he doesn't remember that either.  Most of the rest of that day and the next he was in and out of sleep.  He couldn't even get up himself without help that first 24 hours.  Gradually he got stronger and slept less and less.  I felt bad because it was a busy time of year with all kinds of Christmas activities that led me all over, but we muddled through.  There was Tori's Christmas Choir concert that night, a ward party the next night (which we ended up skipping), Alyssa's dance concert, tithing settlement, and the next week was class Christmas parties for Tori and Alyssa.  It was tricky because he couldn't pick up Kira to change her diaper or help her get to bed so it was a busy couple of weeks.  Thank goodness I had started earlier this year with Christmas shopping so almost everything was done before the surgery.  He's healed really well and is back to doing most activities now.   

A thumbs up before being taken into surgery!