Our latest news

Good evening!

Thank you all for your love today. I know Ben felt all of the prayers and support throughout this crazy process.

The news so far is really good, but we do know things can change at any point. We are cautiously optimistic about everything so far.

At around 2:30pm today, the surgery was over and the surgeon came out to talk to us. That is when we learned everything posted in the last post. We were relieved that the news was good, but still very anxious about the unknowns ahead. At that point, we thought it would be 2 hours or more before Ben would leave recovery and head to the ICU.

We actually got called down at about 3:45pm to learn that Ben had already been moved to the ICU. We immediately headed down to visit. When Deborah and I went back, we were thrilled to see Ben awake, lucid, talking, and moving all of his extremities (hands, feet, fingers, and toes!).

Y'all, that was most the relief I have felt since his MRI on March 19th. It was SO good to see him in such good shape.

He has pain in his neck where the incision is, and they said that the pain there would be at its worst tonight and tomorrow. The surgeon did say the pain there would be pretty bad because of all of the muscles that had to be cut through for the surgery. They are giving him medicines to help with this (of course).

Ben is resting in the ICU tonight. He has several IVs and monitors, but he doesn't have to be immobilized or anything like that. When I last saw him, he was watching basketball and asking us for an exact timeline of the events of the day. That's our Ben!

I am so glad that this ICU allows one visitor to stay overnight. I will be spending the night here in Ben's room.

They are thinking that Ben will be out of the ICU sometime tomorrow. They are also planning to assess him more thoroughly tomorrow to see how he functions with balance, standing, etc (I think).

We could not be more grateful for all of you. Our families have been with us every step of the way, not just today, but since the diagnosis. Our friends and co-workers really could not be any more supportive. We do know that we are blessed beyond what we deserve, and I hope you all know how very grateful we are.

The journey continues....

Love,
Jesse