Twelve months ago our family was in Bangkok. Ben was only 5 days into a 10 day stay in ICU at Bangkok Hospital (and a month long stay in the hospital!). Ben's mom and brother had just arrived and we were all still very unsure what the outcome would be. He had had dialysis about 5 times and his lungs were only operating at about 90 percent with full oxygen through a tube going down into the lungs. He had had a seizure on arrival at the hospital and we weren't sure if he had any bleeding in his brain (due to a blood stained lumbar puncture) - they were loading him up with blood thickeners to make sure he didn't start bleeding all over his body. At about day 8 in ICU he went psychotic - that was the fun part. He told his mother to move the finger probe (that records the pulse, oxygen levels etc.) as it was a bomb. He was imaging escaping out to the street then running back into bed just before the nurse found out. He accused the nurse of giving him sedatives and she assured him they were just vitamins (actually anti-psychotics!) They quickly got him out of ICU after that. At the end of the month long hospital stay, he had lost about 15 kg (30 pounds). Somehow he had damaged his rotator cuff of his shoulder and had had surgery to repair that. He had a blood clot in his leg from being immobile (and probably the blood thickeners) for so long, so was on blood thinners and about 30 different other pills for various other complications from the typhus gone bad (two little doxycycline pills taken earlier would have sorted that out if only we knew).
Prayers from all over the world from all kinds of people, who we don't even know, were being prayed. And they worked. He recovered and we are so grateful.
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| This was the only picture we got when he was really bad. No one was game to take one - at least I wasn't - in case I'd jinx anything. You can see his swollen hand there. |
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| After "coming to." He was not impressed with the intubation and wanted it out just for a bit. |
Anyway, at the moment, Ben is in Nepal with our good friends Jason and Melissa and about 30 college students from Avondale. Jason, I think heard about Ben being sick last year via satellite phone when he was at Everest Base Camp. Well Jason and Ben put together a plan to get Ben and the Jombok Hoas team to Nepal this year. And that worked. So this is where they were a couple of days ago, not Everest (they couldn't get a flight in) but Annapurna. Still pretty awesome.
2 comments:
Great memories Sharyn of a true miracle!! God certainly is the one to get all the credit - but I would also like to acknowledge the role you played! It was an amazing contrast - seeing Big Ben in such a challenging condition, yet you remained cool, calm and collected through the ordeal. Praise God that he helped you both! And Ben - am I so envious of you now there in Nepal - a fantastic idea though to take friends from Cambodia with you to such an awesome place. Brings back so many great memories!! But why is nobody wearing boots! What a tough lot! Cheers to all. Murray
Thanks Murray! I only know stoic and whether that is good or bad I don't know!! Your and Lak's support was so very appreciated. Ben is back this afternoon - we'll find out about the boots or lack thereof!
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