Not sure if anyone has been checking here... but

Well, the long and short of it is that he went in to fix a leaky valve in his heart. They had determined that they were leaking late november and he went in Dec 14th. He had the operation and was supposed to be out within 2 weeks. Well, that wasn't what happened. He improved a ton but then began to have lots of pain and issues with medication. After some testing they determined that the new mechanical valve that they put in wasn't sealed correctly either and was worse than before. Last week the took him in for a 2nd open heart surgery. Before he went in they said that this was more risky than they had ever attempted and that the chances of him coming out of it were very slim. He was sick, weak and very out of it and his spirits were anything but up.

Well, God is good and Ben did amazing through surgery. The doctors were amazed at how well everything went. They were confident that they got it all sealed up and had higher hopes for him. He was expected to have to be on full time dialysis for 2 weeks as they were thinking his kidneys would have failed totally, but yesterday when I was up there they were taking him off of the full time machine and moving him to a part time one. This means his kidneys are recovering from the surgery at this point.

Also, when I was up there they got him out of bed and we went for a walk down the hall. It was about 100ft, but his physical therapist was just hoping to make it to the door. This next 2 weeks is super crucial though that he stays healthy and continues to keep his spirits up.