Newest Update Tue. 1 am

They took Ben to surgery at 5:15 pm 8-18. They had planned to take him about 9 pm then got a slot earlier at 7. At about 5 pm Ben started really sweating and hurting and i got the nurse and she took his temp and bp and the temp spiked, the bp went really low and his hert rate that they had been trying like crazy to keep up for surgery jumped to 120 bpm. Appearantly the bowel ruptured. They rushed him in. They put in the colostomy which is still supposed to be only temporary at this time. They flushed all the gangrenous material out of his abdomen and took a bunch of the colon that was also gangrenous. I don't know how long it takes gangrene to set in but I would suppose that there had been a small leak for several days. He was in surgery about 4 hours and recovery after. He was groggy when the kids and I got to see him afterward but he looked a lot better than when he went in.

Both Teresa and BJ and all their clan were able to make it down. Not in time before Ben went into surgery but they were there when he came out. He recognized them. Teresa and I both noticed a strange anomolie when he opened his eyes. Usually they are green/brown. They looked blue to us. Could have been the light playing tricks but we thought it was strange. He is still in a lot of pain.

The Dr. said that the next 48 hours will be critical as there was so much bad material in there. Took 11 pints of fluid to flush out and he is afraid that he might not have gotten it all.

The plan is to try to re-connect his bowels in about 2 weeks. It might even be as long as 3 months and he does think that the tumor is in the lower colon which they did not take out yet. If that is where it is at then Ben will most likely have a full permanant colostomy. He says the liver looks clear and that is one of the places that City of Hope said the cancer had spread to. So maybe all that chemo that Ben took at least worked on that.

Anyway, I am back at the room and the kids are on their way back home. Will give another update in the afternoon when I see how he is doing now. Love and Light to all Ben and Illa