Praying for a Miracle.

I don't even know how to start to express all that has happened and all that I am feeling at this time. I guess I will just start with telling you what has been going on. Yesterday Ben was admitted to the hospital and sent to a room on the eighth floor. I stayed with him last night, which ended up being one of the hardest nights of my life. Around 9pm his parents left for the night. Ben was pretty much out of it at this point. He was still responding to pain and when I whispered in his ear that I loved him he reached up and grabbed my hand and when I said it again he squeezed my hand, so I know he was hearing was still somewhat alert. I wrote my blog and then went to sleep. Around 2am I woke up and decided to turn the heat down because the room had gotten a little warm and noticed Ben's right arm was laying next time him and was straight. Usually it is bent and on his belly. I went to go place it back on his belly thinking it had just slipped off and noticed that his arm was stiff and wouldn't move. I immediately called the nurse in and when she came his arm was fine and she moved it. She mentioned though that she was concerned that he might be having seizures and asked me to watch him and see if it was just his arms tensing up or if it was his legs also. She also hooked up the suction so she could suction out his mouth since he wasn't really swallowing all that well. After watching Ben for a while I noticed that it was his entire body that every once in awhile would tense up. The nurse said that he was having seizures and so they took his vital signs and realized that his temperature was also elevated. They called the on call doc to come and then about 5 nurses came in to monitor Ben along with a nurse from ICU. Over the next two hours Ben got progressively worse and continued to have seizures every couple of minutes. Finally the doctor came around 4am and examined him and let me know that he was moving him to ICU. He said that Ben had some sort of infection which was causing the elevated temperature and that the swelling in his brain was causing the seizures. Around 5am we headed down to ICU where they began to work at stabilizing Ben. I waited in a family consultation room which consisted of a small couch and couple of chairs. I had called Terry and Marla around 4am and they were on their way to the hospital. I tried to get some rest while waiting but wasn't too successful. Around 6:30 Dr. Armistead (another on call doc) came to let me know that Ben was finally stabilized. He said that they had intubated and sedated him and he essentially was in a coma for now. He also said they put in an arterial IV so that they could take blood easily and also keep track of his blood pressure without having to use a cuff. He said that later in the day Dr. Groves would come by to speak with us about a plan and that they also were ordering and EEG to make sure that Ben wasn't still having seizures. Ben's parents arrived around 6:45 and they went up to the waiting room to wait for visiting hours to begin at 8am while I waited with Raider in the Fountain area. I finally got into see Ben around 10:30am. It was hard to see him hooked up to all the monitors with a tube in his mouth but way easier than what I had seen during the night. At least he was peaceful. Dr. Groves came to see us and let us know that what was going on. I guess there was a cyst inside the brain that had begun to swell and absorb fluid. This was occuring because the radiation treatments were killing the tumor cells and the cyst was absorbing them and creating pressure and more fluid pushing on Ben's brain increasing his weakness and speech issues. He said that there are three ways to treat this type of problem. One being steriods which Ben has been on second sedating him so that he does not continue to have seizures and the third is to give him a medicine that will help to absorb the liquids in his body. This third treatment will help to shrink the cyst by drying it out. Dr. Groves said we won't know if this is working for a couple of days. If this treatment works than he says that they will let him recover and put him back on his radiation and chemo treatments. If the medicine does not work than we will have to stop all treatments. If this is the case Ben will only have a short time left with all of us. We are praying that the medicine works and helps dry out the cyst. Please please pray for Ben and for all of us that we have the strength to face whatever may come our way. I haven't always known what exactly to say in my prayers lately so I have just been saying the Lord's prayer over and over again. If you don't know what to pray please at least just pray the Lord's prayer.

Our Father who art in Heaven
Hallowed be Thy Name
Thy Kingdom Come
Thy Will Be Done
On Earth as it is in Heaven
Give us This Day Our Daily Bread
And Forgive Us Our Trespasses
As We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us
Lead Us Not Into Temptation
But Deliver Us From Evil
For Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power and the Glory
Forever and Ever
Amen