The reason why i'm doing this post is because so many of you have opened up your hearts and helped Benji from TLC and are wondering how he is doing. I'm just gonna post a couple posts that Thea (founder of TLC) has put up on her myfamily site.
Jan. 6, 2007
Tomorrow morning at 7am Benjamin will have another operation. A big one. The plastic surgery. They will be taking skin from the inside of his thighs and putting it on his face. (I think the forehead).
He seems a little stronger within himself. He LOVES his PCP ... PLC ... MAYBE PSP? Gosh, I forget, but the little game he has. Thank God he loves it so much, because it keeps him busy and seems to offer some kind of challenge which he loves. He can barely take the time to eat or take his medicines, or whatever ... because he has to put the thing down for a few moments! It was really a good thing to buy for him.
Yesterday the Plastic Surgeon to a lot of the bandages off in preparation for the operation. We all got a little shock. Especially Benjamin. When he looked into the screen of his gadget he suddenly let out a yell. He could see his reflection there and it really spooked him! Ugh! My poor litte lamb!
Anyway, please pray for him that all goes well tomorrow morning. I am expecting a miracle from God. I know He can do it. I have full confidence in Him. Not arrogantly. I just know he can do it. Did you know that I died in a car accident exactly 20 years at almost the same time that Benjamin ended up in hospital? So, I believe in miracles. I am a walking miracle myself. I will tell you the story sometime when I have time. It's the reason I started this ministry ... the reason for a lot of things. :~)
Aaah well. Now I need to go to bed. I am going to put a couple of pictures of Benjamin up that I took this morning. Don't look at them if you are squeemish. They are not very nice. But they will inspire some of you to really pray.
God bless you all.
THEA
Jan. 3, 2008
Hello dear friends,It does seem that somebody fiddled with access onto this website ... I guess I will hear about it when my life settles down and I can have a normal conversation again. All I can say is my Myfamily page doesn't look anything like it ... hence the "test" I gather! :~)
Things are not getting much better for my boy. But I guess they are, really. To look on the bright side, he came out of theatre yesterday with those stapled things off his chest and arms. But that was the only good thing.
I had ushered him right into the theatre. He was so very, very scared after the last experience. I promised him that this time would be different. That last time they did not give him an anaesthetic but that THIS time they would and that the pain might still be there but it would be very little compared to before. Eventually he, very reluctantly, allowed them to push him through into the theatre and out of my sight, still waving a very nervous wave as he disappeared.
I had promised that I would wait at his bedside in the ward. Which I did. After 2 1/2 hours I could hear his screaming coming up the passage to the ward. When he saw me he went completely crazy. It was so, so awful and traumatic. He was literally climbing up the walls in agony. Even some of the nurses started crying. I was begging all of them, all around me to give him something that would knock him out. But ... they had to ask permission first. After what seemed like an eternity, they came back and said the doctor said he had already had a full quota of morphine and that he couldn't understand that he was still so strong. Can you just imagine how bad that pain was.
Then I got hold of the doctor myself as he came out of theatre and begged him to give him something else. Then the sisters came him a strong dose of valaron. AFter about 2 minutes he fell into a kind of stupor, shuddering and shaking. Oh God! This is the hardest thing I ever had to do!
Pippa took over from me later on in the evening. He came round at about 10ish and ate a little bit of food. But then puked it all up as she was getting ready to leave and that made his head ache all over again.
It seems that the forehead is the worst part and the doctor said that this part was going to be badly scarred. I kept thinking about it all night. I can't bear it ... my beautiful, special, big-eyed, handsome Benny ... so scarred. It's just beyond belief. I thought about it all night long. Trying hard to sleep ... yet wondering just how bad it was going to be?
When I got to the hospital early this morning he was not himself. You could really sense the aftermath of the shock. He was a little bit dead inside. I know it was very extravagant but I sent Pippa out to buy him a PSP because that is what he wanted. I had know idea what it was. Poor Pippa searched the length and breadth of Johannesburg to find one because they were all sold out after Christmas. Praise the Lord! At about 4 pm she walked in with one. A BEAUTIFUL ONE. A RED ONE! According to Benny you NEVER get RED ones! So, he was a little happier and it kept him busy from 4 pm until I left him with Pippa and came home.
But a wonderful thing DID happen today. First of all the doctor came to the Ward at lunch time. He told me that he was going to have to take skin from the inside of Benny's thighs so that he could graft it onto his forehead. He said he wanted to do this on Saturday morning. My anxiety levels shot up again.
Rhys came to sit with Benny for a couple of hours and I came home just to check on things and as I sat sipping a wonderful cup of tea, I started thinking about the fact that this doctor is a "trauma surgeon". Last night before I left home the two Karate Senei's came to visit Benny. The one, Sensei Clinton, is actually finishing his studies as a plastic surgeon. He mentioned casually that I should try to get a plastic surgeon to do the skin grafting, and not the traumas surgeon. I was just reflecting on that when suddenly I got a deep sense of urgency about this.
Brendon has been to a very good Plastic Surgeon highly recommended to me by the Professor of Plastic Surgery at the Pretoria Government Hospital who did all Brendon's initial surgery on his cleft palate. This man retired and he recommended that I go to Dr. Blok. I called him up after deliberating for a little while. He agreed that it is much better to get a specialist to do this operation because they have more training and experience in this field. I really begged him to take my little Benjamin and finally he agreed.
THEN I HAD TO GO AND SPEAK TO THE OTHER DOCTOR!!!!! UGH! Well, I plucked up all my courage and went to see him. Would you know, that man was SO GRACIOUS! He got tears in his eyes, took both my hands in his and said ... "Well OF COURSE my dear! You MUST do the very best for your little son. And I agree with you, Dr. Blok is the very best person to do this for you. I will very happily make all the arrangements for Benjamin to be transferred to the Union Hospital in Alberton tomorrow and if there is anything more you need from me ... just ASK!"
Oh my goodness! I am so so so VERY happy to have settled that. And I just know that the money is going to cover it all. I cannot bear my little Benjamin going into his life with his face all mutilated. THIS IS THE TIME to fix it ... not later.
I AM CRYING MY HEART OUT RIGHT NOW, do you know why? BECAUSE YOU HAVE MADE ALL THIS POSSIBLE. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! What would I ever have done without you lot????? What would my little Benny of done? God is SO good to have given you to me. God bless you all ... a million, billion, trillion times over! My dear friends, I will TRY to be a better person from now on. At least I will try and shape up to all your expectations of me. I am really not as grand as you all think. Only God and I really know what a simple creature I actually am. But I DO love my kids. I DO love my babies. And I DO love all of you. In THAT I DO think God has made a grand arrangement between us, somehow.
I am really exhausted now. I am going to take two Syndols again. Forgive me :~( It's the only way to get some sleep.
All my love to you all ... forever and ever.
THEA
So there's a wee bit of news for you.
Till next time..
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