Nicabenhams

Eddie is finishing his last dose of IV antibiotics while relaxing in his chair having..wait for it....part of a milkshake!! He is so happy that it is not jello! He has a follow up with the Infectious Disease doctor in two weeks and she will look at his lab work and if everything still looks good, he can stay off of the antibiotics. He has a follow up appt with the surgeon next week. He still has the drain, but it is slowing way down, so maybe he can get that out in the next couple of weeks. He is still on IV nutrition for a few more weeks, but we are hoping he will be able to advance more in a couple of weeks. He is walking two miles a day and is able to drive short distances. We are slowly but surely getting superman back. He is not quite ready for the cape, but he is making progress.
We appreciate everyone that has checked in on us. We would appreciate your continued prayers for his healing.
Love y'all big!

Good morning Nicabenhams family!! We pray that you are all doing well and staying as cool as possible in this summer heat! I have decided there is NO way this is the same heat we used to run around in when we were kids. It just can't be!!
Anyway, I wanted to pop on and give a quick update on my dude! He is doing so much better. We had a little scare a couple of weeks ago. We woke up one morning and his drain was full after not having any drainage at all for almost 2 weeks. But the NP at the surgeon's office was not super concerned and assured us that this was not a step back, it was more like a little shimmy. She said he could stay on the clear liquids for now and we would just take things slow. Jump forward to now, and he is doing really well on the liquids and we are hoping he can advance to something a little more substantial this next week when he has his next follow up appointments. We are also hoping to start weaning down the IV nutrition, but we will see. One more week of IV antibiotics and then we will be done with that!!! Praise the LORD for that. He continues to walk everyday and has increased to about 2 miles a day. He is allowed to drive short distances and feels good enough to venture out to his favorite coffee shop in the mornings. So all in all, he is progressing great. God has been so good and so faithful through all of this. We thank each of you for your continued prayers and for the calls and texts. It means more than you will ever know. I don't know how people make it through things like this without faith in Jesus and faithful friends/prayer warriors.
Love you big!

He trusted my driving...or he was just flat wore out from being in the hospital for basically 2 weeks. 😁
Either way, we are home!!!
While he is weak and still very tired, he does feel better. He will be on IV nutrition and IV antibiotics for at least 2 weeks. He cannot have anything to eat or drink during those 2 weeks. The surgeon is wanting to let his stomach rest and let the leak heal before introducing anything back into his stomach. He is tolerating it like the hard core dude he is.
We ask that you continue to pray for his healing and for continued guidance and wisdom on the part of his medical team. We have one of the best surgeons in the country and we trust him completely, but even the best need guidance from the LORD.
Eddie and I both want to thank everyone that has been praying and reaching out to us just to check in. We appreciate each of you more than you can know. Knowing that we have such an amazing support system has made this journey a little bit easier to navigate.
We love you big!

Well this is not the follow up post we wanted to be making. Eddie got to go home on Wednesday last week. Friday, he began to be nauseated and was not able to drink much at all. That continued into Saturday and got worse on Sunday. We contacted the surgical team and we took him to the ER and they did some lab work and a CT of his abdomen. He has developed a leak around the surgical site and he has some fluid build up in his abdomen. The surgical team wanted back in Richardson, so we were transferred back here last night. He has had a PICC line put in and will be started on some IV nutrition here and then will go home with that as well. He will not be able to eat or drink anything for a little bit until the all of the work done around his stomach has more time to heal. Sometime today they will insert a drain tube to drain of that fluid out of his abdomen. We don't know how long we will be here as of right now.
Please pray for healing for him and guidance for his care team as they navigate this process, and for me as we walk through all of this.

As always, please keep the Rama people in your prayers. Pray that their outreach ministry to other Rama villages. We are so excited that they are reaching other villages and taking the Gospel to them. God is doing big things and we are so excited to still get to be a part of that.

We love you big!

Well he is on the move! His surgery was one week ago today and he is doing so much better! He was able to get the tube out of his nose yesterday and start taking clear liquids. This morning, the doc advanced him to a full liquid diet. He had a cup of terrible coffee and enjoyed every sip. (insert eye roll here)
They removed one of his drains this morning and will remove the other one tomorrow, the IV pain meds, and IV fluids are also gone. That makes it so much easier to move around. He has made 4 laps around the unit so far today. The goal is to do at least 2 more.
If everything goes well today and his lab works looks good in the morning, the plan is remove the last drain and go home.
There are a lot of changes to come in the recovery period and beyond, but we serve a big and faithful God and we know that He will be walking with us through each step of this process.
Thank you all for you love, support and prayers and thank you so much to everyone that has called , visited us here in the hospital and texted to check in on us! And a very special thank you to those who are taking care of things at home.
We love each of you so very much!! Keep praying that all goes well and we kick this place to the curb tomorrow! 😁

Good morning!
Quick update on Eddie. We are on post-op day 3 and he is doing pretty good overall. He was started some IV medications to help keep his heart rate down and it is working wonderfully. He is still on the IV pain pump and still on oxygen for now, but nothing we didn't expect. He walked a couple of times yesterday and then he rested really good the rest of the day and last night. So praise God for that! He got up and took a nice big walk this morning and he is sleeping comfortably in his chair right now. The goal is at least 2 more big walks today. They are being very conservative with him as far as eating and drinking, so it will be Monday before he can drink anything just to make sure all that work the surgeon did has time to start healing well. However, that means we will be here in the hospital a little longer than we had anticipated. But we know that is what is best for him and that is what we want. We are praying this is the fix and this will be the last surgery/hospital stay.
Thank you for all the prayers and for reaching out and checking in, we truly appreciate each and every one of you so much!
Love you big!

Hey Nicabenhams family! I wanted to jump on here and give you a quick update on Eddie. He had a pretty big abdominal surgery yesterday. The doc ended up bypassing the part of his stomach that has not been working and doing a hiatal hernia repair as well as an abdominal hernia repair. The surgeon said it was a very tedious surgery because there was so much scar tissue from the previous surgeries. This morning is awake and alert and not in too much pain. He has a few different IVs running and they are checking his blood sugar every hour right now. He will not be able to eat or drink anything for a few days. Today that is not too much of an issue, but I suspect that in the next couple of days that will be a big hurdle for him. He will probably be in the hospital for 5-6 days.
Thank you to everyone that has reached out and for all of the prayers. Please keep them coming. Modern medicine is a wonderful thing, but it cannot hold a candle to the power of God that is unleashed with prayer.
Please continue to be in prayer for the Rama people, the work that is ongoing in the village, their walk with the LORD, their ministry to other Rama villages and for Ruth and Carlos as they continue to work along side the Rama.
We love you and appreciate your prayers!

Hey Nicabenhams family! It has been a while since I posted an update so I just wanted to share what has been happening stateside and in Nicaragua. I, (Dawn) was able to go to Nic in April with the team from Canada and it was such a good trip. Betty so graciously agreed to go down and be my morale support for the job at hand for me and I am so grateful. I went to pack up some of our things to bring back to the states and I have to admit, Eddie and I are still not 100% sure how we feel about that. It was much harder emotionally than I expected it to be, but I got it done. I was able to spend some time with Ruth and several of the ladies in the village and I am so grateful for that. It was a sweet time that I will forever treasure.
There was also some brick laying and well drilling going on. Darren and Larry did an awesome job getting a well dug. It was a hard fought week, but they got it done. The last day, our people showed what teamwork and community is all about. The guys that were working on David's house abandoned their work there to go up and help finish the well. There is a lot more to that story that I do not have room to tell here, but it was an impressive day! God is doing so many amazing things in our village!
When I wasn't packing or trying not to "croak" from heat exhaustion, I was able to help with the house construction a little bit. I learned how to mix mortar and how to clean joints between blocks, although I have to admit, I was not very good at it, but it was cool to learn something new. Betty however, became a pro!
It was a time of work, fun and beautiful fellowship and I am so grateful that I got to experience it with this team!
Now for what is happening stateside. Eddie had a follow-up appointment with his surgeon last week and he will be having surgery on June 25th. He said that at this point, we really don't have any other choice. He will be having a gastric bypass in order to bypass the part of the stomach that is not working correctly and then he will also be having a double hernia repair. In the midst of all the issues with his stomach, he has a new hernia that has popped up and the an old one that has reappeared. He will be in the hospital for about 5 days.
We ask that you continue to pray for all the things going on in Fuente de Agua Viva, the Rama and their continued health and their ministry to other Rama villages and for Eddie and I as we navigate this next chapter. We love and appreciate you all so very much!

As you spend time with family today enjoying the festivities of the day, don’t forget that it isn’t about the bunny or the eggs. It has always been about the greatest day in the history of mankind. It is about the day our Savior defeated death and the grave so we could have life and an eternity spent with Him!