Ben’s Story

Site created on October 27, 2021

As people have jumped into this journey with us at different times, let me give the back story. Ben started experiencing some occasional dizziness back in mid September. Towards the end of September, he developed left sided parotitis. So our primary care doctor put him on an antibiotic saying that it should get better in two weeks. Two and a half weeks later (or so) when it wasn’t better, he referred us to an ENT. The ENT put Ben on a stronger antibiotic. This antibiotic made him pretty nauseated and he didn’t have much of an appetite. It also didn’t help the parotitis. About 5 days later, he developed right sided Bells Palsy. He went back into the ENT who said, “That is really weird and a just a coincidence. That’s just bad luck.” The standard treatment for Bells Palsy is high dose steroids and an antiviral. He was able to stop taking the strong antibiotic at this time. But over the course of the end of the week and over the weekend, Ben’s health continued to decline. He was weak, had nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, multiple longer-lasting nose bleeds, and a general fogginess. The doctor on call over the weekend had said that we could stop the antiviral and gave me a few over the counter meds to try to help with the nausea. By Monday morning, he was in pretty bad shape. So I called the office again after taking the kids to school and they told me to take Ben to the ER. We thought he just really needed some fluids for the dehydration. But after some lab work (which had to be done several times since his labs were so crazy out of whack!) the ER doctor told us that Ben was really sick, that he needed immediate dialysis, and that he was getting admitted to the hospital…..

Newest Update

Journal entry by Sarah Grove

The Memorial Service for Ben is being held:

Saturday, January 14, 2023, 2pm at
310 Kalberer Rd.
West Lafayette, IN 47906

A visitation is being held beforehand from 12:00-1:30. The service will be live-streamed as well as recorded and found on the church’s website: yourcalvary.info


In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to be utilized for their children’s future education needs. 



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