October 23: Evaluation

Today is going to be a tough day for Jeff.

Last night he convinced the nurse to let him get up and use the actual bathroom, rather than the bedside commode. When he was done, he did not call the nurse to help him. He went to stand up and used the door handle for support. The handle turned and the door opened and Jeff fell. He unfortunately landed on his arm that has the worst damage so he is very very sore today. They did take xrays and he did not break anything but he is very sore and feels a bit defeated.

Additionally, his synthetic grafts are infected so they have to remove them. They will not re-do this surgery--his skin in those areas will just have to heal on its own. He did make it through a few days without the infection so that helped him heal a little but they won't have done as much good as they could have if they stayed on the whole week.

He's scheduled this morning for a "Grand Round" wherein the entire team of burn doctors will evaluate him simultaneously. They'll undress all of his wounds and look at everything to gauge his progress. That's bound to be uncomfortable and distressing for Jeff but hopefully, will give us some more insight in to his progress.

He's anxious about his upcoming surgery. He also had some sort of nightmare while he was sedated last week and he's convinced that what he dreamt actually happened to him and he's terrified that it will happen again when they take him for surgery. We've tried to reassure him, but he needs special peace to calm his spirit and worries. The surgery is theoretically still a few days away but I'm not sure if that will give him time to adjust to the idea or just give him more time to stress about it.

While we're grateful for the reemergence of Jeff's personality and determination, we're concerned that his stubbornness, if unchecked, will be counterproductive, and he will push to do things too soon and harm himself like he did last night.

We'd appreciate your prayers that today goes as smoothly as possible for Jeff.