Tuesday, October 30, 2007
October 30: Evaluation Tomorrow
Jeff is scheduled for an evaluation tomorrow wherein the doctors will undress his wounds to determine whether or not the grafts are melding with his own skin. A discovery during surgery gave them a little bit of concern. When they removed the pigskin from his leg during the surgery, they found that there was little to no improvement, indicating that the skin was not as receptive as the rest of his burns had been. So there is some potential that this same area will also not have been receptive to the skin grafts. Please pray that the doctors find good news tomorrow when they unbind him. Also, as I mentioned before, when his donor site comes in contact with the air, he is likely to be in even more pain than he is now, so please also pray for comfort for him tomorrow as they introduce this change.
October 30: Post Surgery Update
Jeff came through surgery just fine. He's on bed rest for at least 3 days to allow his grafts to heal so that's been really frustrating for him. He was in quite a lot of pain yesterday. Today is a little more bearable but the doctors said that tomorrow or the next day, whenever they remove his bandages and expose the donor site to air, will be his most painful day. They're trying to keep him as comfortable as possible, but that's difficult because he has the donor site on one side and a splint on the other side and burns on his back so he can lie on his back or on either side without significant discomfort. Please pray that he gets some rest and relief from the pain.
Monday, October 29, 2007
October 29: Surgery Update
Jeff is already out of surgery! They took him really early this morning and he was done by 9:15. He should be out of recovery within the next hour and then we'll get to see him.
The surgery went as expected. They grafted exactly the areas they thought they'd have to--no more and no less. They took all of the skin from one donor site on his thigh. The doctors said that the donor site actually what will give him the most discomfort in the coming day. It kills us that they had to create a new wound for him to get better but in the grand scheme of things, it's a small price to pay so we try to keep that perspective.
His right arm is entirely unbound. He just has a little "Michael Jackson" glove over his hand but his fingers and the entire arm are free, meaning that the wounds have healed enough to be in contact with the air. They're still working with a splint on his left arm and that arm had a little grafting done this morning so the challenge will be how to move his muscles enough so they don't atrophy without moving them so much as to tear the grafts. I guess one thing they were going to do while he was "out" this morning under the anesthesia was take advantage of his state and manipulate all of his joints and muscles beyond where they'd been able to while he was conscious due to the discomfort it caused him. So that should be helpful from the Physical Therapy recovery.
Jeff's biggest challenge this week will be taking it slow. If he's too aggressive, he could tear his grafts or not give them a chance to ever meld in the first place. But I know it's going to be frustrating for him to not be able to be as active as he was in the most recent days. They haven't told us if they're going to rely on him to stay still and rested or if they're going to sedate him, or some combination of the two. I'll keep you posted in that regard.
Thank you all for your prayers. We're so grateful that the surgery is over and that it happened early enough that he can be through the emotional stress and on the other side on his way to recovery. I'm off to the hospital now...
The surgery went as expected. They grafted exactly the areas they thought they'd have to--no more and no less. They took all of the skin from one donor site on his thigh. The doctors said that the donor site actually what will give him the most discomfort in the coming day. It kills us that they had to create a new wound for him to get better but in the grand scheme of things, it's a small price to pay so we try to keep that perspective.
His right arm is entirely unbound. He just has a little "Michael Jackson" glove over his hand but his fingers and the entire arm are free, meaning that the wounds have healed enough to be in contact with the air. They're still working with a splint on his left arm and that arm had a little grafting done this morning so the challenge will be how to move his muscles enough so they don't atrophy without moving them so much as to tear the grafts. I guess one thing they were going to do while he was "out" this morning under the anesthesia was take advantage of his state and manipulate all of his joints and muscles beyond where they'd been able to while he was conscious due to the discomfort it caused him. So that should be helpful from the Physical Therapy recovery.
Jeff's biggest challenge this week will be taking it slow. If he's too aggressive, he could tear his grafts or not give them a chance to ever meld in the first place. But I know it's going to be frustrating for him to not be able to be as active as he was in the most recent days. They haven't told us if they're going to rely on him to stay still and rested or if they're going to sedate him, or some combination of the two. I'll keep you posted in that regard.
Thank you all for your prayers. We're so grateful that the surgery is over and that it happened early enough that he can be through the emotional stress and on the other side on his way to recovery. I'm off to the hospital now...
October 28: Surgery Tomorrow
Just a quick update tonight because I'm pretty sick and don't feel up to writing much.
Jeff was largely the same today with no major changes. They decided to forgo trying again to put the port in his arm and just put a new central line in his chest instead. I didn't get to see him today (I can't risk getting him sick) but from what I gather, that was the only major change.
His surgery is scheduled for 9:00 am tomorrow. He is very nervous. The nurse gave him something to calm his nerves but I don't know how much rest he will get tonight. Please cover him in prayers for peace and comfort. We've all tried to assuage his nerves but I think he won't be calmed down until he is out of surgery. Please also pray that they take him right away in the morning and don't postpone it, belaboring his discomfort and worry.
Thank you!
Jeff was largely the same today with no major changes. They decided to forgo trying again to put the port in his arm and just put a new central line in his chest instead. I didn't get to see him today (I can't risk getting him sick) but from what I gather, that was the only major change.
His surgery is scheduled for 9:00 am tomorrow. He is very nervous. The nurse gave him something to calm his nerves but I don't know how much rest he will get tonight. Please cover him in prayers for peace and comfort. We've all tried to assuage his nerves but I think he won't be calmed down until he is out of surgery. Please also pray that they take him right away in the morning and don't postpone it, belaboring his discomfort and worry.
Thank you!
Saturday, October 27, 2007
October 27: Physical Therapy
There were no significant changes yesterday. The biggest news is that they're really trying to push Jeff in the way of physical therapy. They've installed a trapeze over his bed for stretching (he has to reach up and grab/push this metal triangle on a sliding bar) and they've got him using an exercise band. One particularly uncomfortable change was that they had to splint Jeff's arm because he'd been cradling it in one position. Pulling it back in to place was painful and difficult and he's been significantly more uncomfortable since. They also tried to install a different kind of port in his arm and after a lot of prodding, poking and digging they still couldn't get it positioned right so they abandoned efforts for the night. But the port in his chest needs to be replaced because the old one has been in there too long and is getting infected. But replacing this port with another like it is not a good option because they only last a couple days and we'd hate for him to have to endure the replacement procedure that often. The port in the arm would be able to last 2 weeks if they can get it in. Whatever they decide, would you pray it goes smoothly for him with as little discomfort as possible?
Everything else is going fine. His wounds continue to heal at a remarkable rate, and he gets more active every day. Yesterday he was moved to a room with a roommate who was significantly more badly burned than Jeff and who is healing very well (and is much farther along in the progress) so I'm hoping that seeing his progress will encourage Jeff. Plus I think both guys will appreciate the company in the off hours when visitors are not allowed.
Thank you for your prayers! I apologize for the short update!
Everything else is going fine. His wounds continue to heal at a remarkable rate, and he gets more active every day. Yesterday he was moved to a room with a roommate who was significantly more badly burned than Jeff and who is healing very well (and is much farther along in the progress) so I'm hoping that seeing his progress will encourage Jeff. Plus I think both guys will appreciate the company in the off hours when visitors are not allowed.
Thank you for your prayers! I apologize for the short update!
Thursday, October 25, 2007
October 25: Great Day Today
Today started out shakey for Jeff but it turned out to be a great day, as far as I could tell.
It started off rocky because Jeff is really having a hard time sleeping. A huge factor is the pain but another big part of it was that until today, he was in a unit where he was literally the only conscious patient so it was a pretty noisy unit, with activity and machines that kept him awake at all hours. Jeff has always needed a lot of sleep, even when 100% healthy, so the fatigue is heightening a lot of his other senses, including the pain and restlessness. Though today he did get moved to another unit, (one for patients who require less care--hooray that he even qualified for that!), his injuries still make it hard for him to get comfortable because there's not a "side" that doesn't have some injury and he's therefore always laying or sitting on something. So would you pray that his rest is multiplied?
But the great news is that he is now off his telemetry machine. The telemetry machine monitored his blood pressure, temperature, heart rate, and oxygen saturation and they've determined that all of those things are stable enough as to not need monitoring. Now he's just connected to some IVs for his pain medication. That's such a change from when he was first admitted where he had tubes and/or wires in his eyes, nose, mouth, throat, arms, chest and toe! God has been so merciful and powerful in the healing he has brought Jeff's body in such a short amount of time.
And because he's now just connected to some IVs, he was able to be mobile. He was able to come out to the waiting room tonight and play games with us--something that we thought we wouldn't get to do for a long time. It was also encouraging for him to get to see us all at the same time-something we'd only previously done once when a nurse sneaked us in. Visiting rules permit only 2 people in a room at once and that was really upsetting him. So tonight we were all able to be together at once--restoring a little bit more normalcy. We also got to take him outside to the "healing garden" and the doctor said we could bring up his dog to see him, so I did and they (Batman and Jeff) loved that! I think it really boosted both of their spirits to know that the other one was really ok. You can really see Jeff's mushy side come out around Batman! :) (OK, I'll stop because one day he'll read this and I don't want him to kill me...but it's really cute!)
I guess the combination of those factors cheered him up so much that right before we left, he wanted to walk again. He walked a long way! I would guess that he walked more than 1/8th of a mile tonight! He also got himself in and out of the bathroom a couple times (TMI but worth mentioning because it was just a couple of days ago that the same attempt caused a fall!) and then in to bed! He made such awesome progress today! He's also had a great night nurse the last couple nights who has been as enthusiastic about his psychological healing as she is about his physical healing so she's allowed us to spend extra time with him.
I know Jeff is really worried about Monday's surgery and he talks about it with increasing frequency as the day approaches. The few surgeries he's ever had in his life have always been when he was already unconscious, so I'm sure part of the anxiety is that this is the first surgery he's ever known about ahead of time, but he's also afraid of the recovery pain, and as I mentioned before, of this experience that he's convinced he had and is worried he'll have again. Please pray that this weekend is especially restful for him and that peace will be granted to his spirit so that he can have no fear when he goes in for surgery on Monday?
Thank you also for your prayers for Todd and Becky after the accident. Both are a little sore but are largely unaffected. The biggest complication is that at the time of the accident, the officer asked Todd if he wanted a report and told Todd that if he (the officer) wrote a report, the other driver would have to be cited. Todd, in trying to be a nice guy, declined so that the woman would not have a citation on top of everything else. Now the woman is lying to her insurance agent, claiming the existence of an imaginary witness and that this witness and she herself will assert that Todd ran the red light. (The accident occurred when Todd proceeded straight through an intersection and a woman turned left in to him). Without the citation the case is much more he said, she said. Thankfully Todd was able to reach the responding officer today who said that while he cannot cite the other driver now, he will speak to the insurance company and confirm that the other woman was indeed at fault and that there were no witnesses. We're not really worried about the outcome--we're just weary of the extra headaches that have accompanied this. We'd appreciate your prayers that the officer's statement would assuage the adjustor's suspicions and that Todd could be free of having to deal with this any more. We'd also love your prayers for Todd and Becky's residual stiffness and soreness to go away.
Thanks everyone! Jeff asked tonight if he had any more messages since I brought them up a few days ago so I'll be bringing him a new CD tomorrow if anyone wants to leave new messages.
Have a great day!
It started off rocky because Jeff is really having a hard time sleeping. A huge factor is the pain but another big part of it was that until today, he was in a unit where he was literally the only conscious patient so it was a pretty noisy unit, with activity and machines that kept him awake at all hours. Jeff has always needed a lot of sleep, even when 100% healthy, so the fatigue is heightening a lot of his other senses, including the pain and restlessness. Though today he did get moved to another unit, (one for patients who require less care--hooray that he even qualified for that!), his injuries still make it hard for him to get comfortable because there's not a "side" that doesn't have some injury and he's therefore always laying or sitting on something. So would you pray that his rest is multiplied?
But the great news is that he is now off his telemetry machine. The telemetry machine monitored his blood pressure, temperature, heart rate, and oxygen saturation and they've determined that all of those things are stable enough as to not need monitoring. Now he's just connected to some IVs for his pain medication. That's such a change from when he was first admitted where he had tubes and/or wires in his eyes, nose, mouth, throat, arms, chest and toe! God has been so merciful and powerful in the healing he has brought Jeff's body in such a short amount of time.
And because he's now just connected to some IVs, he was able to be mobile. He was able to come out to the waiting room tonight and play games with us--something that we thought we wouldn't get to do for a long time. It was also encouraging for him to get to see us all at the same time-something we'd only previously done once when a nurse sneaked us in. Visiting rules permit only 2 people in a room at once and that was really upsetting him. So tonight we were all able to be together at once--restoring a little bit more normalcy. We also got to take him outside to the "healing garden" and the doctor said we could bring up his dog to see him, so I did and they (Batman and Jeff) loved that! I think it really boosted both of their spirits to know that the other one was really ok. You can really see Jeff's mushy side come out around Batman! :) (OK, I'll stop because one day he'll read this and I don't want him to kill me...but it's really cute!)
I guess the combination of those factors cheered him up so much that right before we left, he wanted to walk again. He walked a long way! I would guess that he walked more than 1/8th of a mile tonight! He also got himself in and out of the bathroom a couple times (TMI but worth mentioning because it was just a couple of days ago that the same attempt caused a fall!) and then in to bed! He made such awesome progress today! He's also had a great night nurse the last couple nights who has been as enthusiastic about his psychological healing as she is about his physical healing so she's allowed us to spend extra time with him.
I know Jeff is really worried about Monday's surgery and he talks about it with increasing frequency as the day approaches. The few surgeries he's ever had in his life have always been when he was already unconscious, so I'm sure part of the anxiety is that this is the first surgery he's ever known about ahead of time, but he's also afraid of the recovery pain, and as I mentioned before, of this experience that he's convinced he had and is worried he'll have again. Please pray that this weekend is especially restful for him and that peace will be granted to his spirit so that he can have no fear when he goes in for surgery on Monday?
Thank you also for your prayers for Todd and Becky after the accident. Both are a little sore but are largely unaffected. The biggest complication is that at the time of the accident, the officer asked Todd if he wanted a report and told Todd that if he (the officer) wrote a report, the other driver would have to be cited. Todd, in trying to be a nice guy, declined so that the woman would not have a citation on top of everything else. Now the woman is lying to her insurance agent, claiming the existence of an imaginary witness and that this witness and she herself will assert that Todd ran the red light. (The accident occurred when Todd proceeded straight through an intersection and a woman turned left in to him). Without the citation the case is much more he said, she said. Thankfully Todd was able to reach the responding officer today who said that while he cannot cite the other driver now, he will speak to the insurance company and confirm that the other woman was indeed at fault and that there were no witnesses. We're not really worried about the outcome--we're just weary of the extra headaches that have accompanied this. We'd appreciate your prayers that the officer's statement would assuage the adjustor's suspicions and that Todd could be free of having to deal with this any more. We'd also love your prayers for Todd and Becky's residual stiffness and soreness to go away.
Thanks everyone! Jeff asked tonight if he had any more messages since I brought them up a few days ago so I'll be bringing him a new CD tomorrow if anyone wants to leave new messages.
Have a great day!
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Occtober 24: Update
The last couple of days have been marked with both success and difficulty.
Yesterday turned out to not be as troublesome as we expected. The Grand Round went well. They opened up all of Jeff's bandages and surveyed his wounds and made several determinations. The first thing that they determined is that they will not remove his synthetic grafts. They cut holes in to the layers of the grafts to allow the infection to drain out but they determined that that will be sufficient treatment so as to allow the grafts to remain in place so that they can continue to help his wounds heal.
They also determined that his back is looking very good and will not need surgery.
They have scheduled him for skin grafting surgery for the remaining upper arm, and legs on Monday, October 29. If all goes as planned, he could be released as soon as the following week. I can't even believe that we're even having discussions about a release date yet, even if they are preliminary.
Today was more difficult because he did not have a nurse who was qualified in burn care. I guess that's a mixed development because the great news is that he does not need a burn ICU nurse. The bad news is that because she was not a burn care specialist, her care was substantially less qualitatively, and she caused him a significant amount of trouble, pain and distress simply due to her own ignorance of his kind of needs. The charge nurse assured us that he will not be scheduled with her again. But as a result, he's really taxed today.
One piece of good news is that he walked today! He walked the other day from his bed to his door of his room but today he walked out of his room and down the hall a few doors, and back!
Tomorrow he may come off his telemetry machine, which would allow him to get out of his room in a wheelchair and in to the other parts of the hospital and courtyard. That would really lift his spirits because then he could visit with more than two people at a time (something he keeps asking for) and he could get a change of scenery which would help combat the sense of stir craziness that he is struggling with.
One special prayer request is for Jeff in the coming days as they're trying to wean him off of the pain medications. Obviously we want him to feel as little pain as possible, but one of his medications is narcotic so we don't want him to grow too dependent on it. Would you pray for wisdom for the nurses as they determine the balance between pushing him to a healthy point and when enough is enough and he's reached his real limit and just needs help. And would you pray for comfort for Jeff as he struggles to adjust to the increase pain sensitivity?
I want to extend a thank you on behalf of Jeff to everyone who has sent him cards and voicemails. They've been of such great encouragement to him and his wall grows more decorated every day, which helps comfort him especially when he is alone. I'm sure Jeff will thank you all when he is able but I wanted to let you know how appreciative he is.
Yesterday turned out to not be as troublesome as we expected. The Grand Round went well. They opened up all of Jeff's bandages and surveyed his wounds and made several determinations. The first thing that they determined is that they will not remove his synthetic grafts. They cut holes in to the layers of the grafts to allow the infection to drain out but they determined that that will be sufficient treatment so as to allow the grafts to remain in place so that they can continue to help his wounds heal.
They also determined that his back is looking very good and will not need surgery.
They have scheduled him for skin grafting surgery for the remaining upper arm, and legs on Monday, October 29. If all goes as planned, he could be released as soon as the following week. I can't even believe that we're even having discussions about a release date yet, even if they are preliminary.
Today was more difficult because he did not have a nurse who was qualified in burn care. I guess that's a mixed development because the great news is that he does not need a burn ICU nurse. The bad news is that because she was not a burn care specialist, her care was substantially less qualitatively, and she caused him a significant amount of trouble, pain and distress simply due to her own ignorance of his kind of needs. The charge nurse assured us that he will not be scheduled with her again. But as a result, he's really taxed today.
One piece of good news is that he walked today! He walked the other day from his bed to his door of his room but today he walked out of his room and down the hall a few doors, and back!
Tomorrow he may come off his telemetry machine, which would allow him to get out of his room in a wheelchair and in to the other parts of the hospital and courtyard. That would really lift his spirits because then he could visit with more than two people at a time (something he keeps asking for) and he could get a change of scenery which would help combat the sense of stir craziness that he is struggling with.
One special prayer request is for Jeff in the coming days as they're trying to wean him off of the pain medications. Obviously we want him to feel as little pain as possible, but one of his medications is narcotic so we don't want him to grow too dependent on it. Would you pray for wisdom for the nurses as they determine the balance between pushing him to a healthy point and when enough is enough and he's reached his real limit and just needs help. And would you pray for comfort for Jeff as he struggles to adjust to the increase pain sensitivity?
I want to extend a thank you on behalf of Jeff to everyone who has sent him cards and voicemails. They've been of such great encouragement to him and his wall grows more decorated every day, which helps comfort him especially when he is alone. I'm sure Jeff will thank you all when he is able but I wanted to let you know how appreciative he is.
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