Part 3
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| Grandma holding him in the burn unit. |
My parents dropped everything and they came down that night. Our friends put us on the prayer list and one of our Pastor's came down that evening and prayed with us. Our church put us on the meal list and ladies we didn't even know started to make meals for my family. My daycare lady came down to see him and she brought her kids. In fact, she came twice while we were in the hospital. My husband's best friend and his family came to visit and our old friends who were at the coffee shop came by. We told them that the cold water prevented the burns from becoming 3rd degree and that his burns were reduced by 20 percent. Our RN friend cried, but in joy. She was the perfect person to be with us at the time of the accident. God had her with us for this reason. Later I wrote her a letter thanking her for her help and for being a good friend to us.
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| My daycare lady with her children. |
I got into a routine with my son while in the hospital. Morphine and other pain medications every 2-4 hours. Nurse rotations and shift changes. Various doctors rounds from OT and PT specialist to Pediatric rounds. Nursing sessions. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner brought to me. I wasn't allowed to use the bathroom in his room to prevent the spread of bacteria. You see, a burn is basically an open wound and since your skin is gone, anything can get into your body and cause an infection. Every time I had to use the bathroom I had to walk down several hallways to the closest public bathroom. It would take me about 10-15 minutes to just use the bathroom. If I wanted to take a shower I had to go to the pediatrics unit and see if a family room was available. This was on the other side of the hospital and several floors away. Lets just say that wearing makeup went out the window and I was basically just brushing my teeth and washing my face. When I did shower I would rest my head on the side of the stall and weep as the water cascaded over me. I would cry until I couldn't cry any more. I remember crying so hard that I would hiccup for an hour afterward. It was exhausting, but I had to get it out and I didn't want to lash out at my husband again. Most of my prayers were incoherent, more like begging sessions. I only left the hospital once during our whole stay and it was my mother who made me go home and take a shower, wash my face, and get some clean clothes.
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| My hubby's best friend and family. |
The worse part of my routine was the daily wound care and bandage changes. Thirty minutes before his bandages would be changed he would get a dose of Morphine. The nurses would then fill up this tank with warm water and wash him from head to toe in the tank. The nurses and doctors would then assess his burns and determine what kind of treatment he would need. Then he would be bandaged up again. This entire process would take anywhere from 20-30 minutes. Longer if the doctor was called away and my son would scream the entire time. I got physically ill the first time this happened. I just couldn't be in the room with him and look at his chest. My husband got this job and even he past out once during this process. If you have never had or seen severe burns you are blessed! This process didn't just happen in the hospital, but the 60 days after getting out of the hospital we went through this process with daily appointments in the burn clinic.
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| Hubby holding him. |
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| Perked up and playing. |
My question every time I saw the doctor was "will he need skin grafts?". The answer was always the same. Don't know yet, we need to wait and see. Well my son never needed skin grafts which is another blessing. Skin grafts on an infant means that his hair would of been shaved off and the skin on his head would of been used to replace the skin on his chest. This procedure would happen until enough skin has been harvested from his head to cover his chest, which would of meet several weeks if not months more in the hospital because you can only harvest so much skin at a time. His head would have to heal to harvest more skin. Skin grafts are used when your burned so badly that skin won't grow back. So, you need to transplant new skin to close the open wound.
Dear Father, please heal my son. Please close the open wound on his chest and allow that skin to grow back. God is so good, He answered this prayer!
They moved us on day four to a bigger room down the hallway. It was quieter and more private. On day six my son really started to perk up. He slept less and started to want to play more. His "cage" as I liked to call his crib became a place he didn't want to be and we had to get creative about letting him out. We had a small sofa in our room that we took the cushions off and turned it against the wall. Basically we made a play pin for him. The nurses had a wagon and he was rolled around the unit so he could look at people and suck on his pacifier. On day seven Dr. Peltier announced that he was well enough to go home the next day and that in his opinion he wouldn't need skin grafts. Thank you Lord! On day eight it took forever for us to be discharged. The night before there had been a house fire and two firefighters were burned. As I was watching the news I could hear a lot of noise in the hallway and looked out to see several firefighters that were just on the news in the hallway. It was a little surreal when I saw the hysterical wife of one of the firefighters. I thought, that was me just a few days ago. The firefighters recovered from their burns just like my son did.
After we were discharged we spent the rest of the summer caring for our son. We didn't go to any weddings that weren't within driving distance of our home. We didn't go to the bible conference my husband's family attends every year. If you wanted to see us you had to come to us because he had daily bandage and wound care appointments for about two months. The wound didn't completely close up until about one week before school started for the hubby and I. That was another blessing. We as teachers had the summer off and we only had to take two days off from work total!
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| Spring 2012 healed and healthy. |
So, here I am two years later thinking how much my life has changed and stayed the same. My beautiful son is a healthy, active, won't use the potty toddler now. I try not to take my family and love ones for granted. I try to be kinder to strangers now because there is way too much pain in this world and you never know what that person is going through. Blessings are everywhere! Forgive quicker and anger slower. God isn't Superman, he usually doesn't swoop down and save the day. God gives you exactly what you need to endure and get through. When you come out on the other side broken and humbled that is a blessing! Let go and let God control your path. I hope my story inspires you to always look for the blessings in your life especially when you are going through a hard trial. Until next time...
Blessings!
Now check out the new backyard! We have already grilled and I added a raised vegetable garden with tomatoes, banana peppers, lettuce, and onions. We also redid the front steps. Don't mind my hose in the shots and wood chips everywhere. Overall we are very pleased with the results. We hired professionals to do the concrete, but everything else we did on our own. Let me tell you that moving dirt and 5 cubic yards of mulch is extremely exhausting, but well worth the effort. Don't mind the bare yard, we're growing our lawn from seed to keep the project on budget. Until next time...
