Hello, Everyone!!
We finally made it home from Cincinnati. For those of you that don't know what has happened, Ricky (now 16 months) severely burned his hand Thursday night, October 5. While my back was turned, he reached to touch the flame under the pot of boiling potatoes. WHen he found it to be hot, he tried to pull his hand out, only he lifted his hand and got it "Stuck" between the pan and the flames.
We rushed to St Joe's emergency room (1/2 mile away) only to be handed a bag of ice and sent to chairs!!!. DH called out Pediatrician and I tried my best to calm the screaming boy, when we were finally lead to the back, where the nurse told us that ice was bad... after 20 minutes they finally gave him some pain meds, but only gave him MORTIN!! We were about to leave and drive ourselves to Children's Hospital (About a 10 minute drive) as per our doc, when they finally offered to call us an ambulance and administered morphine. They attempted to wrap his hand, but failed miserably and after 3 attempts I grabbed the stuff and did it myself. Paul took the girls (4 and 6) to my IL's and I rode in the ambulance with Ricky.
The Ambulance ride was uneventful, with Ricky finally stopping crying about 2 minutes from Children's. The ambulance dude even gave him a teddy bear! Paul arrived shortly before we did.
They were waiting for us at Children's but we still had to wait to see the surgeon. Ricky was feeling pretty good by this point, so we didn't mind the short wait. SHe took one quick look at hid hand and then rewrapped it to wait for 2 specialists to look at it, too. The 2 docs came in and basically said they were going to send up to Cincinnati's Shriner Burns Hospital. THey called them and we talked. Children's admitted us overnight and basically kept his comfortable. Less than 2 hours after arriving at Children's we had our flight information for the following morning, a direct flight at 6:30 AM.
My Parents arrived and so did some food (DH knows a few restaurant owners and since we didn't eat, we took advantage of their generous offer to send us some pasta and bread! The 4 of us ate while RIcky dozed a bit. We decided that My parents would drive me back to my house so I could trow a bag together for the trip. Our Trip co-ordinator told me to pack 4 days worth of clothing, jammies and toiletries, but there was a chance we would be back the same night! My little sister arrived just as we were about to leave so she sat with Paul.
I ran home, sent out a couple e-mails, packed my bag and was back out the door in about 20 minutes! I even grabbed Paul's paycheck to give to my parents (They live near my bank) and some cash for the trip.
Paul and I switched so he could go finish a job he needed to do, and my sis sat with me until midnight.
2AM we get a call that the flight is delayed and we have an extra hour before we have to be at the airport. 5AM we leave the hospital, find an all night pharmacy to get a prescription filled for Tylenol with codine and get tot eh airport with 45 minutes before our flight. One of the Shriner's met us there, paid for our tickets and gave us the name of our contact in Cincinnati. We had a direct flight and arrived in CIncinnati just after 9AM. THe Shriner's were there to transport us to the hospital, and we arrived there just before 10 AM. Our driver delivered us right to our room!
By 11 AM we had already met with admissions, 2 nurses, his surgeon, his doctor, 2 students, Child Life, Family Life, Social services, 2 aides, the medical arts people for photos and sketches, and had a date for his first surgery. We were staying, but at least I was able to room in with him on a comfy single bed. I had received a hospital tour, been given some cash to tide us over until Monday and started the phone calls home. Sunday was the day they were to decide just how much surgery would be needed since they wanted some of the swelling to go down. The Shriner's were wonderful and really did take care of us while we were there!
The rest of Friday was spent getting to know the lay of the hospital and trying to settle my spinning head form the last 24 hours or so! Saturday we got to attend play group and I got to meet some of the wonderful Shrine Clowns!! After Morning play group, Ricky nursed and took a good nap, so I decided to go up to the cafeteria to get some food. The Shrine clowns had just sat to eat, too, so I got to join them for some wonderfully refreshing conversations and distraction. One of the guys was on his way to the costume shop to pick up his pants, and asked if I wanted to tag along. I jumped at the chance to get out of the hospital environment. I had fun at the shop and got back before RIcky even woke up! I got him to eat a couple nibbles and nurse a bit, then we went to evening play group.
Sunday we tied our best to stay positive and focused. THe Doc's all gathered again to take a look at his hand, and decided to try a one day surgery, with a small graft taken form his groin area. We made it through that, and even I could already see some improvements to his hand! We just tried to do "normal" things and got to play group 2 times, including Pet Therapy! Ricky was so happy to get to pet some doggies! He especially loved the kisses from Rocky. Then I kept him up late and nursed him to sleep since we couldn't eat after midnight and couldn't nurse after 3 AM.
He ended up having 2 surgeries (Actually, it is one surgery over 2 days) ON Monday the 9th and Tuesday 10th. The first surgery was just 45 minutes. They "Excised" his hand and wrist, taking off as much damaged skin as they could, and really scrutinized the area. THere was more damage than origionally estimated, but at least htey are really good at what they are doing! He did well and was supposed to be in recovery for about an hour and a half. After just 5 minutes, they moved him back to his room and called me in, too. He wanted nothing to do with the recovery room and only wanted me to hold him. Nothing makes someone feel better like Momma! I held him and nursed him most of the day, taking a break only to shower and eat. Since the floor was light on patients, When I needed a break, one of the students would come in and hold and rock him. He actually felt well enough to attend a going away party for one of the boys. THey throw such parties for anyone that stays more than 30 days. He ate about 1/4 of a cupcake, then was too tired to stay much longer so we went back to our room. Every 2 hours, someone would come in and "irrigate" his hand. THey had him wrapped up pretty tight, but didn't want his fresh wounds to dry up so they would push fluids into a tube wrapped into the dressing. They would alternate between an antibiotic solution and saline. This made his dressing pretty wet, and it needed to be elevated. At one point we both dozed off a bit with him facing me asleep on my chest and is hand near him, elevated on a towel. While we were snoozing, his hand slipped off the towel, so I ended up with a pretty big blood stain (Blood mixed with all the fluids they kept pouring in there) on my shirt. Luckily, I never pay much for my clothing, so I tossed it out LOL! I put him in his crib to nap so I could go get some dinner, and when I came back, he had pulled out his IV from his ankle. Since he was nursing well, they didn't put it back in.
That night he had a restless sleep and when I woke up (Around 5AM) he had his irrigation tube in his "good" hand LOL! He was due back in surgery in about 3 hours, so they didn't bother to put it back in, instead pushing the fluids directly into the ace wrap in various places. His second surgery took much longer, a little over 2 and a half hours, and he was in recovery for over an hour, although he was closely watched since his asthma flared up and his breathing sounded pretty horrible. They said it was to be expected, and had the x-ray department on standby "just in case" but to me, Darth Vader had quieter breathing! They kept watch over him and even though the breathing was noisy, he slept peacefully most of the day. He had his IV in his "other" hand, so they thought he couldn't get it out again, but they forgot that the boy has teeth. He managed to pull it out. The surgery consisted of taking strips of skin from his thigh and grafting it onto all 4 of his fingers, the side of his hand from his pinky to his wrist and the inside of his wrist.
Wednesday, they had wanted to put him under again to do the dressing change since it is usually painful, but since his IV was out, they just gave him some Cadamine and had me hold him to do the 24 hour check. He did pretty good with the check and I got to get my first look at the donor and graft sites. Its a good thing I am not squeamish, but I had to admit it did look better than it did we arrived, but still very swollen and scary looking. They wrapped it up again and the waiting game started. They didn't want to look at it again until day 5 after surgery. They moved the irrigation tube to the outside of his hand, and tucked it under a layer of ace wrap to make sure Ricky wouldn't get it out again. and added a splint to it as well.
We did make it to evening play group and since his doc said he had to be either in the crib or in mom's arms, I figured I could at least hold him while we played. Just after we arrived, his nurse arrived and told us that Doc had changed her orders and as long as he wore a sling, he could now move around and play!! Yay! But making a 15 month old wear a sling is not an easy task. THe play therapist and I finally figured out a way to get him to wear it correctly (with his hand elevated) and not slide out of it LOL!
For the next 3 days, they continued to irrigate it every 2 hours and to vitals checks every 4 hours. We were not confined to the room, just had to be there for the checks. We did get to go play on the indoor playground, in the play room, do laundry, go attempt to eat, walk in the healing garden, play in the library (They had internet computers there!) and play "Elevator ROulette" where I would let RIcky push any button he wanted and we would get off on that floor. Sometimes it was a good choice (Ricky would happily get off and explore) but sometimes it wasn't (HE would get off, shake his head "no" then get right back on). They were talking of sending us home as early as Monday evening, probably Tuesday.
We got news of the snow storm and power outages, but my only concern was making sure our house had power and that the airport was open by the time we were set to leave! Since Paul is an electrician, we had a generator going less than 24 hours later, and the airport wasn't closed very long at all. The house was in tact, but we did lose the tree in front (I think most of the trees on the street are going to be gone!)
Day 4, they stopped irrigating to let his bandage dry out and just did vitals checks every 4 hours.
Morning of day 5 (Sunday) finally arrived and I was trying to distract RIcky, who wanted to nurse, but they wanted to put him under for the dressing change, so no food or nursing again. We had about 3 hours before the schedules procedure, so I figured I could get dressed and we could go for a walk around the hospital. As I was changing out of my pajamas I poked my head through my shirt to see Ricky with his bandaged hand in the toilet! EEEK!!! I quick called his nurse who called the on call doc and they came in and decided to take the dressing off completely since it was soaked through. I had to admit it looked SO much better than day 1!! They decided to just rewrap it, then wait to see if Doc wanted to put him under or just continue with the dressing change. Doc Warner came in 2 hours later and said since the hard part was over, they would just give him Tylenol with Codine, wait 1/2 hour, then proceed with a bath and dressing change, and call her when the bath was over. SO it was the 2nd time he avoided being put under, but by the time he was getting his leg "Scrubbed down" I was wishing they would have put him to sleep!! IT was horrible. He was screaming and he was bleeding, both of which they assured me were good signs. The blood means there is blood flow and the screaming meant there WAS pain, which means there are nerve endings going there. Yeah, it didn't make me feel any better. Doc Warner looked at the grafts and donor site and said both looked really good. The physical therapist came in as readjusted his splint for night wear. He wears it to keep his fingers straight and the wrist bent backwards at about 45 degrees. He needs to wear this about 12 hours a day. The rest of the time he is encouraged to use his hand as much as possible. The garment department came in and took measurements, too. They are making him a compression glove and shorts to wear. We get those when we return to clinic. His nurse did the first run through of how to dress his hand and thigh as I held Ricky, giving many, many kisses as we went.
My Aunt, that lives in Kentucky, but not too far away came to visit with my cousin, and it was a good visit.
That night we did the Tylenol, wait 1/2 hour, bath with scrub down, dressing change again, still with the nurse doing it and me holding Ricky. And we got to play group, too.
Monday we still had no flights out and not much hope. We were told Tuesday night or Wednesday. I attempted my first dressing change and it only took me an hour from start to finish, not counting the 1/2 hour wait for the codine to kick in. That night, I got the "timing" down and ordered his dinner tray at 4:30, got his meds around the same time as his tray arrived at 5. Finished feeding him and got him in the bath by 5:30, and finished the dressing change around 6! We then went up to the cafeteria, where I ordered my dinner and then made it to 6:30 play group where I ate while he played. Play group lasts for one hour, we went back to our room and he happily nursed to sleep. The nurse came in ad took his vitals and commented that I did a good job on his dressing change totally unassisted!!
Tuesday Morning came and still no word on flights, so we did the whole, order tray/ meds/ eat/ dressing change thing, then we played for a bit tin the room before he nursed and took a nap, so I went to get myself some brunch. We managed to make it to morning play group, and then ate lunch. Afternoon was spent with him flirting with the nurses then the same evening routine as the night before.
Wednesday morning, we awoke tot he same morning routine, with the exception of the nurse looking at his unbandaged hand and Family life telling me to be in the lobby at 10:45 for a 12:45 flight home YAY!!! We filled out all the discharge paperwork, got our instructions on wound care, we were given our clinic return time (Oct 30 at 1:40) and the contact number to arrange return flights when we got back home. Good thing I had started packing and didn't have too much more to do. We were ready to go around 10, so we went up to the cafeteria to get some food to go, figuring it was cheaper than airport food! We were in the lobby ready to go at 10:40.
As soon as we got to the ticket counter we hear an announcement that our flight is delayed an hour!! EEK! We checked in, then hunkered down to eat before going through security.
Ricky was pretty good the entire flight home, and even on they layover in Philadelphia. He slept the flight home from Philly. We were very happy to find our family waiting for us on the other side of security!!!
We have to continue to do his dressing change 2 times a day with stretching and massaging. He cant go back to day care until after our clinic visit, although we did pop in today to see everyone. We have our flights to and from CIncy and very happy to be home now!!!
PLease just continue with the healing prayers and safe journey prayers. We are being well taken care of otherwise!!!
~Elena
and encouragement to you in knowing that you did what was best for your child - THAT is the ultimate sacrifice that a parent can bestow upon their young....I'm sure that it was not an easy decision for you, and I hope that, perhaps, some day, you may be reunited [if that is your wish] with your daughter......remember: when the Lord closes a door, he always opens a window...... 
your way, so that you may fulfill yours dreams...... 
