History

Thursday, January 12, 2006 2:26 PM CST

Hi Everyone,
It's been a long time since I have updated everyone on David's progress so I thought now would be a good time.

We have just passed our 2 year anniversary of his injury and he is doing GREAT!!!

His legs are looking good, we still see the Drs at Shriners in Boston every few months to keep track of things. He will need more surgery probably this year to release some of the scarring around his knees and ankles because he has grown so much!!

I will try to update his photo section soon with new photos of his legs, in the mean time if anyone wants to view his complete photo album of his injury and recovery, please e-mail me and I will send you the site and password to get in.

~Vicki

Wednesday, October 27, 2004 1:26 PM CDT

Its been awhile since I have updated things so I thought everyone would like to know how David is doing.

His leg is finally completely healed, the scarring is extensive and he wears a pressure garment 24 hours a day to help keep the scarring flat and from growing out of control.
He will need surgery in a year or so to help the scarring grow along with the rest of his body. The area behind his knee has been especially problematic because it bends.

He is back in school ful time, in the 4th grade and doing awesome. He is reading and loves math. The kids at school have been wonderful with him and he feels completely comfortable with them.

We are closing in on the 1 year anniversary of his injury. Its hard to believe its almost been a year. He has come so far. He still has some work to do, but he is getting stronger all the time.
He sees the burn team at Shriners hospital in Boston every 6 weeks or so and they are happy with his progress. They are an amazing group of Doctors and Nurses and we are so fortunate to have the ability to be seen by them.

I have added some photo's of his leg to the photo album below. His leg looks now about how it will always look. Some more of the redness will continue to fade, but the scarring will remain. We also included a photo of him in hisw pressure garment., its his favorite one blue! I guess for this photo he couldn't find his blue sock so he has the tan one on. He wears this pretty much all the time except for when he bathes.

Thanks for checking on us, please leave a message in his guest book~ He loves getting messages!
Love,
Vicki

Tuesday, April 20, 2004 7:25 AM CDT

Hi Everyone,
We are Home!!! We Got in yesterday afternoon. David hada good bandage change yesterday morning and the infection seems to be under control so they let us out!

He went into the hospital with the staph infection, they had done cultures on Sunday when we got there, they did the grafts on Monday morning because the wounds looked clean with no sign of infection, then the culture came back monday afternoon positive for Staph. The good news is that the graft looks pretty good. Its in a really tough spot to get to heal properly because its right in the bend of the knee but they think they got most of it.
David has to wear a knee imobilizer at night to keep his leg straight, he doesn't seem to mind it at all. His donor sight looks good, they re harvested skin from one of his old donor sites so there will be no added scars.

The Shriners Hospital was a wonderful experience, I can't say enough about the care, compassion, and respect we received while there. Its incredible that they can do the things they can do. We met families from England, and Isreal who where there for treatment. I also saw many kids who made me feel extremely fortunate that David's leg is the only area that was injured. It was heartbreaking to see what some of these kids have gone through.

On Saturday David was feeling well and was really bored so they gave us a 6 hour pass to leave the hospital. We went on a 6 hour wheel chair tour of the city! I pushed him up Cambridge Street to Quincey Market where we watched the Boston Symphony Orchestra perform, we also watched severl street performers which David loved! We then had lunch in the Cheers pub in Quincey Market, and took a trollet ride around the city. As if that wasn't enough, we went to the Aquarium in the afternoon before hiking back to the Hospital at around 5:00. We had a blast, and it was a perfect day to spend outside, the weather was georgous and Boston was busy with the marathon in town for Monday.

We go back to clinic in 2 weeks for a check up and to be fitted for his pressure garments.

It's back to life as usual Ryan has a baseball game today and the kids are all on vacation this week.
Thanks for all the support.
Vicki

Friday, April 16, 2004 8:03 PM CDT

Oh well, David and Vicki will be up at Shriners for another few days. It turns out that he has a staff infection that was discovered when they did the redressing on Friday which was supposed to be the final one prior to going home. They will have him on IV antibiotics for 3-4 days and see how he reacts.
Needless to say they are pretty stressed out about the whole deal but it is, what it is. David actually started crying on the phone tonight and has been given everyone up there a run for their money, especially Vicki.
Vicki has been absolutely amazed at the care that he has been given at Shriners and cannot say enough good about them. There is an outpouring of care and support that surrounds the organization and it's a pleasant change to see an organization that doesn't has to bend to the insurance giants. It's too bad they can't all be that way.
Anyway, thanks for checking in and we are hopeful for a Monday discharge date.
Dave

Wednesday, April 14, 2004 9:06 AM CDT

David is recovering well from his surgery on Monday. He had the back of his knee reworked to eleviate the scarring restrictions that were affecting his mobility. They basically had to remove the bad skin and re-graft the entire area. They also took care of a small spot on the side of his calf that needed repair.
He is doing so well with recovery that the doctors are talking about letting him out on Friday after re-bandaging him. This works out well because the Boston Marathon is next Monday and they say getting in and out of the city is extremely difficult.
Thanks a bunch for the thoughts and concerns. We will repost when we have some more news.
Dave

Monday, April 5, 2004 9:00 PM EST

It's been awhile since I have updated things, David is doing well.
His leg is healing, and the skin that is growing is looking great!
There are several areas that have been problematic for him, the biggest area being the area behind his knee where it bends. The graft did not take there, and it has scar tissue built up around it which is preventing him from straightening his knee. We will be traveling to Shriners Hospital for Pediatric Burns late in the day on Easter Sunday to be admitted and he will have surgery on MondaY 4/12 to graft that area. He will then be splinted to prevent him from disturbing the healing graft for 7 days. On Monday 4/19 they will take the splint down and hopefully we will have good results. There is a possibility that we will be able to come home with the splint for several days if he is doing really well then go back for it to be removed. There is also the possibility that we will be there for 10 days. It just depends on how he does.
We will update this site next Monday to let you all know how the surgery went.
Dave will be taking time off to be home with the kids while David and I are gone.
Hopefully this is the last stage to getting his leg healed so he can start wearing his compression garment and start to get on with life. Its been a long 4 months.

We'll keep you posted.
Vicki

Saturday, February 21, 2004 8:45 EST

Its been a busy week with all the kids home for February vacation. In some ways its been good for David to have his brothers home to play with, but its also been another change to his routine so we have been dealing with some behaviors too.

His leg continues to look good. It is a challenge to keep him from scratching it badly though. Yesterday during a particularly rough time he scratched open an area that we had finally gotten to close around his ankle. I was pretty upset with him for doing it. We saw the Drs. on Wednesday in Hartford. He has a few of the open areas that are getting hyper-granulated which means that the healing skin around the open areas is pushing his flesh up through the open areas.. it gets very lumpy looking and its very difficult for skin to grow over granulation. So they put some numbing cream over them then treated them with silver nitrate sticks to help shrink the tissue back. Hopefully this will help the skin to start to grow over those areas.

The other kids all go back to school on Monday, we're not sure when David will be ready to go back yet. We still need to get his itchy spells a little more under control before he can return. Until then, his teacher comes to work with him at home a couple times a week.
The physical therapist has given him the go ahead to start walking longer distances, so I am hoping to get him to the track a few times a week to walk. We are also thinking of getting him a stationary bike to ride too. He needs to strengthen the leg and also get some excercise.. I am noticing that he is getting a bit soft around the middle.

Thanks for checking in with us... please remember that there will be a Welcome Home Gathering at Salem School in the multi-purpose room on Thursday evening Feb 26th from 6-8pm. We hope to see everyone there!!!
Vicki

Friday, February 13, 2004 10:15 PM EST

Hi everyone,
David has made some nice gains this week. He is getting stronger everyday and its so good to see.

On Monday we went to Bridgeport for a check-up. I wasn't very happy with the appointment.. the last 2 appointments have been very disorganized and the bandage changes have been sloppy and rushed.
I decided that it was time to look around a bit and got an appointment with the Wound Center at Hartford hospital. The appointment went really well and there are a few key things that they suggested to make David more comfortable and help him heal faster. I am dissapointed that Bridgeport has been so sloppy with his care. The group at Hartford is having me keep the leg very hydrated with special ointment.. really greased up 2xs a day and changing the bandages once a day instead of every otherday. They are also having me use different coverings on the open areas so that the top layer isn't disturbed with bandage changes. The coverings are made of a sticky gel material that can stay in place for 7-10 days giving it time to form a layer over the open areas. The Drs feel that they should be able to get the areas closed without doing more grafts. This new approach has him a lot more comfortable and not itching near as much.

Today we went to school for David's class Valentine's Day party. He was able to walk in and walk all around the school for almost 2 hours! He had a really good time and loved seeing all the kids!
He was pretty tired when we got home and took a nap for almost an hour before supper.

Tonight we had a visit from the people from Make A Wish. David was reffered by a couple of the nurses while we were in the hospital. Tonight they came out to talk about what David wants his wish to be.. of course he wants to go to Disney World! His second wish would be a puppy that would stay small enough for him to walk. They seem to think that as long as the Drs. feel that it is safe for him to travel in a few months that his wish will be granted! He went to bed tonight wearing the Make A Wish hat that they brought him.. actually they brought all the kids hats and also brought each of them a gift too! Dave and I are just amazed and awed that this is being offered to us!

We're looking forward to a weekend at home and a visit from Caroline's birthfamily on Sunday.
Hope you all have a wonderful Weekend and a very Happy Valentine's Day!
Love, Vicki

Friday, February 6, 2004 9:15 AM EST

Its been a busy week and I have been meaning to update this page all week but haven't had a second. We are getting snowed in again today so I have time to write this morning!

David is doing well, we have been doing his bandage changes at home this week which is very time consuming. It takes about an hour to get is bandages changed every other day. Everyday there are multiple times that the outer ace bandage needs to be wrapped and unwrapped and re=wrapped again, his donor sites need to be massaged, lotion needs to be rubbed in several times a day, and he needs to be watched all the time to make sure he isn't scratching because his skin is very thin on the donor sites and will tear if he scratches it. He is a full time job right now. We were supposed to go to the burn unit today for a check and change but becasue of the snow its been re-scheduled for Monday.

I took David in to school for a visit on Wednesday. He was very excited to go and everyone was so happy to see him. He got a little overwhelmed though I think and got very quiet.. anyone who knows David knows that he isn't quiet very often.. he even talks in his sleep!!

Wednesday evening he fell asleep on the sofa and woke up an hour later wheezing very badly. He hasn't been acting sick at all so I was very concerned and caled the Dr. I had to take him to the on call Dr. because our pediatrician wasn't in. He listened to David's lungs and told me that David has pneumonia on his right side. He initially wanted to put him in the hospital but I begged him to call our pediatrician at home and talk with him first. Our Dr. knows David and how easily he gets pneumonia and told the other Dr. to give us antibiotics and tell us to get him on the nebulizer and call him in the AM. Thank God because I can't imagine having to go back to the hosptal right now! David is doing much better with the antibiotics and breathing treatments and will be fine. The reason he ended up with pneumonia is probably because he has been intubatd 6 times in the last month... everytime he has ever been intubated he gets pneumonia about a week later, it just surprises me that it didn't happen sooner this time.

Dave and I also want to make sure to invite eveyone to a Welcome Home & Thank You to everyone who has been so supportive to our family during all of this gathering that we are palnning for David later this month. The Date is going to be Thursday Feb 26th from 6pm - 8pm in the Salem School Multi-purpose room. Please come join us! (no gifts please)
We want to be able to visit with you all and put faces to some of the names of people who have helped us so much. We also want to give David's class mates the opportunity to come see him and visit with him and know that he is ok.
This is truly a celebration of Family and Community... please mark your calenders and join us.

More soon.
Love, Vicki

Saturday, January 31, 2004 5:08 EST

* NEW PHOTOS IN THE ALBUM! *

Things continue to go well for David. We went for his bandage change yesterday and his leg looks good. The area that is grafted now looks like it is peeling which I am told is a good thing. The skin under the peeling is healthy and growing. This is very itchy for him and its difficult for him to get away from it once it starts itching. We have creams for it and benidryl.. lots of benidryl!
He is getting stronger with his walking too. He can pretty much move around the house without help and without using his walker. When we go out though, he still needs to use the wheelchair because he gets very tired.

We will probably be starting physical therapy this week sometime. He needs to work on movement in his ankle and knee and hip, he also needs to work on hnis balance a little too. I am sure physical therapy will be a joy.. he has hated it since he was a tiny baby. When he was really little, he would fall into a deep sleep the minute the PT got to our house to work with him and anything we would try to wake him up would be unsuccesful. As soon as the PT would leave the house he would wake up all smiles and do all the things that I would tell the PT about.. I am sure she thought I was lying!!
Anyway, we will change his dressing at home tomorrow, he will go to the burn unit on Monday for a dressing change and we will do it Wednesday at home and go back to the burn unit again on Friday.
Thanks for checking in with us!
Vicki

Wednesday, January 28, 2004 8:30 AM EST

We woke up to 6+ inches of snow this morning, the kids have no school and are already playing with their new X-Box that we got all of them this weekend.

David is doing well, we went to the burn unit on Monday for a bandage change, the grafts look really good and are starting to heal nicely.

Today we will be doing to bandage change at home. We were supposed to have the visiting nurse come out and help us, but they canceled because of the weather so I talked to the burn unit this morning and they gave Dave and I the go ahead to do it ourselves. I have been helping with each change right along anyway, and they gave us instruction before we left the hospital so we should be fine n doing it.

David is really enjoying having his brothers here today, he has someone to play video games with. he was happy to see the snow and I was releived when he told me that he couldn't go out because his legs would get wet and cold... I was worried that he would be sad about not being able to go outside.

We go back to the Burn Unit on Friday for a bandage change and a check-up. I will write more then.
Thanks for checking in.
Vicki

Saturday, January 24, 2004 9:45 PM EST

DAY 26

WE ARE HOME!!!!!

We got in yesterday around 6pm, David had a really good dressing change on Friday morning and the Doctors feel that they have done all that we can hope for right now and that its safe for him to continue to heal at home.

The graft sites look great, a huge difference from the last set of grafts. There is a good covering of new skin growing on most of his leg. He still has a couple of open spots on his ankle, knee, and on the outer side of his shin.. but they are small and may close on their own. If they don't we will go back in a month or so and graft them.
He made the trip home very comfortable in the back of Daves car all padded with pillows and blankets. The car was packed to the hilt with our things that we have accumulated in a months time.

It was a pretty emotional goodbye at the hospital. All the drs, nurses and staff were so happy for us, but also sad to see him go. We have gotten very attached to several of them especially nurse Susan from the burn unit who is one of Gods Angels here on earth.. Susan has gone above and beyond the call of duty to make David as comfortable as possible and he trusts Sue. Dr. Keto who took a special liking to David and loved to come by to play games and goof around with him. There are others too. There were many tears as we loaded the car to go home.

Once we got home, David was thrilled to be here. He loved seeing his brothers and sister and settled right in without any problem. We had a taco dinner with chocolate cake, which was Davids request for his coming home dinner.
He also got an envelope of jokes from Mrs. Hecklingers class and Jake sat and read them to him one at a time.. it was sweet to see the 2 of them interacting and laughing together.
He slept like a baby lastnight and woke up happy this morning.
We had a low key day today and just enjoyed some family time. We had a few visitors, Nicki Hecklinger came by, and Deb Evans and Castine stopped for a visit too. David was so happy to see everyone and he loves the Brother Bear that Deb and Castine brought for him... its perfect for him!
Tomorrow we have the football banquet. We are going to take David to it and he is so excited. We have a wheel chair for him and a walker too. He can walk but its slow and unsteady so the wheel chair is perfect right now for long outings. He uses the walker for moving around the house and getting to the bathroom.

It has been a long haul to get to this point, 25 days in the hospital 13 of those days in ICU. 6 times in the operating room, and 2 sets of skin grafts. oh and lots of new gray hairs for mom ( Dad doesn't have any hair or his would be gray too!)
We still have a lot of work to do. David has to regain his strength, he has a lot of healing left to do too, we will be going to Bridgeport at least twice a week for the next month or so and there will be lots of physical therapy too. As well as the possibility of another surgery to finish grafting.

Everyone has been so great with helping with meals, babysitting etc.. we appreciate it all so much!

I will continue to update this page every few days during his recovery, so nplease continue to leave him messages... he loves checking thw message area with me and always get so excited when there are new messages.

Love,
Vicki & Dave

Wednesday, January 21, 2004 5:45 PM EST

Day 23

We just got back from having David's bandages changed. They were going to take him to the OR for it and then decided that after being nput under 6 times in 3 weeks that it would be safer to try to do it with milder sedation.
He was sedated and given pain medication 1/2 hour before the bandage change, then we went down to the burn unit for the change. David's very favorite nurse Susan was there and she did the change for him.. she is one of the only ones he trusts and he works well with her.

It took almost an hour to get the bandages off, they soak them and unwrap them very slowly so that nothing sticks.
When they finaly got the bandages all the way off I couldn't believe the improvement on his leg! It has a fine mesh of skin growing on pretty much the entire site. It finally looks lke it will start to heal! David did so awesome too! He held real still for the entire thing and even let Susan take the staples out that were holding the gradft in place in the beginning. The Drs all came in and looked at it and everyone seems genuinely pleased with how it looks.
It was re-wrapped to nprotect it from germs and injury and we will do another dressing change on Friday. In the mean time David has been given the go ahead to walk again and he even walked for quite a ways in the burn unit today before we came upstairs. So, I expect a good dressing change on Friday and then a possibility of going home for the weekend... just a possibility but we are hoping!

I'll write more tomorrow and update on how the walking is going.
Love, Vicki

Monday, January 19, 2004 10:00 PM EST

Day 21

Today was the big day. The bandages came off and the docs got a look at the second set of grafts.

Things look very promising. Just about all of the graft has taken very well. It has good color, good thickness and bloodflow and no signs of infection. There are a few patches that are still thin and immature, but the docs feel that given a few more days they will mature and continue to be healthy.
David has 2 small open spots that did not take at all. the docs said its less that 1% of the total wound. They are not concerned about them right now. They said that either the existing grafts will grow together and close the open areas or we will re-graft as an out patient in a month or so.
So, we go back to the OR on Weds. to take another look under the bandages. until then he is still on bed rest to give the graft a few more days to strengthen. If everything looks good on Weds. then he will be allowed to get up and move around. As soon as he is steady enough on his feet, we will be allowed to go home!!! it could happen as soon as this weekend or maybe the begining of next week. Either way, we are almost there.

Thanks for checking in tonight. more tomorrow.
love, Vicki

Saturday, January 17, 2004 10:00 PM EST

Day 19

Today was rough day for David. He has been struggling with constipation all day. A combination of anestesia, bedrest and pain killers has him all bound up.
He has been very uncomfortable and after much debate and hope that he would move things on his own he had to have an enema tonight.

He seems to be tolerating the pain in his legs ok, its tough to keep him in bed but imperative for the grafts to keep him there. He wants to get up and walk and use the potty. The bedpan hurts his donor graft site on the back of his thigh.

Tomorrow we will continue with bedrest and Monday he will go to have the bandages removed in the OR and see about his grafts.

I came back up to the hospital yesterday and Dave went home with the kids. As much as I am glad to be with David, after 19 days here, I just want to take him home. The seperation is hard on everyone and it will ber nice to have a home life again. Lets just hope that we can go home soon... maybe the end of next week.

I will write more on Monday after we know whats going on with the grafts.
Love, Vicki

Thursday, January 15, 2004 8:50 PM EST

Day 17

David had his graft surgery this morning. I was supposed to go to the hospital to be there for it, but the weather had other plans for us, we got about 3 inches of snow and .. the kids had a snow day. So instead I stayed home and tried to be patient until Dave could call me with an update... anyone who knows me, knows that I don't wait well.

Anyway, David was in surgery for 4 hours today. They took grafts from his right buttocks and right shin. The pig skin appeares to have done its job, the Drs. said that there was a lot of evidence of growing blood vessels! There was a lot of bleeding with the procedure which the Drs said was a good thing because it shows that the vessels are at the surface which is what the grafts need to survive. David did require a blood transfusion afterward though. That surprised us both a little, nobody had given us any indication that a transfusion could be necessary.

The leg is now wrapped, splinted and wrapped again to protect it from movement. Now we wait until Monday when they will take the bandages off and see what has taken.
David is in pretty good spirits tonight, he is on a good amount of morphine for pain ad is very tired but was awake enough to have dinner, or should I say devour dinner.. the poor kid has had to fast through more meals lately that when he does get a meal he eats like its the last one he is going to see for awhile.
We just hope and pray that this graft gives us better results than the first one did. Only time will tell I guess.
I am going to try to get back up to the hospital tomorrow to stay and give Dave a break. David has been giving him a pretty hard time because he wants me to be there with him.
Lets just hope the weather cooperates better.

More tomorrow.
Love, Vicki

Wednesday, January 14, 2004 7:03 PM CST

Day 16

Spoke to Dave awhile ago, David had a good day. Dave said he slpet a lot this morning but this afternoon was really silly and goofy and all around just in a really good mood.

Tomorrow morning at 8am David goes back for another graft. We are really hoping that this graft takes.. there's a lot of work to be done. The Drs. are going to splint his leg after surgery tomorrow to keep him from moving it at all.
I am really hoping that I can get to the hospital to be there with him... I am at home and Dave is at the hospital, but they are forecasting snow for the morning commute and I am afraid that school will be canceled. I know he is in good hands with the Drs. and Dave being there, I just have this overwhelming need to be there too and its hard knowing that I probably won't be able to be. It seems like no matter where I am; either home or at the hospital, I feel like I should be at the opposite place. I haven't felt this way since David was born 9 years ago and spent 10 days in the NICU at Yale.

Anyway, I will try to update again tomorrow...
Check out the photo section below I put a couple of photos in there.. a rare one of me too.. usually I am behind the camera.
More tomorrow.
Love, Vicki

Tuesday, January 13, 2004 8:00 Pm EST

Day 15.
Sorry that I didn't write in yesterday, we spent the day waiting to go down to surgery to have his leg cleaned and a different IV placed, only to have it postponed unitl this morning. I was waiting until I had some new news to share.

This morning we were sent down to the OR at 9:30. The plan was to go in and clean off any of the graphs that haven't taken and to place a PICC Line which is a type of IV that goes in the arm and follows up to the chest into the central vena cava.. it is a more perminent type of IV that can be left in place for weeks if needed with out fear of it failing.
When the surgeon came out to talk to us after surgery he told us that they had gotten the IV in and it was all set, but in cleaning his leg they found that a lot more of the grafts have not taken. We are down to about a 10% success rate with the grafts right now.. which is a pretty big decrease from the 50/70% we were originally told.
What they have done is to wrap the ungrafted areas in pig skin. Apparently pig skin has the ability to attach to the wound and rapidly grow tiny blood vessels that the skin grafts need in order to survive and grow. David's burns are very deep burns and so the grafts have no blood vessels to attach to. This should only take a day or so to happen and we are now going to graft again on Thursday. Another thing he told us is that patients who have had this kind ofr procedure report that the pig skin is very soothing to the burn and makes it feel better.
This was obviously a pretty big blow today and we are kind of down tonight. however when I got home there was a hot meal waiting for us along with a gas card from the teachers at the school and some very generous gifts for David.

Dave and I are so touched and humbled by all the generosity and support we have been shown through all of this. Everyone has been so kind and thoughtful to our needs and its hard to find the words to express our gratitude but please know that we so appreciate everything.

So, we sit tight now until Thursday. I probably won't post tomorrow unless something changes. I am home with the kids and Dave is at the hospital with David for a few days. I am praying that this snow storm that is being forecasted on Thursday fizzles out because I really want to be at the hospital when David has his grafts done.

Goodnight...
Vicki

Sunday, January 11, 2004 12:10 PM EST

Day 13

David has been having a good weekend. We have been going down for tub soaks every morning. Yesterday was difficult because they are trying a new medication for anxiety and he didn't get enough. Today they doubled the dose and he did great.

The Dr. came in and looked at the leg while it was soaking and pointed out the areas where the graft has taken and where it hasn't.
The parts where it hasn't taken need to be cleaned well before they can graft again, so he scheduled David to go to the operating room tomorrow so that he can go to sleep while they clean the areas and re-bandage the leg.. this is a good thing because he will have no pain or anxiety while they are doing it. Then they will probably re-graft on Wednesday.

Yesterday when we came up from the burn unit we had a big surprise waiting for us... Daves mom, sister and 2 neices Dani and Dallas were waiting for us in the playroom!! They had traveled 6 hours from NY State to see us! What a treat it was to see them! David loved having the girls there to play with.
Hopefully this next week will bring good news about the grafts.
Thanks for checking in.
Vicki

Friday, January 9, 2004 10:00 PM EST

Day 11 today..

I got a phone call from David this morning to tell me that he WALKED!!!! This morning the Physical Therapist was trying to get him out of bed and was failing miserably to get him motivated. Dave said they were just about to give up when the hero of the day walked in "Mitzi" the therapy dog came in to visit. Mitzi is a trained therapy dog and Mitzi's owner asked David if he would like to take Mitzi for a walk... David was able to get out of bed, and use a walker and very slowly walk Mitzi down the hall to the nurses station which was maybe 20 feet away and then walked back to the room. Several of the nurses said it put tears in their eyes to see him... everyone was so happy for him!
Dave said he was exhausted when he got back to bed.. but he did it!!
This afternoon Dave and I traded places and he went home to be with the kids. I will probably stay here for the next few days. I went with David to the burn unit this afternoon to have his bandages changed... this is the first time I have seen his leg since the graft a week and a half ago. The leg still looks really awful, its hard to believe looking at it that they can even fix something that is so damaged, but I am told that by burn standards it looks good.

This afternoon there was a boyscout troop here visiting and 2 boys came to David's room and made a picture frame with him out of cardboard and decorated it with stickers, then they took a poloroid picture of him and put it in the frame. David even talked them into 2 games of Candyland. It was a good distraction and he had a good time with them.
He fell asleep early tonight and is sleeping asoundly.. he had a busy day.
Tomorrow brings more encouragement to get out of bed again and get moving. He will also be going in the whirlpool tub tomorrow to soak his leg.
Thanks for checking in on us, more tomorrow.
Vicki

Thursday, January 8, 2004 10:00 PM EST

Dave has spent the last 3 days at the hospital with David while I have been home with the kids.
Not much new is happening right now, he goes to the burn unit every day for bandage changes and soaks and will start going in the whirlpool this weekend. Dave spoke to the surgeon today and they have scheduled the next grafting surgery for Wednesday 1/14. Until then we stay put in the hospital. After the surgery, we need to wait for 5 days to see what of the grafts have taken. Hopefully at that point enough will have taken that we can maybe go home. If not, I guess its on to round 3 with grafting.
One of our biggest challenges right now is getting him out of bed and standing. He has been in bed for 10 days and each day he stays in bed, the harder it is going to be on him. We are trying to find creative ways to encourage him to get up, I know he is afraid its going to hurt and it probably will a little bit. I am trying to come up with something... any input would be great.
Tomorrow I will go up and stay with David for a few days and Dave will come home and handle things on the homefront, this arrangement has worked well so far and we will probably keep doing it this way.

That's about it for right now.. hopefully by the end of the weekend I can write and tell everyone that he can stand up!

Thanks for all the support.
Vicki

Tuesday, January 6, 2004 10:00 PM EST

Today was a quiet day. David slept well lastnight and was in good spirits this morning.
Around 11:00 Dave cam up to see us and saty for a couple of days while I come home to see the other kids.
The physical therapists were in the room when Dave got there this morning and we were trying to get David out of bed for the first time in a week. We got the ok from the surgeon yesterday to very carefully let him get up. This is important, because his muscles need to be used or they will start to get very weak.
It took 4 of us to get him sitting on the side of the bed and finally get his feet on the floor. He didn't actually walk but he did bear weight on his feet and pivot to a recliner. He sat up in the recliner for almost an hour, he played a game of Candy Land with the physical therapist (and beat her) and ate lunch sitting up too. After lunch it was evident that he was exhausted from getting up so we all worked to get him back to bed. By the time he was back in bed, he was spent. He was pale and sweaty and just exhausted... but he did it! Everyday it will get a little easier to do this and we need to encourage him to do so.

Its good to be home and to see the kids, I feel a bit out of touch here in my own house but am really trying to relax and enjoy the kids for a couple of days.
The next few days *should* be pretty laid back at the hospital because we are giving him time to heal before we go for the next round of grafts.
Thank you for all the e-mails, phone calls, gifts, cards, and help I wish I could thank you all individually.. but right now this is the best I can do.
Love, Vicki

Monday, January 5, 2004 9:00 PM EST

Well,
Today was the day that the bandages came off and the Drs. got their first peek at the grafts.
We were supposed to go to the operating room at 11:00 but didn't actually get there until 2:30.. David was pretty upset as you can imagine that he coujldn't eat all morning.
Luckily he did a lot of sleeping so it took the edge off.

He was out of surgery at 4:oo and the surgeon came out to speak with me. The grafts have taken 75% which he says he is happy with. The part that didn't take is on his calf in the back.. it is the part that was burned the worst so he said that it didn't surprise him that it didn't take. He also has a small infection in that area that we are treating.
The plan is to let the grafts continue to grow and heal for therest of the week and then possibly re-graft the areas that didn't take on Friday/ Saturday. Then its wait and see for 4 days and hope that the grafts take. So we are here for probably 2 more weeks while this all happens. We have to stay because the risk of infection and damage from him moving around is to great and also for pain management. We had really been hoping that the grafts would all take the first time, but also understand that was a remote possibility and that we just have to do what has to be done. Dave will be taking the next 2 weeks as vacation time, and the 2 of us will share the time up here. He will be coming up to take over for a few days tomorrow.
Thanks for checking on us.
Vicki

Sunday, January 4, 2004 7:00 PM EST

Let me try to re-cap the last 36 hours or so.. a lot has happened.

On Saturday morning, David was still running a temp. and was pretty drowsey. Around 11:00 we had a few visitors and David seemed to be handling the visit well. He was truly happy to see Mrs. Gada, Mrs. Cronin, and Mrs. VanWhy, who are from school Mrs. Gada is David's sp. ed teacher and the other s are aides in his class.

Right after they left he turned really red and then got white splotches all over him. His heart rate excelerated, as did his breathing, and his blood pressure. These episondes continued every 10 minutes or so and lasted only about 30 seconds but were very distressfull to him.
They decided to move him back to ICU and evaluate him closer.
For the next several hours these episodes continued, first off they took lots of blood to send to the lab, then they took some x-rays to rule out pneumonia, and look for blood clots. He is on Heprin which is a blood thinner because blood clots could occur in his legs. They ruled out blood clots, and thought it might be a histimine reaction, apparently the body can produce too much hisitmine during an injury like his, so they gave him benydryl to hopefully stop it. The benydryl didn't work and everyone was pretty puzzled about what it could be. We considdered that it might be that he wasn't getting enough pain medicine so they started up his morphne again and that made him a lot more comfortable. But the blotchy episodes continued.
Around 9pm the burn team came in to change his dressings and get a look at his leg to make sure that it looked ok. It was then that we all realized pretty much at the same time that we had overlooked one thing.. we were giving him silver nitrate soaks on the burns. So we changed the dressings and held back on the silver nitrate treatment and the episodes stopped almost immediately!
Apparently he was having a reaction to the silver nitrate!
We think that coupled with the fact that he needed more pain medication but wouldn't tell us created this huge mystery!

He slept very comfortably all night, and this morning was acting more like himself.
They are continuing to monitor him closely and are keeping the pain meds in him.. but he is much happier today Thank God!
We had visitors from Salem this afternoon, his friend Joe and his parents came to see us and David and Joe played Nintendo for almost 2 hours.. this is the first time that I have heard David laugh a real laugh since the accident.. it was so god to hear it!
Right now we are waiting for numbing cream to come up from the pharmacy so that was can put it on David's arms and get a new IV in.. all the excitement of Nintendo this afternoon made his IV come out. That''s ok.. it was worth every second to see him happy.

Tomorrow is the BIG DAY!! He goes down to surgery tomorrow morning to have the bandages removed and see how much of the grafts took. I am excited and very scared at the same time... The Drs feel positive about it, but we just don't know until the bandages are all off. The sooner the grafts take, the sooner we go home.

We wikll probably be out of touch for most of the day tomorrow, bujt I will update as soon as I can.

Vicki

Friday, January 2, 2004 9:15 PM EST

Well..
New day, new issues. I am slowly learning that this is often how it goes with burns.
David has been running a temp. all day today. They have explained that a lot of the time with a severe burn that the body will spike a fever as a result of the burn. This afternoon they decided to run some blood tests and get a chest x-ray to make sure he doesn't have pneumonia. We are still waiting on those results. I commented several times that his leg had a strange odor, but nobody else smelled it.. so I figured it was my nose acting up because I scorched the inside of it with the heat of the fire. However, this evening one of the burn unit nurses came in to check on us and as soon as she lifted the blanket she knew what was up.. David has pseudonoma which is a skin borne bacteria that is naturally on most skin surfaces, but when the skin is disturbed like his is it can cause overgrowth and infection. We caught it early so it should be ok.. they changed the dressings on the burn and started silver nitrate treatments to kill the bacteria.. the silver nitrate does not hurt him.. they just pour it over the bandages and let it soak in 4 times a day.
I haven't seen the Dr yet to ask what effect this will have on the grafts but the burn nurse said that it is quite common and the grafts should be alright. We'll see what the Dr says when he comes in.

Other than that he slept most of the day today, I gave him a sponge bath this afternoon and washed his hair.. the nurses helped me change his sheets and right now he is snoring away.
He was really excited today to get a big balloon boquet from everyone in NY.. thanks guys you made his day!

more tomorrow.
Vicki

Friday, January 2, 2004 9:15 PM EST

Thursday, January 1, 2004 10:21pm EST

It was a much quieter day today.

I spent the night at home lastnight with the kids and even got a few hours of sleep. I spoke to Dave at 7am and he said that David had a pretty quiet night. The only problem is that he keeps wetting the bed because the pain medicine makes him so sleepy that he doesn't tell us when he has to go.. plus the IV fluids make him have to go a lot. He keeps soaking his bandages and then they have to be changed which is very painful for him. They decided this morning to put a catheter in to help with the problem.

He was also doing well enough that they moved him from ICU to a regular room, so we have a new phone# (see below) He is also able to have visitors now too. So this afternoon I brought all the kids up to see him for a few minutes. I think they needed to see him, especially Jake who has been taking this pretty hard. Jake was right next to David when the accident happened and was the one to alert us to it.
When we got to the hospital, Dave's Uncle Rich and his wife were here visiting and had brought David a stuffed toy/puppet to play with.
The kids were happy to see David and very curious about everything. They were all very good but only stayed a few minutes and Dave took them home.
Tonight things have been pretty quiet, his catheter somehow came out and he soaked his bandages again, so they needed to be changed, but he was a real trooper about it and right now he is dry, and the catheter is back in hopefully to stay so he can heal properly.
I plan on staying through the weekend..
Will update again tomorrow.
Love, Vicki

Wednesday, December 31, 2003 9:02 PM EST

Hi everybody,
I never thought in a million years that I would be doing another one of these pages.. let alone so soon, but they are a great way to keep everyone informed about what is going on.
On Monday afternoon, we had a small campfire in the back yard which is something we have done from time to time with the boys. We're not really sure exactly what happened, we were all right there but it was one of those moments that just happens so quickly that its all a blur. David somehow cought his left leg on fire. By the time I reached him from maybe 20 feet away it was too late. I had to smother the flames with my shirt which I ripped off my own body. I knew instantly that it was really really bad. I started yelling for Ryan to call 911 which he did. Ryan kept it together for me in the first few minutes, getting the emergency vehicles dispatched, getting the kids in the house, and taking his own shirt off and giving it to me to cover up with.. (I only had a bra and jeans on) He then stayed with the other kids and cared for them until Dave got home.
We were taken to the firehouse at Gardner Lake where David and I were Life Starred to The Burn Center at Bridgeport Hospital. The entire trip took about 20 minutes, it was terrifying but comforting to know that we were getting to where we needed to be so quickly. The Pilot and paramedics on the helocopter were amazing and kind.. they kept me informed and gave David the upmost care.
Once at teh hospital Trauma unit David was taken almost immediately into surgery. He has 3rd degree burns from his knee to his ankle completely around his leg. They had to cut the skin to prevent swelling from stopping circulation to his foot. I spent the hour he was in surgery, praying for his life.. It has to be one of my darkest times. I can't even type this without getting very emotional. I felt and still do feel very responsible for all of this, even though everyone has been so supportive and reassuring that I couldn't have changed it.
Yesterday (monday) they changed the bandages and decided that he was ready to start skin grafts. So he was scheduled to go back to surgery this morning( Tuesday) to begin the grafting process. He was in surgery for 3 1/2 hours today and they took healthy skin from the tops of both of his thighs and grafted it to the burns. Now we Wait... not an easy thing... until Monday and paray that the grafts take and that they start to grow. David will possibly be in the hospital for a few weeks. They just don't know how fast he will heal, and if there will be any setbacks.. our 2 biggest enemys are infection, and the risk that the grafts won't take.
Tonight I am home with the kids and Dave is at the hospital with David. We have been switching back and forth so that we both get at least a little rest and the kids get to see both of us.
Everyne has been awesome with helping out here, we have friends and family who are babysitting, cooking, doing laundry, etc.. I appreciate each and every one of you. This is got to be the toughest thing we have been dealt and having the support of all of you has been incredible.I will try to update this page daily when I can.
love, Vicki

Wednesday, December 31, 2003 7:20 PM CST

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