Daily Kindness (Jack's Burn story)

Mike spent the night with Jack Monday & Tuesday night at the hospital.  I had slept there Saturday and Sunday night.  This was Mike's Update to our friends and family for Tuesday. Enjoy:  We have a roommate!  Jose Pablo from Escondido.  1st grader.  He burned his Wally with boiling Cup-O-Noodles.  LOL. Also, Jack conquered all nine worlds of Super Mario Bros! I texted out this update to my friends and family and got some hilarious replies. Jack had said a few days earlier that it would be fun to have a hospital buddy.  Well, he got a cute one! Tuesday evening I stopped by Book Group quickly and all my friends there had organized gifts for Jack and I.  There was a big bunch of helium balloons for him, cute snacks and cards.  A few of my friends had given both of us books to read - to help pass the time in the hospital.  It was so nice.  The kindness of friends has sustained me while Jack's been in the hospital. ...

Today has been rough.  First Jack had to go through a re-insertion of his catheter in his leg procedure bc his catheter had wiggled out a bit.Then he had his bandage changes which we were hoping would  show great healing under his cadaver skin.  There was some healing under some of the cadaver skin but the deeper ones are looking like they'll need skin grafts - according to Dr. Lee. (She's the head of all the doctors in the burn unit at UCSD). This is a setback bc this means he will go back into the O.R. on Wednesday and that adds another week to his in-hospital recovery time.  (sad face) Next

January 26 - Last night was a bad one for Jack.  He was in a ton of pain so he took the most meds he's had yet - narcotics (oxycodone) and Tylenol.  They even did an extra dose of doosa? because his pain level was so bad during the night.  Nobody likes having him take so many narcotics so this morning the anesthesiologist was called in to change the drip so that more meds drip out into the left leg/nerve blocker.  He also cleaned up all the dried blood that was there from the first day of getting the nerve blocker put in that was all over his leg. He finally got a gaming console brought in which is really helping to distract him from the pain too. He's planning on beating all levels of Super Mario Bros.  Some more friends came to visit this afternoon which was another good distraction. Tomorrow morning he will have his bandages changed so we will have to amp up the meds in the morning in preparation for that. Today's miracle was honestly finding this gaming c...

Saturday, January 25 - Jack was in the hospital with Mike most of the day until we traded places this afternoon.  He had a hard day bc he wasn't allowed to get out of bed for the entire day.  He's a fall risk bc of the nerve blockers that numb the left leg - or at least they're supposed to. He's allowed to take Tylenol every 6 hours for pain and Oxycodone every 3 hours, as needed.  He's needed them both all day today; in addition to his constant drip into the left leg. He got his bandages changed at 10:00 this morning and he should have topped up the medicine a lot more before they came to change the bandages in preparation.  The nurse told him that it's probably the staples that are hurting him. Ferris was his day nurse again today and Marcella was his night nurse again.  They're both amazing.  Their kindness just exudes from them. Jane (Mike's mom) visited him at the hospital this morning and watched them change the bandages.  I bet she lov...

Jack had a procedure this morning where they inserted 2 nerve blockers into his left leg.  That was inserted by a female anesthesiologist named Dr. Black.  She told us that she got into this business because her dad had problems with narcotics.  So she wanted to get into a field that didn't use narcotics.  That was a cool discussion bc I was able to talk to Jack about that - and also try to distract him from this painful procedure.  I talked to Jack and the doctor about how bc of her experience with her dad the course of her life led her to being an anesthesiologist.  I told Jack that now that he's been burned the course of his life is changed forever.  He might decide to go into a field of study that has something to do with burns now or maybe he'll just be a more compassionate/empathetic person to those who have been burned or hurt in any way.  No matter what he is not the same person he was 5 days ago. After Dr. Black inserted the 2 nerve bloc...

Thursday, January 23 - Jack's wounds were cleaned this morning by a group of doctors.  I'm pretty sure it was Dr. Lee, Dr. Higginson, a Fellow and a Resident and some nurses.  I'm not sure though bc; unfortunately, Mike was in another part of the Burn Center getting his bandages changed and I went home to get some sleep.  I'm trying not to feel bad about this bc I've learned that these people who work with burn patients in burn centers are literal angels.  They do something everyday that most of us could never handle and they do it with care and compassion. Today's cleaning was too much for Jack to bear (even with extra pain meds) so they will take him into the O.R. tomorrow and put him under so they can clean the wounds as well as they'd like to. He will go under General Anesthesia tomorrow at 11:30am.  They will clean his burns and then decide how to proceed.  They have 3 different procedures they will decide between depending on how good or bad the b...