Surgery #12

On Tuesday, April 22, Tayton went in for surgery #12.  (I am putting the dates so that way when I have to feel out medical forms if I ever need to find dates of surgeries I can look back.)  This time they went in, took off the cadaver skin, and put the silicone lining called Integra on.  He did really good except coming out of anesthesia.  He was having a hard time breathing.  They called respiratory therapy up and did some breathing treatments on him.  I was thrilled because last week when he had surgery #11 the ENT said his airways was bigger then it has ever been.  Well Dr. Morris said the 8 month old baby in the burn unit had a bigger airway.  She had a size 4 ventilator tube and Tayton was still at a 3.5.  So I was pretty sad knowing that my almost 9 year old son has about a 6 month olds airway.

He had to be on oxygen for quite a while and they had the nurses watch him extremely close, but just like he always does, my little guy pulled through.  He was pretty tired and slept most of the time for the next two days but he improved and was back to riding his little trike again.

Then on Friday it was time to unwrap the bandages and see what his arms look like.  So everyone gowns up, and all the bad memories come flooding back.  Oh how I hate wound care.

 Here is his right hand.  Looks much better without the cadaver skin on.

 Here is leftie.  Apparently this is as close to perfect as you can get with the Integra.  Looks pretty crazy to me.

 So since it looked so good, Doctor Morris said I would be able to take him home if I promise to give him the medication every 4 hours to his arms and hands, keep his bandages on, and don't let anyone bump his arms.  We have to go every three days to change his bandages and tomorrow is our first apt. at the outpatient clinic.  Tayton was thrilled and it was so cute when I told him we were going home.  He said "I didn't even know it was something I could cross my fingers for."

Originally Dr. Morris told us that we would need to stay in the hospital over an entire month and he wouldn't let us go home because if he does bump it it could ruin the entire surgery and he would have to start over with the cadaver skin surgery.  There were talks of maybe letting us go to the Ronald McDonald house for a few days in between but never going home.  I am so happy to be home and so is Tayton.  It is nice to have everyone together.  I love being able to see my girls and sleep next to my husband.   I have been really good at the medication, I'm not letting him go anywhere but the hard part is he is so itchy and tries to itch it and it is slowly taking the bandages off.  It is always a battle but I think he knows how important it is and he doesn't want to go back and be in the burn unit.

His next surgery is May 6th, so if things continue to go good he will be home for his birthday!  I am so happy.  So after surgery depending on how things go, he will be in the hospital another week or two.  Here are some fun pictures of what we have been doing in the hospital the past week.

 Easter morning, he was thrilled to have the Easter bunny ears on.   But when you can't use your hands there is not much you can do about it.

 I took him out on the hospital grounds and hid some eggs around for him.  Bad idea to put them in the dirt.  He tried to pick them up but it didn't work with the huge bandages.

 So finally he would just point then I would go pick them up and put them in the basket.

The hardest part about this surgery, I think, is he is sooooooooooo bored.  I brought lots of fun things for him to do but I didn't realize he wouldn't be able to use his hands.  You can only watch so much tv/movies.  So we had fun putting his Lego sets together.  He would find the pieces and move them over to me.  He would read the instructions and just tell me where to put them.  We made a pretty great team!

So overall things are going pretty good.  I feel so blessed to be home.  It still breaks my heart for all the patients at the burn unit.  It is hard to seem them go through it.  It brings it all back.  But at the same time it makes me appreciative that we aren't back at that stage.  He is improving every day and hopefully we can get his skin back on and that surgery will go well.  Thanks for all the support.