One day, TWO surgeries...

Well, Dan was the first case this morning and around 10 am, I talked to the Doctors and everything had gone as planned. Dan was in recovery and doing well, scheduled to come home as soon as his pain was under control. At 11:30, I got a call from Dr. Thomas saying that Dan was bleeding and they were taking him back into surgery. After a solid prayer, a freak-out moment, and a good run down to where the doctor was, I was able to see Dan. He looked good to me, until Dr. Thomas pointed out his left shoulder. There was an internal bleed where they had just done surgery, forming a hematoma. This can be dangerous if it bleeds toward his neck, b/c it can cut off his airway or circulation, luckily, the bleed was not going towards his neck. Needless to say, within 5 minutes of my getting there, he was being rolled back into surgery to find the bleed, and clean out the newly formed hematoma. (Which if you remember from previous posts is a collection of blood, usually clotted, in a tissue or organ, caused by a break in a blood vessel. I did just copy and paste that definition b/c my brain could not come up with the right words. I have been up since 5am :) Anyway, about an hour and a half later, I talked to the surgeons and they were happy with how the surgery went.

The only reason I am home, updating this blog, is b/c I had to run home to pick up a few things for Dan b/c he will be staying in the hospital overnight. He actually looked great and was in pretty good spirits, all things considered. Two anesthesia's+two surgeries+ one day= stay in hospital. We are both fine with that and considering that my kiddos are in South Texas having tons of fun, it takes all sorts of pressure off me.

We continue to covet your prayers and know that our God is in control! I will update tomorrow.

Surgery Tuesday

OK, so sorry for the lack of updates on this surgery. Dan will be having surgery on Tuesday. The doctor assures us that this should be a 20 minute outpatient surgery. We will see:):) Unfortunately we had to cancel our trip to North Carolina for the World Burn Congress, but we hope to go next year. On a positive note, the nerve block Dan had last week worked! His arm felt so much better, that I actually went away for the weekend. (This isn't making me look very good, with the hair appt and now this:) A friend invited me to a scrapbooking retreat in Kerrville, which is just over an hour away. I left Friday afternoon and returned last night (Saturday). I had a great time and got a lot accomplished. I'm pretty sure that all three members of my family ate pizza for every meal, but everyone is still in one piece. One eventful moment was when Macy had diarrhea during her nap, so poor daddy had to change her, the crib sheets, do a load of laundry all unexpectedly....but such is life. I did feel bad, but he handled it all fine. (I wish I could have been a fly on the wall during that incident:)

I will update on the surgery Tuesday evening. Our kiddos won't be here this week. My in-laws had previously decided to take them to the Valley (south Texas where their extended family lives) when we were going to be in North Carolina for the conference. They decided to still take them, so it will be a quiet week for us, and I know the kids will have a blast and be totally spoiled! Hopefully I use this time for some projects...we will see:)

Monday night update...

OK, well no surgery today. Dan actually had a procedure done this afternoon called a nerve block. He has had this procedure done a few times for pain in his back and neck, but this time they blocked (or hoped to block) the nerves in the neuroma. It took about an hour and a half but we won't really know the results until tomorrow. We will go back to the doctor and they will test it. After that, we will go back to the burn clinic and get some sort of idea about surgery. It still could be any day. We might not be going to that conference after all, as this is our number 1 priority. But, when push came to shove, I did get my hair done today:):) I will update tomorrow when we know more!!! Thanks for all the prayers.

Never a dull moment...

Well, Dan came home on Friday after having gone to the burn clinic and told me that he was having surgery on Sept. 30. The reason being is that the port in his left implant has developed a neuroma, which is a ball of nerves, all around the port. It is so large that you can see it when you look at his chest. This is the reason his left implant has been causing him so much pain (I mean after the infection was taken care of) He has not been able to lift anything or move his left arm much b/c of the pain. The implant has also shifted a little. So this is going to be a "simple" 20 minute surgery to re-position the implant and move the port. Dr. Thomas expects that Dan will not even stay in the hospital one night.

Here's the kicker, we have plane tickets to go to the World Burn Congress in North Carolina on Sept. 30. So at this moment, it is 8:20 am, Monday morning, and we are waiting for a phone call from Dr. Thomas telling us if Dan will be squeezed in TODAY(????) or TOMORROW! It still surprises me that Dan could be having surgery today and we don't even know. I am going to go to my hair appointment as scheduled:) Oh well, life goes on. I will post another update letting you know what is going on.

A couple of statisics...

Well, since I don't have any updates to give you guys, I am going to give you all some information that I received at a forum yesterday at the hospital. What we so casually call the "burn unit", is actually called the USAISR (United States Army Institute for Surgical Research). This is where everything from the ICU and step-down units are located as well as the rehab gym and case managers. Yesterday, Dan and I went to a meeting/ forum that the director, Dr./Col. Renz (I call him Dr. Renz, but he is active duty Army). Every now and then they have these meetings to get all the burn patients and their families on the same page. Sorry for my long-windedness, but at the meeting we heard some pretty interesting statistics. You all always hear me talk about what great care we are receiving here at BAMC, but no details.

There are over 250 staff members in the ISR. This includes doctors, surgeons, nurses, physical and occupational therapists, case managers and a host of administrators, who are a mixture of active duty, reservists and civilian.

Since 2003 there have been 760 burn patients (that's all the ISR deals with) admitted. Of those, there are varying degrees of burns, from 2% total body surface area (TBSA) burns to 100% TBSA burns. (Dan is 47.5% TBSA, all 3rd degree) Of those 760, 40 have not survived. Dr. Renz did not spin this any certain way, but looking at this mathematically, that is a 95% survival rate. Of those 760, 65% are Army, 23% are Marines the the other 12% are Navy, Air Force, and National Guard. There are also civilians admitted to the ISR, but I didn't get those numbers. If you are admitted as a civilian, you do not get your outpatient care at BAMC. You are admitted b/c BAMC is a level 1 trauma center, but it only provides outpatient care to military, (active or retired)

We are so thankful to be here at BAMC. We are absolutely thrilled and satisfied with the care that we have received and that we see others receiving.

Speaking of doctors, we found out that Dan's plastic surgeon, (who after 20+ years in the Army, joined the reserves) will not be deploying. This is great news for us, b/c we won't have to rush these next two surgeries. We have an appointment on Friday and hopefully we can get a date on when those will be happening.

Thanks again for all of your prayers!! Leave a comment and let me know you were here.

A few weeks to breathe...

Well, Thursday we went to see the maxiofacial prosthodontist. They make all sorts of things, but our need is these nasal stents that Dan wears in his nostrils to help shape his nose and keep the airway open. This was a huge relief to Dan b/c the permanent thing that has been in his nose for two weeks was taken out and the removable, more comfortable stints were made. That appointment is 4-5 hours long, so it makes for a LONG day, but it is done.
Then, on Friday, we went to the burn clinic and Dan saw his surgeon. Everything is looking good and Dr. Thomas is happy with how everything is coming along. All the stitches were taken out and fluid was added to the implants in his shoulders. The implants are two different sizes, one is able to hold 500 cc's and the other is able to hold 750 cc's. (The doctor said that they can actually be filled up to 3 times that and will be going over those numbers if his skin will allow it) Well, the smaller implant now has 140 cc's but much to every one's surprise, the larger implant has 320 cc's. They just kept filling it up until the skin was very tight. This is good news b/c the more skin that is stretched, the easier surgery will be. Obviously, we don't expect to get that much fluid each week. The doctor's actually average 60 cc's a week and as time goes on, not as much fluid can be added b/c the skin is so tight. Patrick's shoulders have been VERY sore these last two days, especially his left one (the one that was infected).
As far as surgery goes, the doctor expects that we will be having surgery towards the end of October. So that gives us a little break from that. Thank you again for all your prayers!
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