PICU

How fast life can change. In the blink of an eye we went from the perfect snow day to the ED and now (about 24 hours later) to the PICU. I can still see it in slow motion, I was dropping a bullion cube into boiling water to make broth to add to the soup I was making and she came rushing in and grabbed it. I reached for it but I was too late. Splash, scream, running to the bathroom to put her under cold water, watching her skin start to peel off. I knew we were in trouble then... Til we got her to the ED (which wasn't long thanks to Roger having snow blown earlier) she was shaking and shocky. They got an IV in and morphine in so fast and had her up to the floor where we started the long difficult process of getting the dead skin off and everything dressed.

And so here we are, the first people moved out of RMH after the snowstorm, in the PICU. Thankfully they broke protocol and allowed me to ride with her, and her transporters were truly fabulous. The roads were so bumpy and that really didn't feel good to her at all so they kept her medicated and held on to her and talked to her the whole time. And they talked with me and cheered me up a little. From where I was sitting all I could see was her fuzzy head and she looked so normal from that view that it was a relief for a while to not be staring at her peeling face and body. Because truly she is a mess. She looks a little better this morning after her debridement last night and her new dressing works so much better. They used net wrapping and made her a long sleeve shirt, sewing the arms on using mask ties. I offered my embroidery floss (I'm still working on Mary's stocking) but the ties are working well. With this set up I can hold her if she wants (which she did briefly after the procedure but you could tell she was tired and uncomfortable so the nurse gave her some more morphine and I tucked her into her crib). I did hold her for about 45 min before the procedure and it was perfect. She seemed so happy snuggled up with me and well, I was so happy too.


Her biggest hurdles now:
eating or another NG tube. They put one down while she was asleep but we can't get it taped right since so much of her face is peeled. All of her face should heal great they say BTW. It was making her miserable and we weren't sure that it had stayed in position after the x ray so they decided to take it out. So today she really needs to eat. I tried to get her to drink pediasure last night but she wouldn't do it. Her lips are a little sore but not too bad and her mouth is OK

4ish areas of 3rd degree burns that will either heal on their own or have to have grafting. They will probably have a better idea which way it will go in 3-4 days but wouldn't do any grafting for a week if things were looking like they weren't healing.