Day 10

Daniel is opening his eyes, scanning slowly about and keeping them open now. It's so wonderful to see his eyes looking their lovely green-blue. He's focusing on us and moving his head slightly while tracking our movements, but we can tell he's really droopy too.

In morning rounds we discussed the usual. His fever is down. He's off the Versed and on Precedex which will make him more conscious and able to comply with requests. Dan barfed last night, but did not aspirate any fluid into his lungs. There's already enough fluid showing up on x-rays so the team is monitoring it closely. The few infections that he does have are being treated. No signs of MRSA or anything horribly nasty. Keeping his body and room clean and all visitors gowned up is always a priority on the Burn ICU. All the markers for his kidneys have improved and the initial injury to them from the burn seems to be something that looks to be in his past.

The staff can give Daniel commands and he seems to be responding when they say it in a way he can understand. When mom (Dawn) says "scoot scoot" he knows to push with his legs to move his entire body higher up the bed. His legs have been doing a fair bit of squirming, he will move them off to the side of the bed or slide down and arch his back. These squirming movements are some signs that he's agitated and the staff are learning to tune his pain meds to keep him at the "right level" of calm (not in a deep coma by any means, but numbed enough to tolerate the pain that must be coursing through his body).

Today Daniel's grandparents came by to hang out in his room. While they were here Dawn and I walked off-campus and over to Panera to grab some lunch via gift cards and get away from the hospital for 30 minutes.

When we returned from lunch Daniel's hospital OT arrived for some daily workouts with careful stretches and movements of his arms and joints. She left him with his body positioned more upright in a sitting position for one hour which is another form of his early therapy. When she left she said "bye" and he mouthed "bye" back!!! That was a touching moment to again see the Daniel we know. He always REALLY tries to please his therapists and this was the first time I saw the real 'him' since he willingly climbed into the ambulance a week ago still conscious, but so scared and frightened.

Updates to this day may come later tonight.
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Evening time: Daniel continues to track our movements around the room. I can pat and soothe the top of his head (they shaved the hair on his head) and he seems to respond by resting his eyes or look more directly at me. Dawn and I give reassuring words, tell him we love him (like the 400th time today) and stroke his legs.

One thing we learned today is the pace with which the team worked through all surgeries to debride the burned skin from his body. While getting the patient to this state is crucial so that the body can then begin to heal free of skin that no longer serves him; the team moved more quickly with Daniel than other patients. Because he's a healthy strong young man the team has confidence that his body can handle the assault of four surgeries in six days and move him closer to the point where he'll be ready for skin grafting. Most of that (there's some ongoing care for his face, ears and chin still) is behind us now. So in the short time we've been here fighting through each day Daniel has been working his ass off doing all that's asked of him.

As we enter the weekend today Daniel's recovery will be focused on rest and pain control. By Monday we hope he's gained strength and ready for the next stage of his healing when skin grafting can commence.