Day 18 - Clear the lungs

Today is turning out to be more of the same as yesterday for Daniel.

His right lung looks on an x-ray to be even more clear than yesterday. His left lung looks maybe less clear. There still isn't an obvious sign of pneumonia and the latest test cultures are growing still so we don't know the results from that later today.

The plan for this morning is to do a 2nd bronchoscopy to help clear up anything in his lungs then try to get him standing later today if he's up for it and his oxygen intake remains high. The staff give Daniel a fair amount of pain medicine to get through this procedure - it doesn't look or sound like much fun, but al least he's kind of knocked out for the procedure and a good while afterwards.

We completed the bronchoscopy with a bronchoscope (fun to say?). With the camera mounted on the end you could see some real junk and Dr. B. was able to remove a lot of it with suction. This time the goo was thicker than yesterday and perhaps more obviously blocking his lungs from getting air intake making it harder for Daniel to breathe. Once the procedure was complete his oxygen intake was very good at 99%. Even though he's conked out right now we are pleased to see it looking that good.

Soon an x-ray will be done to compare to the earlier ones and we'll be able to see if things are starting to clear up in his lungs. If it turns to pneumonia then Daniel is already getting a broad-spectrum antibiotic (that can be tuned to target the specific bug if the culture shows it) so I think he's set up to get through what ever this is in short order.

The afternoon will be a time to try to get Daniel standing up if he wakens up enough. I'll update this post once we've given that a try in several hours...
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Right now I'm going to sit in on SOAR meeting - the same group Dawn and I met with the first night. It is a burn victim recovery group. The groups consists of hospital staff and burn victims and family and friends. There was a recently burned patient who may be released from the ICU in a few weeks. He is further along in his recovery than Daniel. The focus turned towards what many patients are faced with when they are released and begin to live back with their loved ones.

One thing that Daniel may never have to deal with is the self-awareness and self-image one has after being burned and scarred. Stares in public that burn victims face when people in public see them are common for burn victims. One can't help but look at their burns - sometimes gawking or wondering why they are disfigured. Daniel has never been overly self-conscious or worried about his appearance - he has us for that. Before his burn Dawn cut his hair with a Flowbee, we help with shaving his still boyish face, brushing hair and teeth and grooming. He can do those things, but usually not quite pass muster. He sometimes puts his shirt and shoes on backwards and we help fix that for him, but he doesn't seem to care too much about that and doesn't seem to have discomfort from it.

I burned my hand badly over 22 years ago. It didn't require grafting, but the recovery was similar to what patients go through so I have first-hand (pun hazard) experience with what I was hearing from other burn victims, but really I was there for Daniel and to support the others in the group.
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The afternoon came and went. Daniel got a new cool bed that pumps up the mattress and rotates slowly from left to right to allow movement and kind of swish around the fluid in his lungs to work their way out.

Daniel had his dressings cleaned at about 5pm. Tomorrow they will take him to the tub room for a full dressing change and to check out his arms for the first time since being grafted. Can't wait to hear how his arms are doing with their new skin.

Through all of the tasks today his breathing has improved since the bronchoscopy from the morning thus it may have helped a lot. The team have been weaning him off oxygen slowly and soon he may be breathing on his own and hopefully through the night or maybe by morning.

As of this evening Daniel is on two antibiotics. Not giving a lot of detail and it's still a bit over my head, but sufficed to say the two of them work well together to knock out bugs that often enter this phase of a patients recovery.