Day 9 - Challenge Course?

Daniel was somewhat agitated through the night and early morning so they gave him Versed so help keep him more calm. They weaned him off it yesterday before and during surgery, but with the increased agitation it helped him to be more calm. Daniel has had a slight fever all day (~101), but they are treating it with meds.

The team threw some new challenges Daniel's way today.

For starters the OTs worked Daniel's limbs and joints, then they attempted to see if they could get him to sit up with his legs over on the side of the bed dangling down towards the floor and get a nice bend in his waist. Daniel's body thought NOT HIGHLY of this activity. He went rather stiff so I'm told and didn't want to have anything to do with this not-so-fun challenge.

Challenge number two was to see how Daniel could do with breathing with out an airway. So that's what they did. They turned off his airway for a bit (about 10 minutes) and observed that his breathing on his own was pretty good. He did struggle with a few breaths, but held his own. His breathing was good and showing the staff that he was able to breathe. Still though - not quite ready to go off the vent.

The final challenge for the day was a fresh dressing and cleaning of his face. For the first time I got to see his back (covered in alloskin) and was amazed at how his skin appears. There are two palm-sized sections on his back that are NOT burned, but the rest of his back is burned with it ending in a straight line where the top of his pants would ride at the waist. The resident burn doctor popped in to observe how his wounds were looking and sutured two spots on his back where some bleeding was occurring. Daniel's chest looked good as well. Once the alloskin is exposed they cover it in in medi-honey and then a protective mesh, gauze and burn net on the outside. All the bedding underneath and sheets are also replaced. They do this at least once every day. Then they moved to his face that has been receiving cleanings twice per day.

Burns to the face heal quickly in comparison to body burns so they are not using alloskin there. Cleaning began by first removing gauze and then the Adaptec (netting that is non-stick suspended in antibacterials) from his burns. Then the fun part begins where a technician uses a Norson debrider (like a blunt non-sharp scalpel) to scrape non-living tissue from his good skin and flesh. We learned that this device was developed by a former burn patient that didn't "enjoy" older methods that were used a few decades ago. We could see Daniel's entire face without any dressing for the first time and got a good look at his ears and throat. Dan's body reacted some during all this cleaning (okay a lot). It probably didn't feel especially nice (okay it must have hurt terribly) and we're glad we KNOW that he will not remember any of this ever.

Once all the debriding was complete they covered his face up as before with the medi-honey, adaptic mesh, and gauze. His lips appear so much nicer after this cleaning - still blistered and bloody in places, but not so icky and blackened. (Sorry if that was too much detail). They finished off the cleaning with a good tooth brushing. Challenge complete!