Day 40 - Ouch

Daniel had a long wound care session today. He was bumped to a midday start time. We got to his room mid morning thinking he was getting wound care first thing and we could be there when he finished. We arrived and had a short session with him in a pre-medicated state before he was wheeled away to the tub room.

In this session the staff looked at his newly grafted chest and cleansed his entire body. That's a big task and he required a lot of medication - more than usual. He's now resting and looking pretty wiped, but when he first arrived his head was a bright reddish purple. Once things settled down his normal face color returned.

The team also did some trimming this time. We wondered if his ears would fully recover, but unfortunately some of the tissue was too badly burned around the edges of his left ear and had to be trimmed off or possibly it just fell away when being cleaned. When the skin gets this way it's called necrotic tissue and needs to be removed. Today was that day. His right ear looks the same, but is still whole. It may go the same way soon... Ouch!

His donor site under his hair is healing really nicely though. Maybe his hair growing back in (even though it's super short) hides it, but it looks really good to me and all of his graft work on his face and neck look great too. There's still the concern of how the graft on his neck and throat might tighten and draw his mouth open. On Tuesday Daniel will be fitted for a plate he will wear for many months (maybe a year?). The plate will help stretch and form his new skin around his chin & throat area to help with that stretching we need to have happen. The plate may take 2 weeks before it is delivered and by that time the ears and back of the neck may be healed to the point where he could wear this apparatus. More on that later.

For the rest of the day we will hang out with Daniel, let him rest and if he seems remotely interested we will offer him some food or drink, but I'm more of the thinking that he needs some recuperation time from all the pain or wound care. Take it easy Dan! We love you!!