Day 58 - Good Progress

While it may seem like the days are becoming routine to us we're learning just as much about Daniel and his injury as we were on Day 1.

Something interesting happened today when he was in the gym working with his PT S. who has only worked with him a few times. We were doing some stretching on a mat and even leaning forward on a big ball and rolling forward to stretch his back and work the core. We even got Daniel in to a cat-cow pose (yoga people). That took some work to roll him up and do it and he didn't want to put any weight on his right arm. The point though is how he will try anything his therapists have asked. He complains a bit and you can see the pain all over his face and body, but he amazes me every time. He's such an awesome patient!

Last night we set up the pedals for his hands/arms to pedal with. This appeared to be a hard task for him so we had candy on hand to give him after we did sets of 5. He showed so much determination it was humbling to see. He'd grit his teeth and power through it, then get some highly motivating candy, rest then go back at it again. I wonder if he understands how much this is going to pay off for him in the long run. It's really amazing how hard he is working!

Anyway, back to the interesting realization... After this ball-holding session Daniel was catching his breath and resting. I was stroking his arms and unknowingly scratching them to soothe him. (You can see from the picture that he's wearing gloves and a tight fitting elastic garment that runs up to his shoulders.) I stopped after a moment and we continued to chat, but Daniel raised his arms up to me to continue the scratching. I mentioned that he liked it and the PT said "oh yes, once the grafts have taken the skin becomes really itchy!" 

via GIPHY

So I now have a new purpose and title as Chief Itcher & Scratcher! In addition to getting lotioned-up each day Daniel seems to love being itched gently all over. I'm so glad we discovered this. We talked this over with Dr. B. who popped in and he explained all about it and that it was something burn patients find really annoying - the itchy new skin. Imagine being Daniel without a voice and having itching all over and not be able to scratch that itch! (Especially since he can't use his hands much with all the stiffness and pain in his limbs.)

Graft status: There's a big burn conference in Boston (probably Burn-Con 2017 East Coast edition or some sort of catchy name) where Daniel's surgeons and many of the staff are attending. During this time Daniel's wounds have been healing, but there's concern from the staff here about whether his back will require a new graft or not. Dr. Wi. views the daily photos of Dan's back, but wants to wait and see how it looks when he returns this weekend. 

In the interim we continue to work Daniel and do a lot of PT & OT with him on our own. The therapists have stopped in and feel that there's nothing they could show us that we aren't already doing so we are feeling pretty good about ourselves.

Not to toot our horn too loudly, but at least a dozen or so of the staff have said "you're hired" to us because we just jump in and do most of the tasks that they do (apart from wound care and administering meds). We've helped move him in and out of bed, wiped his butt, helped change his sheets (wounds bleed and weep a lot!),  fed him, reset alarms on his bed and reconnected his sensors and stuff... So I guess we have done a lot to help staff (and Daniel), but it's what we do.