Day 59 - Fitting End to the Week

Daniel has had a busy day today. He had a visit from his grandparents, therapists galore, and even more therapists. His grandparents visited with him and helped with breakfast while we listened to morning rounds, saw him take a long walk and observed the OT/PT/ST's gather while he was fitted with a new face plate.

You may recall when his face was scanned  two weeks ago for a face plate. Today was the delivery day for the plate that he will wear for the next year. This clear plate will help to press and stretch the skin around his chin and throat and improve the skin's look and flexibility over time. Daniel had the attention of these six ladies for the first fitting while they focused on fit and form.

After a few adjustments. They marked it up with a sharpie then took it back to the lab. 

A trim here, a snip there...

And now it's ready. We will slowly ramp up the wear day by day until he's wearing it as much as possible. As he gains his weight back and builds more muscle mass a new scan will be needed, but for now this plate should work well.

If that wasn't enough another OT by the name of A. came in to address his right arm with the introduction of the Airplane Splint. This device will help to stretch his arm and hold his elbow in place the way the foam airplane wedges used to. The problem is that he's figured out how to yank his arms loose from the foam wedges and they were no longer helping to stretch his shoulders and armpits.

This new device is rigid and will hold his arm correctly and apply a nice stretch to his shoulder and across his chest. It prevents him from wiggling out of it and it will work better, but he definitely does not like it. We will have to see how he tolerates this over time. Getting additional pain meds on board will help and we've addressed that with his nurse and staff. If this device works for Daniel we'll probably get another one for his left arm then alternate their use during the day.

I continue to provide itch and scratch relief as much as I can. His skin seems to be drying out more than before so I've been soothing the itch with lotion and helping any way I can to distract him from the discomfort.

Today was a hard day for Daniel. His base-level of discomfort is heightened now with these new devices, but it will speed his recovery and improve his outcome if we can be vigilant about wearing these new devices.