Day 15: April 21, 2012

Day 15                                                                                                    Written Apr 21, 2012 9:36pm

Yesterday Dallas was complaining about his left arm hurting (the one that wasn't burned). As the evening progressed, he became more and more weak, his arm began to tremble very badly, he couldn't move his head, his body, he couldn't move anything. Later that evening, we noticed that Dallas had several red bumps on the lower part of his arm. One nurse said they believed it was a reaction to one of the leads they had on his arm, another said it could be due to the IV that was in his arm, another doctor said it looked like it could be a staph infection, still another
doctor said cellulitis, they just don't know. They drew blood so that they could do blood cultures to find out the cause, if it was an infection, an allergic reaction, etc.

Dallas was up most of the night, but I think some of it was due to him being asleep a lot of the day yesterday. Not to mention the sheer amount of pain medications he is receiving, and the fact that he is trying to heal from his burns.

This morning, Dallas said his belly hurt and not 30 seconds later, he ended up vomiting. This is only the second time that has happened since being in the hospital. I think it ended up scaring him, the look of fear in his eyes was awful.

Dallas is gaining a little of his strength back, but he is very shaky. We (and the doctors) aren't sure what caused this. They said it could be a number of things, including withdraw from some of the medications, the (possible) infection in his left arm, trying to heal from the burns, or a combination of all of it. It is terrible to see him like this. He isn't himself, and his spirit and fight is diminishing with each day.

As he continues on with recovery, he is in more and more pain. While it is so horrible to see him in such pain, we know it is a sign of him healing. His nerve endings are coming back, skin buds are forming, and dead skin is falling off with new skin replacing it. These are all very painful to endure, but we have to see the positives in the pain.

Within the next few days, the doctors will know if the spots on his arm is an infection, or something else. They have went ahead and put him on two different antibiotics to treat it. The antibiotics, however, could impede the healing process of the burns; therefore, going to the operating room Monday could have negative consequences. The doctors have advised us that if he is looking better tomorrow, they may go ahead and continue with the scheduled surgery on Monday, but they may postpone it for a while. If they decide to postpone the grafting, they will still take him in the OR and take the cadaver skin off to check out how his wounds are healing. If he does have an infection, there is an increased risk of him developing other infections in the grafting areas, with possible graft loss. While we do not want them to postpone the surgery (because we want him to continue to progress with recovery), we also don't want him going into surgery with an infection that could possibly spread and cause more consequences than good.

Again tonight, Dallas threw up. His temperature will not break. The lowest it has been all day is 100, peaking around 103.5 again. It is so difficult to know that there is nothing we can do to help him.

Why is this going on? Everyone we speak with has a different opinion, which makes it even more difficult, because nothing has been completely pinpointed. What is driving his temperature? Why won't it break? The doctors told us that once his burns were excised, his temperature should stop continuing. What is the infection from? What is it? What are going to be the complications if they do (or don't) continue with the surgery? This is so frustrating to know they aren't sure about anything, and to know there is nothing we can do. We just want our baby to get better, as soon as possible. And it seems that he continues to get worse, rather than better.

The comforting thing that Travis told me this morning was "There is a reason for everything" God has a plan for him, it is in his hands, and all we can do is continue to pray for him, to be by his side, and continue to give him all the love and support we possibly can.

Please keep him in your prayers and thoughts. Wish for a speedy recovery.