Day 38: May 14, 2012

Day 38                                                                                                Written May 14, 2012  6:14pm

They moved Dallas to High Acuity yesterday and he did well.  He was able to get some rest last night, though the itching has gotten worse.  It's hard to try and keep him from scratching or touching his face.

At 6am, the doctors came up to get Dallas to take him to the OR.  They didn't give him his Versed until the last minute, so by the time he was transported downstairs, he was aware of what was happening.  When they were ready to take him back, he got very irritated and started crying and saying he wanted Mommy and Daddy to stay with him.  So the doctor
had to give him more medication to calm him.  It was amazing how hard he fought to stay awake, but eventually, he drifted off.  Talk about something pulling on your heart strings.  Dallas was begging for us to
stay with him.  But once he was unaware of what was about to happen,
they took him to the back.

The nurse called at 7:45am to tell us that they had gotten started. 
This is supposed to be a pretty simple proceedure, only taking roughly an hour and a half to two hours.  We are praying that everything has taken, and he will need no further grafting.  There are spots on his face that arent taking, they are peeling up.  But, Dr. Mullnar said he did overgraft and expected some of the areas to peel off after time.  Hopefully the ones we see that happening to, are the areas he expected.

Dr. Doud, one of Dallas' previous doctors, came to visit us.  She went to see Dallas in the OR and said he was looking great.  She advised us that a couple of spots on his arm looked like they didn't take, so Dr. Zeller would talk to us.

Dr. Zeller came out and spoke with us after surgery, around 10:00am.  She said that she was very happy with the results.  The grafts on his chest, back, leg, and neck took very well; there were a few spots on his arm that didn't take and would require a future surgery.  She wants to give it a few weeks to see how things progress, then possibly in a month or so, regraft in spots.  Dr. Zeller told us that she thinks Dallas will be released sometime next week.  He will have to be seen again about a week after release to check on how the grafts are healing, how PT is going, and when he would need to have his arm (if at all) touched up.  Once his nutrition goals are met and his mobility is better, they will be able to release him.

Dallas will have his feeds turned back on today and throughout the night, then will have them shut of during the day, so that he can start getting hungry and begin to eat on his own again.  They will be doing nocturnal feeds ony. 

PT will also be working with him pretty aggressively in order to get him mobile and regain his strenght.  
We will be doing dressing changes again for wound care, once a day.  This time, it should be MUCH easier.  It will only be xeroform (vaseline bandages) and kerlix (gauze).  The dressing changes will continue at home.  We will also have to finish weaning him off of his Methadone and Adavan once we get home.  They are hoping to have him almost completely weaned by the time we leave.

Dallas is doing good right now.  He took a nap a few hours after surgery and has yet to wake up.  We are hoping things continue to improve, and with the proper wound care, good nutritional habits, and aggressive therapy, Dallas will be back to himself in no time (hopefully).