Day 47: May 23, 2012

Day 47                                                                                                 Written May 23, 2012 10:58pm

Dallas had a restless night again.  It seems to be hit or miss with his level of comfort while sleeping.  When he woke up, he did well.  Ate some breakfast, played the game with Daddy, typical things he's done over the last few days.

The soldier, Steven, who came in to see him the other day, came to visit him again today.  This time, he was dressed in his uniform, and brought Dallas a teddy bear and a 40mm round.  Dallas was so excited to see him.  He also played the Xbox with him for a while.  It was a good uplift for him, since he wants to be a soldier.  And now, Dallas says he wants to be a soldier doctor, since he is doing his own bandage changes (for the most part); he says he wants to help the other soldiers while he's a soldier.  That would be wonderful!

Dallas' PT went well today.  He went out to the main hall/waiting area (with his Daddy and Steven) and Elizabeth, his physical therapist, set up Twister for him.  He played Twister with them, played bowling with them, and then went back to the room (by that point, he was exhausted).

Also, every time Dallas has to use the bathroom, he now walks there (with some support).  He is getting more and more motivated to get out of here.

He is scheduled for 2pm for the sedation suite tomorrow.  There, they will fit him for his face mask, use the silver nitrate on the areas where granulated tissues are forming, remove the other staple that was left from surgery, take out his feeding tube, and possibly, remove his pick line.  If all goes well, it should take about 2-3 hours, and he will be tube/IV-free!  They will then watch him for 24-48 hours and decide if he's ready to go home.

Dallas ate a good amount of lunch today, an adult plate of Sweet and Sour Chicken (no rice).  So his appetite is back, and he's eating well!  This is one of the biggest steps towards being discharged.  They want to ensure his nutrition is up, and back to normal, before releasing him; and it's almost there!

Mac came to visit Dallas today.  As soon as he walked in, Dallas' eyes lit up and you could tell he was so excited!  They played video games together and watched cartoons.  When they sat together, Mac stayed far to the right of him.  You can tell he's still scared of hurting him, but also scared of him.  Dallas tried giving Mac a hug and kiss, and Mac pulled away; Dallas tried so hard to pull him close, but Mac kept pulling away, with a fear in his eyes.  Seeing that is extremely difficult.  Two brothers who are so close, best friends... are now seperated, and one is scared of the other.  We hope that Dallas doesn't realize this, that he doesn't notice Mac's fear, but we think he does see it, unfortunately.  

Dallas had another bath tonight.  Overall, it went well.  While waiting for the water to warm, he was bouncing up and down, excited to get in, and hit his (grafted) knee on the outside of the tub; he instantly screamed out in pain and it started bleeding a little.  It was terrible seeing that happen to him.  But, he counted out the pain, didn't cause any damage to the graft (that we could see), and got in the tub.  Once he got in the tub, he let his Xeroform soak so that it would fall off, rather than have to be pulled off.  He took them all off (on his arm, his side, his leg) and I took the ones off his back, then he began washing his body.

Getting out of the tub scared me.  Once he was out, we saw MAJOR discoloration in his right leg (where the graft is), and in his donor areas on the left and right leg.  PT said that standing could cause discoloration, but seeing it purple was pretty freightful.  Things like that is what scares me about going home.  But after getting him back into the bed to relax, the purple began to subside.  We got the dressings back on, and he and Daddy laid in bed and watched cartoons together.

We are trying to keep Dallas up tonight so that he will sleep most of the day tomorrow.  He will not be allowed to have anything to eat or drink after 4am, since he will be sedated at 2pm.  It doesn't make much sense for them to schedule him so late in the day; refusing food and drink to a five year old.  How do you really explain to him that he can't having anything to eat or drink?  It's going to be so hard on him; so the goal is to have him sleep as much as possible tomorrow morning.

Please continue to think about Dallas and pray that all goes well tomorrow.