Week 2- A lot of good news

Yesterday's appointment went much better than the other two burn clinic appointments...Less pain, screaming and a overall feeling of hope. The nurse, PA and physical therapist all said- no need for any skin grafts. In fact on her belly we should be done wrapping her within the week. All the skin underneath had resurfaced and was healing nicely.

Wounds after one week

Wounds after two weeks and four days

The arm is a little bit different story. The skin underneath has not regenerated in a spot so the skin on the sides of the scar is going to be working double time.. basically grow sideways to cover the wound. Generally skin grafts do the work of the sideways growing skin but in the case of her arm the spot needing a graft is too small. We will probably be wrapping her arm for at least another 10 days.

I wish I could give you all the lessons on skin that I have learned in the past few weeks - but basically our skin is  a miracle. It is responsible for protecting us from infection and pain and cosmetics. Children and adults with severe burns deal with a double whammy, compared to other ailments. Excessive pain and a huge hit to the confidence. In the burn camps victims are taught to walk with their heads held high and look people in the eyes and etc... to learn from other burn survivors and to learn to love their new look and their new selves - that is of course on top of years of itching, pain and at times new skin grafts because the burns are located on a joint...

I guess I'm telling you all this for a few reasons. Madison's burns could have been much worse. The ones that healed in less than two weeks were on her face, elbow and hand. I was told if a burn heals in that time period there are rarely long term effects. If the situation had been switched and the more severe burns had been on the hand, face or elbow there would have been life long complications in any of those scenarios...  Instead the severe burns are in out of reach places not on joints and not visible to the rest of the world.

As a mother I can't tell you how grateful I am that my daughter is going to be OK. I know that angels were there with us in those first few moments to protect her and bless her. She has also now become my everyday testament to how wonderful it is to be a mother. To have precious children and to care for them and minister to their needs - it is truly the most holy of callings. I'm sorry I've taken this for granted at times. Madison is one of my greatest blessings here on this earth - I hope I can always remember how lucky I am to have her.

Finally as far as the future is concerned. The pigmentation and small scars on her face and arm will slowly return to normal if I continue to apply lotion and SPF 50 everyday for the next year. The one on her belly should be fine with lotion and the one on the arm is a wait and see scenario... Somewhere between the next 3-6 months it will either scar up really high/cosmetically look bad/itchy or stay flat and relatively unnoticeable and without itch.

Thank you for your prayers and your love. I have never felt so watched over as I have the last few weeks with so many coming out of the wood works to help us out. We love you and we hope you'll be in our lives for a very long time.

Love,

Summer (and Will)

Maddy week one

This picture says it all. Maddy is handling this whole situation like a champ! I on the other hand am falling apart. Somewhere around Saturday morning my horror switched to panic attacks. I don't think I even cried until I knelt down to ask Heavenly Father why this is happening to me? and why such a difficult reality had to be Maddy's new normal for awhile? My sweet innocent child - I just keep thinking how is this even possible? This type of thinking only increased my panic and I literally felt terrified to be alone with Maddy or my kiddies without Will or someone else.

Once my sister helped me to figure out that telling myself "I couldn't do it" was actually making it so "I couldn't do it," I decided to stop thinking "I can't" and started believing "I can." Thinking this really helps me to feel a lot more peace through this...When I asked burn unit nurses about how other mothers handle these situations, I quickly found I am not alone and that I actually seemed more put together than most - which I'm definitely not put together. My heart aches to think of these women, to see I am not the only one who's entire soul is wrapped up in their child's every triumph and every tragedy.

I can't say I've learned even a quarter of what the Lord has prepared for Will and I at this time. But I catch glimpses of things even greater than I have ever yet imagined. Glimpses of suffering that must happen after terrible accidents, and lose of love ones or so on. Somewhere in my vision I can see that we are not here on earth to be selfish or think only of ourselves. We are here to give. But not only give some - to give our all, to sacrifice even our lives if necessary - for love and for others.

Now I know if you have made it this far you I am sure you want me to cut to the chase. Of course if I would have got right to the point you might not have read the first few paragraphs (see what I did there ;).  Madison is doing well.

Here is what I have learned about skin in the past five days. First degree burns take a week or two to heal, 2nd degree two to four weeks to heal and 3rd degree just don't really heal. Except more often in Babies 3rd degree burns can miraculously regenerate skin. And sometimes in other people. Once the skin is burned down that deep there is no more feeling, nerves, plasticy, or real germ protection. The skin cells try to build from the sides of the wounds and do a horrible job and clump up all over the place and generally still cause long time pain.

So with the third degree burns the doctor waits three weeks then makes his final decision on whether or not to cut skin off the back of the leg or buttox and put it onto the wound. Once this decision is made patients are given a day or two to prepare then sent into surgery - and possibly an overnight stay at the hospital. Then another month at least of pain and bandages would follow.

So today's visit to the burn unit at the U - it would have been nice to have been warned that the "hard" part of all is is not just in those first moments after falling into a fire. I watched as my baby was pinned down and her wounds were scrubbed and her skin was torn off. She was in a lot of pain. I tried to close my eyes and remember to breath, but her eyes stayed fixated on me so I tried not to let her see how much her pain became my own pain.

Then came the prognosis - the facial burns and burns on her fingers and elbow will heal and probably not scar too much. The ones on her belly and her under arm are still too deep in dead skin to know so those answers will literally begin to surface in the next week or two.  In the meantime the PA told us to start dressing the wounds twice a day instead of once - now two times a day instead of just the one time I will need to be very brave :(
 
We love you all. We have been recipients to such thoughtful acts of service and sacrifice. We are indebted to so many of you and hope you know how much we appreciate you!

So if you're one of so many praying for Maddy- pray for pink skin! And pray that her mom will understand that pain makes her and us stronger, not weaker.

Keep with us and hopefully I'll be less wordy in the next post!

Sincerely,

Summer