Frustrated in Seattle

We are still here at the hospital, with very little reasoning in my mind. The doctor had told me originally that we would be here for monitoring Mattie's pain and to be certain he would not take off the brace on his right arm. He has only been given Tylenol for possible pain in the night, and one dose for the wound being unwrapped yesterday. He has been in great spirits, you would not know he had been through surgery as well as the fact that his arm brace has not been touched in the slightest. I guess all the prep work we did at home, talking and practicing keeping the brace on along with the fact that he does not have to wash it has made it a piece of cake.
I became frustrated all afternoon when I found out the weekend doctor had gone home, without seeing us all weekend. He came by this morning at 6 am, while we slept and never came back in. He relayed to the discharge nurse that we would not go home until Wed. when the brace is scheduled to come off. This made me upset and frustrated for a number of reasons:
1. I had been asking if we could go home after talking to the weekend therapist about how well Mattie has been doing. Both the nurse and therapist have implied to me they do not see the need to keep him here except we would be taking a chance that something could happen to his brace.
2. He gets little monitoring, I am the primary monitor with his nurses checking in on him, so really there would not be a difference, concerning the brace being monitored, if we were home.
3. The doctor had all weekend to see us, and did not make it a priority to meet with us and communicated with me, the patient's mother concerning decisions involving his care.
4. It is hard to be in the hospital, knowing we could be at home, only an hour away for recovery.

Just pray for my patience with this situation and that I would get some clear communication with the medical staff tomorrow on how best to care for Mattie as he recovers from the surgery. I adore Mattie's nurses, Pam and Abby who have been with us since we started on Friday and they have been very supportive to both Mattie and I. Thank God he gave us such wonderful nurses! I better go get Mattie into bed tonight as he took a short cat nap today and should be tired now.....

Wrapping up the day (3-1-08)

The wrapping on Mattie's leg, where the skin was removed for the skin graft, got semi-undressed this afternoon. Even though it was just the top layer of wrapping it did cause trauma and pain to Mattie. He was pretty resilient though in the fact that once we put his pants back on and he did not see the bandage, he was content to move on. He fell asleep at 8 pm, so we are going to be taking off his pants during the night to air out the dressing where the man-made scab is located. He took a great nap, so I am honestly surprised he is asleep already though he has been super hyper. As Vicky said, you would think he is on a vacation! He is having a great time, hanging out with his brother and grandparents this afternoon, chasing after his nurse Pam (who is willing to grant his every wish, except dinner out, of course!) and racing around in his police car. He used every ounce of energy I guess he had, cause he is out for the count. We will see if he wakes up through the night. Praying for mommies sake, he dosn't!
We moved rooms, or I should say the nursing staff moved our room, when we went to dinner in the cafeteria cause of some new patients admitted, so now we have a new room mate: a canadian couple with a 6 year old who had a skin graft surgery as well. We also had talk of being released, but that talk ended up disipating since we are still here. We are hoping to be released tomorrow, as things are going very well!
We have been very busy since we arrived so when my mother-in-law, Jackie, came this afternoon I took a good long nap, so now I will be up for awhile. Jason had to go back to work but he was able to be here all day, Friday, and was very supportive to me and Mattie. He gave me many back rubs and helped with Mattie so I could catch up with sleep after the operation. Our family is learning so much through this time about what is important-each other. We are so grateful for the loving and financial support so many of you have given to our family! The meals, cards and phone calls, gifts and so much more have meant the world to us. I am so blessed in so many ways and count these blessings daily! God is good.....
1 Corinthians 14:33 "For God is not a God of disorder but of peace."

Waking up in Seattle......

We had a great first night in the hospital, with about 8 hours of sleep, interupted only by 2 potty breaks by Mattie. Once he was going, his thigh started to bother him so they gave him some tylenol to help revlieve the pain and discomfort. He is doing really well, very talkative to all the nurses and other patients. He has a thing for our new nurse, Pam, who he asked to join him for dinner in the cafeteria last night! It was so cute, his first date proposal to a big person. She had to turn him down since she was working, but said she wished she could. Mattie's face went from a smile to a very sad frown, but he quickly moved on; mommy and daddy became quick subsitutes. He had a good appetite, eating most of a hot dog, bowl of fruit, curly fries and some jello! We had some excitement on the floor with police, hospital security and CPS showing up to investigate a situation with a family that had a little boy. I am not sure about what all was going on but Mattie was able to befriend 2 of the officiers who gave him stickers and entertained him, while they were here! I am amazed at how well he is doing, God is good! He is very happy about not needing a bath or wound change for a few days.
We are going to head to breakfast so I must go but I hope you all have a great Saturday!

Sucess at last!

We have had a sucessful surgery today! Praise God! We were up at 4 am to get to Seattle by 6 am, for check in. Mattie was very alert and aware of everything on the way, asking questions and engaging in conversation. Once we arrived at Harborview he was very hungry, but we were unable to give him anything to eat or drink in preparation of the surgery. Once we got into the "holding area" he was all smiles and flirting with the nurses and entertaining the other patients. I was able to dawn the hospital garb (including the hair net and slippers) and we were wheeled in together to the operating room. I held onto him for the gas to be applied, until he was completely out, then I was ushered out of the room. I had peace leaving him in these trusted doctors hands and knew that God would be with him, which was even more comforting.
Jason and I waited for only an hour and then Dr. Pham and our wonderful physical theraphist, Jodi came out and gave us a report on the surgery. They said all went well, but the hard part now will be the next few days (he needs to wear the brace for 5 days) and we have to be sure that it does not come off. He also has a man-made scab created to cover over the area skin was removed off his hip; this area will cause more pain since it is such a thin layer of skin, all the nerves are hyper sensative. They said he was doing good, still groggy of course, but ready for visitors. Mattie was relieved to see us, once we came in the room.
We ended up being in the recovery unit until 3 pm, due to no bed being available on the 8th floor, which lead to restlessness. Once we got up here, Mattie had already made a list of what he wanted to eat and do on the 8th floor. We are on the same floor, we were on the first hospital visit so he was very familiar. He wanted his yellow gown and pants, yellow slipper-socks, juice, graham ers and a mini box cereal. He took off the IV, allowing him to eat and drink. He is now, a few feet away watching a movie and playing a game with his daddy. Mattie is in a great mood, very excited actually to be back here with his little police car and familiar nursing staff! I am so glad he has handled this transition back so well, it makes it easier for me as well.
Thanks for your prayers, encouragaging words and support as we face this next stage of recovery for Mattie! We will continue to update everyone as often as computer access is available.

Re-Scheduled Surgery

So, we have an update on here already concerning Mattie's upcoming surgery: it has been re-scheduled. Dr. Pham had an emergency and we needed to change the day from Wednesday to Friday morning (6 am arrival!) This will give more time for healing and prayer to occur for our brave little boy. We do not mind the change as Jason and I already worked out our job schedules and will both be there on the day of the surgery. We know that God has all this in the palm of His hand and that there is a reason to even these small changes occuring.

As I completed Mattie's wound dressing on his arm (which is the only time of the day that it is uncovered), many thoughts came to my mind. We each have wounds we carry in our lives, some of us carry them in a very visable way for all to know and see, while others of us carry them deep inside. The wounds we carry are all different but feel the same...they hurt and are painful. Mattie gets fearful, of the wound cleaning time and will send himself into complete panic as the anxiety he faces will overcome him. Seeing this occur, I have learned to comfort him by reassuring him over and over again, in a calm voice that I will not hurt him and that I love him and want him to get better. I let him know, that I understand it hurts and give him hugs of support. I allow him to do as much as he can, on his own to care for his wounds; he will un-wrap the dressings and dab the area with his wet washcloth. When he cleans he is careful not to rub the areas that cause pain (as we try to repair our hurts on our own, the cleansing is not deep enough to heal, just to look and feel better for awhile). But then I will use the same washcloth, holding his arm still and quickly but efficently wash over the area removing all the old medicine and build up from the wound. (this is like what our Heavenly Father does for us, that we can not do for ourselves). He has learned that when I clean it, I will be fast and the process will go quicker even if it is painful and he seems to be trusting me more each day to care for him. Though it is a battle to release the washcloth from his hand to mine, he is learning to trust those who care for him to not cause harm to his body but care for him through the pain. (This is the battle I face myself, to trust God to get me through the pain of this experience with my son. I daily am passing him the "washcloth" in hopes he will make the process go by faster and that he will help Mattie's pain go away).

One question, I have been asked is what does Mattie know about the surgery? We have explained to him that we are going back to the hospital for another stay and the doctors there are going to help his arm get better. He seems content with that much information and trust that as long as he is with his parents he will be ok. We will be praying with him for God to heal him through the surgery, on Thursday night, as well.

Thanks again for the support and love you have all shown to us, and know that whatever hurt you are facing in your life, God knows your pain and hears your suffering. Lean on him for strength and trust him for your healing.......

Update on 2/22

"Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." Phil. 4:6

On the way up to Seattle, Jason and I prayed that we would have a positive minded Doctor, one that would share with us how Mattie is doing in a positive way. Well we got our prayer answered but not in the way we had planned to hear it.
I knew before we walked in the doors that Mattie's thigh area is almost completely healed as well as the back part of the elbow but the middle (where the skin is the tightest is) was not looking good. It was bleeding, looking very "fleshy" and bumpy. I thought this was part of the process as we do theraphy on it. Dr. Pham informed us that yes his thigh and back part of the elbow are almost all healed up, but the inner elbow was a concern. He said it is not healing properly, there is vertical healing happening which is when there are raised spots on the burn areas. This vertical healing will have lasting damage to his skin. Also he is still having problems using the right arm and at this point with the theraphy being done, it should be showing more signs of improvement and less pain, which is not the case. The doctor was very understanding and compassionate to us, as he informed us of the process of a skin graft surgery. He will have skin from his left thight removed and used on the elbow area, the process is about 1 1/2 hrs. long. Though the surgery is not what we had wanted, we do feel that we need to consider the best process to bring lasting healing to our little one's body. I did not leave feeling frustrated because my prayer was answered and God gave me peace in our decision. I realized it is all how I choose to see this situation: as a positive step in a right direction or crushing the hope of natural healing we had. I have chosen the first and have peace. A peace that only our God can give.
I believe in the power of prayer and ask you all to join us in praying between now and then for God, the great physician, to heal Mattie with or without the doctor's help. I have confidence in our decision to seek this surgery for our son after getting some good insight on how this will help him ultimatley recovery, though we still have a lot of work to do with theraphy once the surgery is complete. We have scheduled the surgery for Mattie, next Wednesday (2/27/08)morning at Harborview with Dr. Pham. He will again be recovering on the burn floor, at Harborview for 3-5 days.
P.S. Praise God for the healing done to majority of the burned area that Mattie started with! The healing done already has bulit my faith as I personally have seen His healing hand.....

Prayer for 2/20

Some of you have heard we have a Clinic visit up in Seattle at Harborview today. I am requesting prayer for the following items:
1. Mattie to be in a good mood and follow instructions
2. The Doctor would be optomistic about Mattie's healing, giving us good news
3. The theraphist, Jodi to be encouraged by Mattie's elbow movement
4. Safe travels and a good visit

The Lord is Good and he cares for Mattie more than we do. Whatever the outcome I know that God has him in the palm of his hand. I will be updating later tonight as we will pend the evening as a family! (picture of Mattie with his get well card pile! He is a loved boy)