More Pain, But Doing Well

I spoke with Heather, and she is currently doing quite well. She had a rough morning. Her day began with a dressing change in the "Tank Room" (This is a completely tiled room where they can give people a shower in bed.). In order to take her to the Tank Room they have to transfer her from her bed to a plastic covered metal bed (It has a thin mattress that is covered in plastic.) that can get wet. Apparently Heather's back was stuck to much of her bedding, so this transfer ripped the bedding off her back and was excruciating. The pain was intense even though they gave her several different narcotics and other pain killers prior to the transfer and during the entire dressing change. The dressing change and shower were also very painful. She said she wasn't sure she was going to make it through it.

They used a different kind of dressing for her back that is a kind of thin foam pad that is impregnated with silver and other antimicrobial chemicals that is supposed to work as well as the other dressing they used. She was worried this would burn and be painful like the previous one, but she said that it immediately felt really good. They secured this dressing with a mesh t-shirt of sorts that seems to hold it in place quite well. Heather was pleased with this arrangement.

The doctors and nurses looked at the skin grafts on her legs during the dressing change and said they look fantastic! We are thrilled with this news! If they continue to heal as they seem to be, she shouldn't need any further surgeries or major procedures. My guess is that they will soon want to get her out of the ICU and into inpatient rehab.

After her dressing change Heather did quite well throughout the day. Physical therapy came and tried to get her to sit up, but she was feeling quite exhausted. My guess is that in the next few days she will begin to feel like doing more and more to build up her strength. It is really nice to see her make this progress; however, there is part of me that won't let myself get too excited about it for fear that something terrible will happen again.