Something to Ponder

Quotes from Gerald Ford

"A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have."

Enough Said!

Our Nala

Our Maddie

Doctor's Update

Notice the redness on his neck and behind his ear.


The dark spots are the dead skin that hasn't fallen off yet.






On Tuesday we went back to the doctor, everything is moving along just fine. His arm is healing the area that didn’t take the skin is closing. They hope that the next time what we go in which is the Friday of Halloween, that we won’t need any special gauze or ointments to put on it. One reason we had the appointment on Tuesday was because he had to get measure for his custom pressure garments. He is going to have to wear one from his wrist up to his neck, and it going to be like a vest. It will be like a scoop neck t-shirt on the top and hit below his ribs. It will even cover his other shoulder. It will have a zipper that will be in the front. Remember he has to wear this for 23 hours a day. Basically every hour of the day except when he is showering. We got in it tan, but believe me it was kind of funny. He could have gotten them in any color he wanted, even neon colors! But we stuck with the neutral colors for now. He will get two sets, so when he is wearing one the other is washing. Fun, fun, fun. Their will be lots of laundry to be done over the 2 years!! These only last 3 months, so maybe next time he will pick a different color!
One area that was looking good, and believe me you will think it looks good too but we are kind of concerned about is his neck. It started to get pretty red last week, and we need to watch this area. We are supposed to get a special silicone patch to go on this area to help the healing process. But lets just say workman’s comp is a little slow and is trying our patience. Hopefully we will get this soon. We don’t want this area to start bubbling because that could lead to scarring. So hopefully we will get what we need and the redness will calm down.
So just continue praying for that area, here are some pictures I took this week while we were at the doctors. I see it everyday but I think its best to update the pictures once a week so you can see the difference better!

Chicago in October

My sister learning how to milk a cow.


Just something that was interesting and hard to believe.


The Green House


My Parents at Gino's East.


Got to love Chicago Pizza!


This past weekend we went to Chicago for the weekend. We were curious if we should have gone, but this trip was planned in July. When we were in the doctor’s office we asked and they said they didn't see a problem with him going. So that was good. On Friday we took off and meet my parents at the hotel. When we dropped everything off and headed to Gino's East for pizza! We love Chicago Deep dish pizza. However though we are not Gino's East lovers we are more Giordano's. So we met Sarah their and had dinner. Then after we headed over to Sarah's place. Brandon has never seen her apartment and so we took him over there. He thought it was very nice, and a lot bigger than he thought it was going to be.
On Saturday we got up and got ready. We headed to the Science Museum to see the Green House. I don't know if some of you have seen this on Good Morning America, but it was a house built and its all out of green material and energy efficient. It was kind of funny though because usually when something is made out of green products and energy efficient its high dollar! The first thing they tell you about the house is that they don't know the cost of anything in the house. We thought that was humorous. We also weren't allowed to take any pictures of the house inside. But it was pretty amazing. The only picture we have is of the outside. It was actually outside of the museum. Let me just tell you the museum is huge. I would have taken us 2 plus days to get through it all. We only had time to do this one exhibit. So something we will have to go back to. Oh yeah I forgot we went to the farm exhibit. Where we got to Milk a cow, look at John Deere Tractors, we tried to get Brandon on one to take his picture but he said he could never sit on a john deer. John Deere is only for his friend Daniel.
I will post more later....

Thanks

A friend of ours was so kind to send us a package from Omaha Steaks, let me just tell you they are amazing. We had a couple of steaks last night and they were so good. We were talking last night about it and I said thanks but he has created a big problem!! I think I will have to order more when we can because they were the BEST!!! So if this person read this THANK YOU VERY MUCH!! And if anyone out they’re read this and wonder how they taste! They taste amazing!!

A little easier

Yesterday we went back to the hospital, we had a good report. His arm is healing as well as his leg. I am sure you will be able to tell by the pictures. The good news is that because it’s getting better, there is less stuff we have to do to the areas every morning. On his leg he is wearing a thing called Tubigrip, it’s like a big sock covering the areas. So every morning now we just have to but some think cream on and pull this tubigrip up over his thigh. The PT said he would have to wear this for a couple of months; it’s to help with healing the donor sight and decrease the redness. We also got a tubigrip for his forearm. Again we just have to do the same as the leg. This is a tight garment that goes over the area to reduce the scarring. His bicep and shoulder area though wasn't quit ready for the tubigrip. Because he has a 2 finger size section that hasn't healed yet. You can tell in the picture where this is at on his arm. So we have to continue to use Vaseline type gauze and wrap it in an ace bandage still. Hopefully next Tuesday that will see tubigrip as well. Next Tuesday we have our weekly appointment, and he will get measured for his custom pressure garments.

This weekend since Brandon is recuperating, I decided that I needed to paint. We have a room upstairs that we did some construction on and we are trying to match the paint. So attached is a picture of me painting, my partner decided he could take the pictures!!haha

Caution!!

Well here are some pictures I took today when we got to see the arm and leg for the second time. Today though we went to the burn clinic and this was a very different experience then the hospital, even though they are on the same floor. Brandon was lying on the bed, and one of the burn specialists decided to rip the bandages off his arm. When I saw her doing this, I could tell that this was painful, to Brandon. After she left, he expressed to me how painful it was. His donor site was amazing. Even the nurses thought it looked really good. Now if only they would have said that about his Arm would it have been nice to hear. His arm has a couple of spots where the skin did not attach. Hopefully it will heal nicely over the next couple of weeks with the ointment that they won't have to do anything else. He has a spot on his bicep and a spot on the shoulder area and forearm.
This next week mornings are going to be tough in getting ready. Brandon said it will take us about 5 hours to get him ready in the morning. We will see. But good news is that he can take a shower now. It will help him feel better.
Tonight we had some friends bring us dinner; it was so sweet of them and thoughtful. It was really good, and so nice of us not to worry about.






Notice the bottom portion you can see where the skin didn't take. We need to just pray that the ointment will work and heal nicely with minimum scarring.


The beautiful donor leg!!

Good weekend

Got to love the salad, and bread sticks.


Grandma Hoop trying to tease Nala about being in her chair.


Watching Ohio State...oh how i wished Wisconsin won, but the rest of the family was happy with the win.



This weekend we had many visitors in town. Brandon's mom had stayed with us all week, then on Friday his brother, Dad and Grandma Hoop came to visit. We didn't do to much this weekend. His Dad changed the oil in my car and checked the fluids, Jonathan mowed the yard, and then his parents washed the girls while I was out trying to find Brandon some warm up pants and shorts to wear since that will be how he can dress for a while. It was nice to have so much help this weekend, and Brandon enjoyed having visitors. On Saturday night we got Olive Garden take-out. It was so good!
Brandon is doing really well. His face is great! There are some spots on his neck and in his hair line that are really sensitive and soar, but the rest of the area is healing very well. His Leg on the other hand is very soar. The way they wrapped it was working but yesterday it started to slip. We didn't know it until at night when we were changing the dressings. The taped area that the hospital did had slipped about 1/4 of an inch down. And some of it was on the area they took the skin. So we had to peal that off which I am sure you can imagine that it was very painful. Its also leaking a lot and this is why the wrap the hospital gave him is failing. Because it weighing it down, which in turn is causing it to slip. Tomorrow though it should get wrapped again, and hopefully it will stay better.
His arm isn't really causing him to much pain. And we don't have to mess with that to much. The hospital wrapped it really well, and so we will wait tomorrow to see how that is healing. Hopefully its been healing the way they want it to. The shoulder area was the area they weren't that happy with so tomorrow hopefully they will. He has lots of exercise that he has to do, so he won't loose his range of motion in that arm. Doing these exercise will help minimize the scare tissue that could build up and keep his range of motion.
Tomorrow will be another big day, he has OT, PT, and then cleaning the wounds again. It should also be interesting all the traffic. They are having the presidential debate at Belmont on tuesday and Vanderbilt hospital is right around the corner. We pass by it on our way to the hospital. So we will have to leave pretty early. It could take us a while.

We are home!

two thumbs up!


we had so much stuff we needed to get a cart to help us out!!


Brandon and his Mom as we are getting ready to leave.


Finally at home!




Today was a big day and finally we left around 4pm. Everyone at Vandy was so wonderful, but we are not done there. We already have an appointment on Monday for a follow. We have to be there from 8 and it sounds like we will be their all morning.

We got some good news, Brandons face is healing nicely. Its pretty raw around his neck and ear, but all we have to put on now is bacitracin. No more guase! He his happy to hear that. I am sure it must have gotten old to him to have something attached to his face all the time. He also got his staples off his arm. They were pretty please for the most part how the graft took. They gave him a 8 out of 10 on his forearm, and 6 out of 10 on his shoulder area. But they said that the next time they see him on monday that it would be fine. He has some different exercises that he has to do on his arm. So that the scar tissue won't build up and restrict his movement. We also found out, and I am sure this will surprise some of you is that probably in a month or two he will have to wear a custom made compression garment on his arm for 23 hours a day, only taking it off for showers. He could have to wear this up to 2 years. This is to minimize scaring as well. So we will have many appointments at the burn center clinic, which is on the same level as the burn unit at Vandy.

So we are home, and its good to be home. The girls are glad that we are all home as well. I am going to get off and get ready for bed. I am very tired as all of us are. Enjoy the pictures!

Big Day

Today is a Big Day. I get to talk to the doctor, and we get to see his graft and donor leg. Hopefully everything will look great, and the pain can be manageable. If those things are good, I think we get to go home today!! Pray that the skin took and his leg is healing the way it should.

Better day

Yesterday wasn't such a good day. He was in a lot of pain, and just not feeling good. Also he was kind of grumpy. He was just sick of being here already. But today you can tell he is in a better mood. We hope that tomorrow will be the day he feels good and we can go home. But we don't want to hurry this process as well. His new nurse Phil said that his face is looking so good. He asked if he starts to feel down, he will just come into Brandon's room because he is always smiling!! Thats Brandon for you, always smiling. Except yesterday we didn't see that smile to much.

Last night I can't remember if I share this with you or not, but we weren't allowed to leave our room from 5pm - 9pm. They were doing a mass casualty drill and had tons of volunteer patients, so we were trapped in these small rooms. They were doing these drills all over the Nashville. Every hospital was doing this last night, because the debates are going to be here soon. So just in case anything happens. So that was interesting Brandon actually had to eat the hospital food he had some chicken Parmesan and I was luck to have Cheerios! Patty was also lucky that they had some soup. So our friends couldn't come to visit last night which was a bummer.
But like i say today is a better day. Someone said it can only better from here.