Lucky Day 13- Missy's Last Day @ the Burn Center

As I mentioned yesterday, the Dr's reviewed Missy's progress and decided that she could be sent home today. She called us around 10am this morning and said that I needed to come in at visitation to assist in her debriement and dressing. I got there about 11:30am to find the hospital parking lot filled with fire trucks and more sirens on the way. I didn't see anyone running out so I continued on into the building. I had tried Missy's cell phone but she had it turned off and I didn't know the number to her room phone. The elevators are located at the front lobby so I asked there for her room # and called her. She didn't realize that anything was going on. One of the security guys said that it involved the ninth floor, well there is no ninth, the Burn Unit is on 7th, which is the top floor. Alot of confusion, and tons of Phoenix's finest with oxygen tanks on and axes in their hands. They were coming down the stairwells as I was going up. I had to stop at the 5th floor for a few minutes to let my heart calm down. Talk about needing to exercise more! Remind me to put that on my Resolution List for 2009. Got to the 7th floor to find Missy and nurse Kay waiting for me to assist for the dressing change. We went into the treatment room where Missy took off the dressing herself and then got into a tub of warm water. She gently wiped off the silver meds with a sponge (which they no longer want her to use). They would like her to try to be a bit more aggressive in wiping the meds off using a wash cloth. I forgot to mention that I put on gloves and a mask to do the dressing change. She needs help with bathing the rest of her body and hair so I will be doing that. After we had finished that part she got out and I dried her off and then she sat down for the dressing of the burns. The 3rd degree area is very burgundy in color, with a kind of slimey white area on top (which is the eschar). On top of the eschar goes the silver meds, lightly laid on top of that area. Next I take this yellow like thick film which has like a vaseline substance all over it and I add Bacitracin to it and wrap it on top of all of the 2nd and 3rd degree area, cutting sizes to fit. After that I cut 2 finger stockinets to fit on her index finger on one hand and her thumb on the other. Then I wrap the dressed areas with gauze and then cut a length of the stockinet stuff for each hand and cut a little hole for her thumbs and stretch it down around the wrappings. Missy says that the yellow film feels so good because it is so moist and does not dry the areas out. I will be doing this dressing change once a day. She will be calling the burn clinic in the morning to see when she needs to be seen down there. I am hoping that it will be Friday, either first thing in the morning or late in the afternoon. I will be returning to work on Wednesday, so want to minimize missed time as much as possible. It will really help with Missy down to one dressing change a day.

Anyway, back to the rest of the day. We finished the dressing change around 12:30pm and then sat around until almost 3pm before they could get everything they needed to do to release her. When we finally got set free we worked our way back towards home and stopped in at our favorite coffee shop and grabbed our usual- iced mochas. From there we dropped off Missy's prescriptions and then proceeded to Missy's condo for clothes and toiletries for her stay at our house. Missy warned me that she had left garbage that probably would be smelling up the condo. I didn't notice it but I did see a sink full of dishes that had food cemented on it. I did a quick soaking and then washed them. I decided that I should probably check the refrigerator. Oh my God!!!!!! There was the smell. Two gallons of milk that had full separation, raw chicken!!!!, black and green cheese, liquified lettuce and cucumbers and so much more. I carried 4 bags down to the trash bin! Wow, should have thought to check the condo sooner. I also had to bring home 2 bags full of clothes. The washer was full of wet clothes from two weeks ago that smelled mildewy. After leaving the condo we stopped back at the drug store to pick up her pain meds and finally made it home around 6pm. Once home, she was anxious to see what news I had been posting since she was hospitalized. She also did a quick video call with my folks in MI. My mom shed a few tears when she saw that Missy was going to be okay. After the call, Missy was ready for some meds, ate some dinner and shortly after that went to bed. She had far too much activity today. But she is so grateful to be out of the hospital and at Dad and Mom's house. We were also talking on the way home about what good care that she got at the Burn Center and what nice staff (for the most part) that they have there. She had some real angels there with their gentle hands helping her thru the worst of it- Kim, Kay. Tony, LouAnn, Kevin and so many others. She got hugs on her way out today!

Phil had been busy over the last two days getting the change of flooring done in the front bedroom. It had been sitting around since we redid the flooring in the some of the other rooms, which I think was around August. He hadn't had any time to do it since then so was looking forward to this short time off period to get it done. Since I've been up at the hospital daily, not much has happened at the house either. Christmas decorations will probably stay up until this weekend since I need to get Missy in tomorrow or the next day to some of her other Dr's as well. There are still unopened gifts under the tree that will need to get opened at some time. I am so anxious to get back to some state of semi-normalcy.