"Missy has left the building!"

Today was moving day for Missy, back to the condo. She has not been there for 5 weeks since the accident. This is a picture of the guest bedroom as of 8pm this evening. Just a few short hours ago this room would have been unrecognizable. Sheets half on and half off the bed. A sleeping bag strewn across it, along with several other blankets. A closet worth of clothes on the church pew and under the church pew, along with 5 pairs of shoes/boots and numerous damp towels from this morning and other previous days. Wow, what a difference a few short hours make. I left the house this morning with the intentions of taking pics of loading the two vehicles from our house, our stop @ Costco and then back to the condo for the unloading and putting away of food and clothes. But I forgot to pull the camera out. Missy loaded up at Costco with tons of food and we also made a quick stop at the Dollar Store for some cleaning items for her when we stopped by our favorite coffee shop. We called Mike as we were leaving Costco, to see if he could help us get everything up into the condo (second floor). He said sure, but ended up having a flat tire so took care of that, so by the time he got there we pretty much had everything up stairs already. Missy called around 6pm tonight to say that she had been cleaning since I left. She made sure that she had rubber gloves on though. As long as she can keep the area clean and safe from being bumped, I think that it is great for her to get back to her normal life, which will also be giving her movement to the wrist area as well. This is an area of concern because the skin is so tight there! It's kind of quiet here tonight!

How do you survive in the Desert?

You survive with "air conditioning"!!!! Without air conditioning it would be uninhabitable! That's my opinion anyway! Well last spring when we had our two units checked out, the 3 1/2 ton unit was misbehaving. We had the service guys out 4 different times-, add freon, take some freon out, put more freon in and finally add a "hard start" kit. That got us through the middle of October then it just went! It was pretty uncomfortable for a few weeks then before it started cooling down here. Anyway, this week, we forked over enough money for 1/2 a small car to get a new A/C unit put in. It was at the top of our list of things that needed to get down at the house. Ouch, it hurt, but I'm telling you, it is just miserable out here in the heat!!! That's the time of year that you question, why have I lived out here for over 30 years? Anyway, when Dad and Mom come out for their visit we'll have a working sytem for them. Typically, we can wait until maybe the first of May before we almost need it on all the time.

I'm throwing in a pic of Casey since she was outside when I took the pics. Isn't she just so cute!!! We love her to death.

Missy's 4th day back on the job!

Missy has almost made it thru her first week back at work, after being off for a month. She had been really looking forward to be going back to work, more so I think because she was getting restless being couped up in the house all day. This week has been tough on her but she is working thru it. I'm a little concerned about how her left forearm looks but then again it may look good to those who know about burns! She doesn't see the Dr. again until next Wednesday, so hopefully he will say that it is looking the way it should. These are pics of Missy doing her own dressing. No your eyes aren't deceivbing you, she is using the backside of a spoon to apply the oinment. She says that it feels good using it. She looks like she is buttering up her arm when she does it.

On a football note! The Cardinal Training Center is about 2 blocks down the street from my workplace. Usually you don't even know it's there! Well not when they are in the Superbowl! All day today the helicopters were flying over head. At times it sounded like they were going to land on our roof!

GO!!!!! CARDINALS!!!!!!!

Go Cardinals!!! Hooray!!! The last half wasn't pretty but the Cardinals did it their way!!! Phil and Mike watched the game at Hooter's and had a great Sunday afternoon. Superbowl- Tampa, here we come!

Missy and I went out for coffee then a quick stop at the condo to drop off some things from our house. She will be returning to work tomorrow but will spend another week with us. The dressing change that we tried last night was so much better when she removed them this morning. The pads did not stick to the new skin growth and she was just ecstatic!

Friday, 1/16- Missy's Outing w/ Ginger and JC

Today was Missy's first outing with a friend since the accident. She enjoyed it so much- lunch and a good visit with new mama Ginger and the baby. Missy was definitely getting cabin fever! Ginger stopped by to pick up Missy and then they went out to lunch. On the way back to the house (well not really on the way, in fact way out of the way!) they swung by my work so that I could see baby JC, along with Sharon. He is just so darn cute!!! and so tiny!!! I can't remember babys being that tiny, he is just short of 4 weeks old now.

Missy and I are being a little creative with her dressings. Everything that the Dr. told us to use, is sticking to the new growth area and it is bleeding through. We went to the drug store tonight and she picked up a few things to try out on her own. She said " I know that the Dr. is going to yell at me ". Well hopefully by her next visit the skin will be healed enough that she can wear the pressure garment and he won't know the difference, unless he caught wind of this blog and he is following Missy's progress!!!!!

10th Day after Release from the Hosp

Missy has been continuing down the path to recovery. All the areas on her hands and forearms are healing as expected. She has a couple slight problem areas where she broke open the skin in her sleep by scratching thru the dressings. She says that the itching is unbelievable. Since she has been itching in her sleep those two areas are now quite painful so she has gone back on pain meds as needed. She had been doing real good without them her first week out of the hospital. The itching is due to the nerve endings regenerating, which is all a good thing- but none the less quite bothersome! Most of the burned areas are now a whitish purple color, except for the broken tissue area which (according to Missy) looks like ground meat! We went to the burn clinic today for her second visit. As I mentioned, the Dr. said that it is all healing the way burns do and that now we can stop putting on the Bacitracin ointment and only use Hydraphor on the purple areas and then Hydraphor and the Xeroform sheets on the broken skin area. On top of that she has now been fitted for interim pressure gloves and sleeves. These are quite tight, so you can imagine quite painful to put on. They have to be worn inside out so that the seams don't irritate the burned areas. Missy was in tears during the whole process of putting them on. Once on though, she says that it feels pretty good. Boy, I'm going to have fun tomorrow doing the change! Her left hand has a full glove and then a sleeve over that. On Sunday, we will remove the four fingers from the glove and only have her thumb on the left hand covered. The right hand has a sleeve on, with a hole cut out for her thumb to go through.

Missy did ask the Dr. if he would release her to go back to work on Monday, 1/19 and he said fine, if she thought that she could do her job. She is very excited to get his release. It's a major step in getting back to some normalcy. She has her next app't back at the Burn Clinic in two weeks. Hopefully, the new meds that he gave her for the itching will help her keep her hands off the burn areas while she sleeps.

Took some pics of some of Missy's "get well" cards and two lovely bouquets of flowers that Missy received!

Missy's 3rd Full Day Home- 1st App't @ The Burn " Clinic"

Today was my 1st day back at work since the accident. Lot's to catch up on but had to cut it short to get Missy to her first app't at the Burn Clinic. Missy was pretty concerned how rough they might be during the dressing change there. The first gal that Missy saw took off her dressing in a fairly aggressive manner so Missy was really getting a bit panicky. (I've got to digress for a minute to talk about "who's who" at the hospital! When I was a nursing student so many long years ago, you knew who the nurses were, they wore the starched white hats- still have mine from Purdue by the way! Dr's wore white coats and nursing assistants wore something totally different. Today in the hospital setting you have absolutely no idea who you are talking to. They all wear scrubs!) Anyway, I'm not sure what that first gals position was, but the second was a nurse and she cleaned the burned area very gently, infact, she told Missy that she didn't have to scrub anymore just dab the area. The Dr (in scrubs) came in after and said that the areas are healing nicely. Lots of new little pink skin buds are popping up all over the 3rd degree area. He is very pleased with how fast she is healing. Missy asked if he thought that she could be back to work on the 19th and he said very possibly. He doesn't want to see her again until a week from now, next Wednesday. So he will let her know then if he will sign off on her return. Of course, she will have to be off all pain meds in order to drive herself but she is determined. I also don't have to use the silver med on the 3rd degree area anymore, just the Bacitracin. Next week, the Dr. will also fit her for a couple of pressure garments for the burned areas, if he feels that the scarred areas are raising.