Busy Beth: The end of the hospital stay Dec 27-31

The rest of the stay was nothing all that note worthy. A lot of the same, day after day after day, never seeing any doctors feom Dec 26 until discharge on Dec 31 because it was a holiday. Never knowi g the goal or length of stay beyond the initial claim which we far surpassed. Living from a hospital room with a bed and a chair watching way too much TLC, A&E and other crime or medical shows around the clock. To bed between 11 and 12 after meds and up at 6 was my norm although morning meds and vitals weren't until 7am.

-Them trying to convince me to eat a high protein high calorie diet, me having no appetite and breakfast my fav meal of the day the kitchen only allowed 1 slice french toast so I refused to order anymore and lived off of extra sweet tea for the rest of the stay. I literally was about to cry over that extra piece of french toast. Marko was ready to go into attack mode. He said he'd go buy the whole loaf. I refused buying anything to help their profits when I was on a vegetarian high protein hi calorie diet. Suddenly, I was as crazy as the patients I work with and I could understand them. It isn'tlike the kitchen cared I was vegetarian and they had minimal options except at breakfast. Me not eating was less work for them! And yet I still didn't order anything else from them. I was supposed to be intaking 10,000 calories a day and at least 50g of protein. Clearly nutrition is an area of retraining VCU could benefit feom to not understand the diet truly or maybe it was the medical staff's fault as they may have put the diet in wtong after seeing how competent they were Dec 26th in that area.

Such a high quality, filling HCHP meal

Pain was under control except during wound care which was AWFUL. They would medicate me 30 mins prior but it did nothing for me. Otherwise, i would see the nursing staff 3x a day when they did vitals or gave meds. On the 2nd visit each day was the dreaded wound care.

On the 27th they had me do physical therapy with the two ladies. They had to retrain me to walk and do stairs. Stairs were more rough! And they assigned me 2 laps twice a day sround the burn unit. Burn center unit is a "yellow precaution" unit. You had to be buzzed in and out, they did their best at making it a germ free zone, suiting up with contact gear, no plants and monimal decor, lots of gloves hair coverings and masks so walking the burn unit was considered the safe zone for patients at high risk of infection. It became easier as the days went on to make my laps. Marko would walk with me to help with my stability. The nurse's were friendly and motivating and encouraging when you passed by. It started off very difficult and dreaded but I wanted to be home with my mom since I'd already missed our final Christmas together so I tried to push myself.

I stopped taking pain meds the 29th except right before wound care because I didn't want to become addicted and the pain was managable after a day beyond the procedure otherwise.

Part of the donor site

My night nurse made Marko go buy me a Wendy's baked potato to force me to eat something. It wasn't very good but it was convenient having several restaurants in the hospital, especially so Marko could eat a real meal once a day. Otherwise he snacked on stuff he bought at Kroger the one day and only time he left.

Marko's make shift bed, desk and work station for 9 days. Thankfully his employer allowed him to work from the hospital with a refuced work load.

A highlight of that week was getting to wear a "shirt" they made me a gauze shirt. The prior several days I'd lived in a hospital gown. Due to infection risk clothes weren't yet allowed. So it was a BIG DEAL to have a shirt, although of gauze and sleeveless in December. They taught us how to make them so when I went home I'd be wearing them to protect the skin graphs from contact with clothing and to hold bandages in place all to reduce risk of reinjury or tear.

December 27 after wound care

The 31st they decided I was going to learn how to shower and Marko was going to learn wound care as they couldn't find any home nursing would care option locally for us. Marko had earned his unofficial next certificate of Home Health Nurse!

A shower on skin graphs and donor sites has to be like walking into a torture chamber. It's piercing. Air alone is uncomfortable, but adding in warm water (hot is out of the question), soaps (although all I could use was johnsons's original baby wash) was miserable. I think I would have been ok never bathing again.... exvept that same infection Piece I've repeated. And then add in it humiliating having to have help bathing, having a stranger help shower you, having your husband have to so intimately care for you... there's no real words. Bathing was worse than regular wound care. Both were awful. I can't imagine a child enduring this as it always brought me to tears. There was no such thing as staying strong or being tough. It was merely surviving.

After only one training session of Marko 100% doing my wound care and shower I was ready for discharge. After 9 days I was ready to be gone. They sent us home with a giant diacharge packet to help us remember the steps and details. We you tubed burn wound care too. We even tried to watxh a you tube skin graph. 2 years later and I still can't. Had I not lived it, I'd have never known this lifestyle. I enjoy watching real life autopsy documentaries and crime and medical documentaries but I can't stomach the skin graph bc that was my real life horror. They always say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Being a medical care giver has proven this for our family! From Aug to Nov I was the one caring for Marko afte his major shoulder break, bathing him, helping with the most simple task like deodorant and dressing. We often joked with one another about being a caregiver. And just one month later he had to rush hom from South Carolina working to learn how to be mine. What a crazy sudden twist of role. If a marriage survives being a caregiver you are probably in it for life. That was the from Aug year 13.5 til February year 14.25 that we held the role of caregiver for one another!
And since I wasn't blogging timingly and the last blog was hard for me, here we are 2 years later having surpassed the 16 year mark for marriage!