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Saturday, Jun. 24, 2006 - 8:14 a.m. A Visit to the Burn Ward
I visited my friend Randy in the burn ward
of Memorial Hermann Hospital two days ago. This is just some of my
experience. Randy is basically totally bandaged from
the top of his head to his thighs. Both arms are completely wrapped and each
finger is individually wrapped, and the thickness of the bandages makes it
appear that his arms and fingers are immensely swollen, which, they probably are
to begin with. He doesn't have his glasses and would not be able to wear them
anyway, so reading is difficult for him. Knowing this, I wrote really in large
letters on the inside, which fortunately, he was able to read on his own, albit
with some difficulty. In all honesty, this was painful and difficult
to watch. When I got there, Liam Helms was there, as he has been every day
helping out, God bless him, as well as Randy's girlfriend, and his mother, for
whom my heart aches terribly. He is pretty doped up, but not on morphine,
but rather Vicodin, which I took as a good sign that his pain was being managed
well. I have say, it was a shock to first walk in and see him like this, but, I
became more comfortable as time went on. He is able to speak, but has to make a
concentrated effort to do so. When he speaks, it is slow, deliberate and
somewhat slurred, almost like someone who is drunk. There are times he
babbles nonsensical stuff. I think at one point he started babbling some
Christmas songs. His lips are still burned of course and his face is still
swollen, but, I could tell it was him. He didn't look distorted. There are
parts of his face that look more as if he has the worst peeling sunburn of his
life. The docs even say there will be minimal scarring on his face.
His ears are covered in bandages and that is frustrating for him, because he is
unable to hear very well. Both of his arms, like I said before are
completely bandaged, and each finger bandaged separately. This is where
the worst burns are. The bodily fluids such as pus and blood can be seen
seeping through the finger bandages and he does often complain (for lack of a
better word) that his fingers hurt. His hands have to be kept in splints
to keep his fingers from curling up while he is asleep, and therefore preventing
that skin from fusing his fingers together and his fingers from being
permanently curled. Randy
is allowed visitors, however, no more than two people are allowed in his room at
any given time. And while he would love to have everyone come and visit,
unfortunately, this cannot be the case. The more people who go into that
room just increases the chance for infection at this critical time.
However, he will be having a graft next week on at least one of his arms, and
following that, the chance for infection will drop somewhat. Until then,
we can only send him cards and balloons. No flowers.
Song
Virus du Jour: "Me and Bobby McGee" ~ Written by Kris
Kristofferson, performed by Janis Joplin. Useless
Trivia du Jour: See above about the caloric intake of a burn vic. |
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- - Wednesday, May. 21, 2008
More updates on another blog home. - Wednesday, Feb. 06, 2008 Where are my zzzzzz's? - Thursday, Nov. 08, 2007 Halloween '07 - Friday, Nov. 02, 2007 Hallween is All Good! - Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2007 |
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