Abigail’s Hand, Part III

Abigail with Dr. Freet

After surgery the only thing we had to worry about was keeping her from getting her hand wet and changing the dressing on her leg as best we could.  We had to wait five days after surgery until our next appointment with Dr. Freet.  After five days he said he would be able to tell if the surgery had been successful or not.

My mom stayed with us for the rest of the week following Abigail’s surgery, which was a huge help.  Hannah really enjoyed spending some time on her own with my mom while were spending time at doctor’s appointments.

When it was time for Abigail’s appointment, we were very anxious to see what the result was.  It seemed like it took Dr. Freet an hour to unwrap her huge cast.  He finally got to the end and uncovered her hand.  I was speechless at first and wasn’t sure what to think.  He said right away that it looked great and was exactly like it was supposed to look at this phase of recovery.  That was reassuring because I was just shocked.  It wasn’t until then that the appearance of her hand actually matched the severity of her injury.  Prior to surgery, her hand looked ok except the skin was grey where the burn was.  This looked very bad to me.  Much worse than the odd looking grey skin.  Dr. Freet said this was normal and don’t worry.  It wouldn’t be like this for long and as time passed the skin would change and heal more and more. 

He gave new instructions for how to keep her hand wrapped, more miracle cream to treat the painful second degree burns around the new skin and new dressings and instructions for her leg.  I became very well acquainted with coban wraps.  I never knew what that sticky gauze stuff that sticks to itself, but not your skin was called.  But we soon had a case of it in a variety of neon colors in our house.  Abigail’s highlight of the day was to pick out the new color of her coban every night for the next few weeks.

We made weekly trips to see Dr. Freet for the rest of July and into the first two weeks of August until the skin was completely healed.  It is amazing to think the wound was healed in just a matter of weeks, but it was.  The only big inconvenience was that while the skin was healing we could not get it wet at all.  That meant no swimming and we had to wrap her had in plastic at bath time.  Chris and I would take turns taking Hannah swimming when he got home from work every couple of days.  This was the summer that Hannah became a competent independent swimmer and it wasn’t fair to her we had to avoid pools because of Abigail’s hand, so we got in as much pool time for Hannah as possible.  We spent time at the Imax, several different museums and saw every kid friendly movie that came out and had several indoor play dates with friends. 

One of the biggest things we missed during this healing time was spending time on our boat.  We had planned a trip to Lake Texoma that had to be rescheduled.  We went along with Dr. Freet’s prediction that she would be healed by the second week of August and re-scheduled for then.  Thankfully it was healed and we all got to enjoy an end of summer/birthday celebration vacation at Lake Texoma with plenty of boating fun.

After Abigail’s hand healed, she had to begin to wear a burn compression garment.  This garment is intended to prevent the new skin from becoming a keloid scar and is very tight on her hand.  A keloid is a very thick scar that can impair her ability to use her hand, which we do not want to happen.  After getting the all clear from the occupational therapist, we met with the burn garment specialist.  She sized every part of her fingers, palm and wrist.  Abigail picked out the colors of her two garments, purple and pink, and within two weeks we picked them up, and she was on her way to the next phase of recovery.  She has to wear her glove all day everyday and all night.  It is only removed at bath time and then the other one is put on or it has to be changed if it gets wet.

The first few days of having to use the garment were very difficult.  Trying to explain to an almost three year old how to hold out her hand, open her fingers and push into the glove was not easy.  And I also had to find a way to insert the silicone inserts that are placed on top of the scar in there too without stretching it out.  It was very frustrating because the gloves are so very small and tight, but we figured it our after about three days.  Changing her glove has become part of our routine now and we can do it super fast compared to when we started. 

Abigail sees Dr. Freet every two months for him the check her hand and make sure it is still healing as it should.  She loves to go see him and she calls him “silly Dr. Freet”.  The first couple of times we saw him after surgery her bandages on her leg would always fall down her leg after he would wrap it and she thought it was hilarious and would laugh at him.  He always says how amazed he is that her hand injury hasn’t slowed her down and she just plays and uses her hand as if nothing has happened, which the occupational therapist says is a very good thing.  We go back at the end of this month and hopefully he will tell us she doesn’t need to wear her glove anymore.  Dr. Freet said patients with her type of burn usually wear garments for 12-18 months so if he says her scar is mature and won’t change anymore I will be so excited, as I know Abigail will be as well.

Abigail has done so well with her glove and I am always surprised at how many people comment on her cute little glove and think it is just another little girl dress up accessory.  I know if she had been older with this injury it would have been a different story so I am thankful that is not the case.

Below are the pictures I have taken of her hand from the time her cast was removed up until last week.  I take pictures every two-three weeks so you can definitely see a change as time goes on and the scar changes.  I debated about sharing these pictures because they are a little overwhelming; at least the first few pictures are to me.  Now her hand looks a million times better so that isn’t hard to look at, but the early pictures are very different.  View at your own risk!

***Update***  Abigail no longer has to wear her burn garment for 24 hours!  She only has to wear it at night now.  She goes back to see Dr. Freet at the end of August and he thinks at that point she will be done with the burn garments permanently.  Dr. Freet said her hand looks great and she still has no loss of movement in her hand and wrist!

Donor site

Her hand and leg had to be covered in Xeroform pertolatum gauze while healing

Five days after surgery

Seven days after surgery

Two weeks after surgey, still has stitches in attaching graft

Two and a half weeks after surgery

Three weeks after surgery

Four weeks after surgery

Five weeks after surgery, graft is healed!

5.5 weeks after surgery

Seven weeks after surgery

September 2011

End of September 2011

October 2011

End of October 2011

November 2011

December 2011

End of December 2011

January 2012

January 2012, pretty purple garment

February 2012

End of February 2012

March 2012

March 2012

April 2012

April 2012

End of April 2012

May 2012

May 2012

May 29, 2012

Leaving Dr. Freet's office May 30, 2012- no more burn garment!

Abigail’s Hand, Part II

On Thursday morning we load up and take Abigail to see Dr. Baker’s fill in for the week.  She takes one look at her hand and tells us what we already know.  We get a referral to see a burn specialist who is in the building right next door.  We heard he was very good and he was the plastic surgeon burn specialist on call that day.  So the doctor makes a few calls and tells us Dr. Freet will fit Abigail in his schedule today.  After walking next door to the UTHSC building we wait for about an hour and then go in and see him.  I have come to dread that waiting room.  While I enjoy taking Abigail to see Dr. Freet because with each visit I feel better about her outcome, his waiting room scares me.  I always see the worst looking injuries in there and it makes me realize her injury could have been so much worse.  I have seen people unable to walk and with bandages all over legs, arms, faces, and any combination there of.  One woman came in once and was crying and screaming at the sign in desk.  She was yelling she needed to see the doctor because she couldn’t do it anymore.  The wound was too painful and she couldn’t keep changing the dressings and was unable to put the medicine on her burn and she was screaming that she needed to see the doctor right away.  It was very upsetting.  Thankfully this is the first time I have ever had a reason to meet a doctor like Dr. Freet.

We go in to meet him and I like him immediately.  He knows how to touch her hand without her crying, which after two days of crying with any regards to her hand is a miracle.  She doesn’t cry at all and tells him it doesn’t hurt.  Of course he knew exactly where to touch it so that it didn’t hurt.  It doesn't hurt on the grey area because all nerves to the skin there are dead.  Dr. Freet explains what needs to be done in order to heal the wound and the details of a skin graft surgery.  This is all new to me so I have a million questions, which he patiently answers.  He says surgery needs to be done the next day, which is Friday July 8.  We go over details of the surgery and then he tells me not to bother changing the bandages and everything that had been causing Abigail so much pain.  Apparently the cream medicine we were using was so strong it would kill pretty much anything and we could also stop the antibiotic.  Wonderful!!  He seemed optimistic about her long-term recovery and reassured me that she would be ok.  Several times.  The details of how he was going to do the surgery were a little overwhelming.  A third degree burn means all layers of skin are damaged beyond repair without a sugical intervention.  He would have to take skin off her leg and replace the damaged skin on her hand with skin taken from her leg.  If the surgery was a success, the skin taken from her leg would heal over where the damaged skin would be removed; the graft would take.

Abigail’s surgery was scheduled for the next day at Memorial Hermann Children’s Hospital.  That hospital is right across the street from our pediatrician and Dr. Freet’s office so we knew right where to go.  My mom stayed home with Hannah and Chris and I went with Abigail to the hospital. 

We went in and met Dr. Freet and the anesthesiologist who explained the surgery again.  Dr. Freet wrote on her leg where he was going to take skin from and Abigail thought that was pretty funny.  The surgery seemed to take forever, but it was actually about two hours that she was back there with the doctors before we were called to the recovery room.  All reports were good that she did great and Dr. Freet said the surgery went well.  He told me the most important thing about her hand was that she not touch it or get it wet at all.  He said it shouldn’t be a problem because he said put “a big wrap” on it after the surgery and to just leave it alone.  This was while we were still in the waiting room before we went to the recovery room to see her.  He should have said massive wrap because her little hand was wrapped from her elbow to her fingertips.  Just the tip of her middle and ring finger could be seen in that massive cast.  There was nothing to worry about with her messing with it that was for sure.  She was asleep and looked so little in the hospital bed in the recovery room.  She had things taped to her chest and an IV.  It was very disturbing to see her like that hooked up to things beeping and all that equipment.  She woke up soon after we came in and immediately started crying saying she hurt.  Dr. Freet told us she would be in pain and she certainly was.  But it was not her hand that was hurting but her leg.  The donor site was the most painful.  Dr. Freet described it as “a controlled scrape”.  It was very controlled; the perfect shape of a rectangle right on her leg.  The skin on her leg was missing and hopefully coming back to life on her hand under that huge cast.

After giving her some pain medicine she calmed down and went back to sleep.  After an hour and after going over the discharge instructions with the nurse, we took her home.

This is the best picture I have of her with her big cast on.  This was a few days after her surgery at the butterfly museum.

She slept well that night and the next day was back to normal.  She was running around the house and we had to tell her to stop climbing on the furniture.  I was shocked that this same child had had surgery the day before and here she was running around like nothing happened.  Her recovery went fine.  The only problem was her leg.  The nurse told us that if the wound leaked or was bleeding out of the dressing to call the doctor.  Well the wound leaked, a lot.  So we paged Dr. Freet the night we got home from the hospital because the wound on her leg was bleeding and was draining everywhere.  He told us it was fine and apologized for not warning us about how much it would drain.  Basically we should ignore what the nurse told us and just keep it clean and change the gauze on top of the “second skin” he applied during surgery.  We tried but Abigail’s patience for us messing with her leg was slim to none.  In the long run it turned out fine, which is what is most important. 

How her leg was wrapped after surgery along with her cast.  At least it was her right hand and she could stil suck her thumb.

I’ll stop there since this is already long and continue with the next post. . .

Abigail’s Hand, Part I

So after the big injury, things went back to normal, I guess.  Abigail played and was fine, except when it was time to change her bandages.  She was in misery and it was the hardest thing to have to change her dressings.  She was so brave though and would always let me do it and never took her hand away.  She just screamed the entire time while holding her little hand out; it was heartbreaking.  For about a week or so after her accident I had the worst time trying to sleep.  I kept hearing her scream that horrible scream and would wake up suddenly and run to check on her.  She would of course be fast asleep, but it was nerve wrecking to say the least. 

The day after the accident I called our pediatrician in Houston.  The ER doctor said she needed to be seen by a burn specialist within two days, so our plans of staying the entire week getting wedding things done quickly changed.  As luck would have it, our wonderful Dr. Baker was on vacation that week so we made an appointment with another doctor who was filling in for her.  I have no idea what that doctor’s name was but I remember her face when she saw Abigail’s hand later that week.  It was not good.

So we had one day to squeeze a weeks worth of plans into before heading back to Houston.  Meagan didn’t find dresses she liked for the girls, but I got fitted and ordered my dress for the wedding, so at least that was accomplished.  We spent the rest of the day playing outside with the girls.  Abigail was so resilient and played as if nothing had ever happened; you would never know about her injury unless you saw her big bandaged hand.

The day after Abigail hurt her hand.  Playing bubbles with Maw Maw.

The next day we drove back home.  That was a long trip.  Abigail had started to become upset because she wasn’t feeling well.  Not because of her hand but because of the antibiotic she was taking.  I don’t remember what the medicine was but I know she had never taken it before.  I remember talking with Dr. Baker later about it and she had said ER doctors so often give kids antibiotics that aren’t always the best choice because they have such little experience in pediatrics, so it was no surprise she got sick from it.  Anyways, about half way home Abigail threw up all over my mom’s car.  She had it all over herself, the car seat and the floor.  It was not pleasant.  Mix that with a whiny Hannah who complained about how bad it smelled and you have a torturous rest of the ride home.  We were about 5 minutes from my house when my mom got pulled over by the police for speeding in Fulshear.  What a way to end the very long trip home, but she only got a warning.  I think the officer felt sorry for us after he heard the screaming children and smelled the throw up after he pulled my mom over and she rolled down the window.  I’m sure any sane person would be speeding home to escape the smell and noise that was contained in that car.   It was just about on par with how things had been going for us since Monday.

Fourth of July

Enjoying fireworks on the lake.

This year for the fourth of July, we headed up to Dallas to get in some boating time and spend time with my family at their annual Fourth of July party.  This year we were able to enjoy the party much more than in previous years.  Usually Chris or I take turns inside the house with either one or both of the girls, but this year they were old enough to play and not nap the day away.  The party was on the weekend before the actual Fourth of July, but we planned on staying the rest of the week to visit with family and play on the lake.  The weekend before the fourth, the city of Rockwall hosted a terrific fireworks show in the harbor at Lake Ray Hubbard.  We had a great time driving out on the lake with the boat to see the fireworks.  The girls loved it and I was really impressed.  Chris stayed for the Fourth of July party and the boating fireworks, but had to go home in the afternoon on Monday, July Fourth, to be back at work Tuesday.  We had planned to stay with my parents through the week to get the girls flower girl dresses and my bridesmaid dress fitted for the Jonathan and Meagan’s wedding.

Fun swimming at the Fourth of July party.

The infamous treadmill.

Since the drought, there was a burn ban in effect.  It meant we couldn’t do any fireworks.  We had plans to go see other fireworks on the actual fourth, but our plans quickly changed.  Early that evening while we were watching TV and getting dinner ready to eat, the girls asked if they could go upstairs to play.  My parents keep mine and Jonathan’s old toys upstairs in their game room.  Games like Lincoln Logs, Chutes & Ladders, Candy Land, Operation, Tinker Toys and lots of old matching games and crayons.  The girls love to go up there and play so I thought nothing of it when they asked to go upstairs, only that when they were ready to come down they told me before coming down the stairs.  I didn’t trust Abigail going down the steep stairs alone.  They agreed and went to play.  They had been up there for no more than three minutes when we heard the worst kind of scream imaginable.  It is the kind of scream you hear and you know something is really wrong.  We all jumped up and sprinted up the steps and found Abigail in the corner of the room with her hand stuck in the treadmill.  The treadmill was turned up to the fastest speed possible, but at the time I didn’t see that.  I ran over to her, grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand out.  I remember it being very easy to remove, but it was too difficult for her to get out alone.  I don’t think I have ever run that fast of taken a flight of stairs that quickly as I did then.  I picked up Abigail and took off down the stairs.  I passed my parents on the way back down the stairs where I was running around looking for ice for her hand because Abigail was screaming that her hand was burning.  We got some ice on her hand, but her hand looked horrible.  The top part of her hand where it was caught under the spinning treadmill was grey.  It was the color paper turns when you hold a flame underneath it, just before the paper disintegrates into ash.  It had never seen anything like it, but my dad knew it was serious.  On the surface nothing looked too bad, except the grey color of her skin and around the grey area, the skin was reddish pink; like a very bad sunburn.  Later I would learn that was the part that was painful to her, the nerves in the grey skin had no feeling at all and were burned completely.  After hearing that scream I was expecting blood all over the place or some massive cut, but it was just grey skin that looked so odd.  My dad said she needed to go to the ER immediately so we ran to the garage, jumped in the car and drove to the nearest hospital.  It was only a five-minute drive, and Abigail had calmed down some but I was pretty hysterical and scared for my baby.  My mom stayed with Hannah and met us at the hospital later.  I had no shoes, no wallet and neither did my dad.  Abigail rode to the hospital in my lap because her car seat was in my car and I couldn’t drive while holding her.  It all happened so quickly that all those things were an after thought. 

At the hospital we didn’t have to wait long at all and went right in where we see the ER doctor and explained what happened.  He looked at her hand, puts some miracle cream on it that is silver sulfadiazine.  She still cries when the ice is removed, but as long as the ice is on her had she is fine and the cream helped the pain as well.  He orders an x-ray just to make sure that the treadmill didn’t break any bones, and thankfully that is all fine and there appears to be no damage other than to her skin.  I didn’t realize the severity of her injury until he mentioned that she might need to go down town to Parkland Hospital and be treated by a burn specialist in the burn center at Parkland.  I had many questions and he explained all about her injury and diagnosed it as a third degree burn.

After going over the treatment for the short term (next two days) we went home with my parents.  I called Chris and told him what had happened after my mom met us at the hospital with my shoes, purse with my wallet and insurance card and cell phone.  Abigail was fine and her hand was all wrapped up.  She was put on an antibiotic and we were given the silver nitrate cream to put on her hand twice a day.

 We came home to find Hannah jumping on the trampoline with Jonathan and Meagan and she was as happy as could be.  Jonathan and Meagan came over to watch Hannah so my mom could be with us at the hospital.  Jonathan said that they had gone outside with Hannah to play and came back in to find the chicken my mom cooked for dinner knocked over on the kitchen floor with Summer and Ellie eating it.  Amazingly the dogs didn’t touch it.  I guess they are smarter than the cats after all.  But it was a huge mess to clean up and while Jonathan and Meagan cleaned up Jonathan got Hannah some show on YouTube called peanut butter jelly time.  It is a cartoon banana that sings “its peanut butter jelly time” over and over again and is very annoying, but she loved it and thought it was hilarious.  She still asks him to get it for her on his phone when she sees him.

Abigail hurt her hand around 5pm and it was about 9:30pm when we got home.  It took forever to find a pharmacy that was open on the Fourth of July to fill her prescription for her antibiotic.  Needless to say we were all exhausted by the time we got back to my parents house.  So basically the whole Fourth of July was a huge bust.  But at least we live in a free country with wonderfully accessible medical care, especially in emergencies.  At least that was something worth celebrating last Fourth of July.

How did her  hand get stuck in a treadmill?

Just like this except the track is spinning on full speed.  Her hand is much smaller and can fit all the way in.

Smug Mugs meet Galveston

We have been so fortunate to hit the jackpot twice in the playgroup arena:  once with Hannah’s Rowdy Rebel playgroup and now with Abigail’s playgroup, Smug Mugs.  So what better way to celebrate summer while spending time with a few of our favorite friends than to get away to Galveston for the weekend?

We stayed at the Galvestonian and our condo was awesome.  There was plenty of room for our group’s four families and the view was great.  We were right on the beach with a pool to enjoy after playing in the waves.  The kids had so much fun and Hannah and Abigail’s favorite part of the trip was making drip castles, finding hermit crabs, playing in the pool, and story time with Ms. Ella.  The beach was fun, but eating Toll House Pie, laughing at Ella’s t-shirt making debacle, and spending times with friends were all at the top of our list of favorite things we did on our trip. 

We have already been discussing our next trip to Galveston with our Smug Mug family again.  We are looking forward to it and can’t wait to make more memories!

Click here for some pictures of our trip.

Summer Fun, June 2011

With coach Randy and coach BJ

Summer started off great!  We did so many fun things.  Hannah and Abigail painted princess shirts, we went to the Children’s Museum, Hannah had her last T-ball game and end of year party, we picked blueberries, and we went on a trip to Galveston with Abigail’s playgroup friends.  I’m so glad we were able to do as many activities as we did since we were very limited in what we could do in July, but that is a whole other post.

End of year T-ball party

Painting princess shirts

Finished shirts!

Playing veterinarian at the Children's Museum

Fun with the mirrors at the Children's Museum

Blueberry picking time!

Abigail was very serious about picking the right color.

The gilrs are very good pickers.

Between all the things on our schedule, we were only able to get away for one weekend to use the boat.  The two weeks of swim lessons everyday took up half of the month, but it was well worth it.  This year Hannah had Ms. Ashleigh as her teacher and Abigail had Mr. Collin.  Ms. Ashleigh and Mr. Collin were phenomenal!  The girls loved going to swimming everyday, were excited about the lesson and Hannah actually learned something, unlike last year.  Both of them accomplished so much in two weeks and we are very proud of them.  

Float test day 1

During the lessons, her teacher wanted her class to complete the float test.  The float test is a series of three tests floating in the pool.  The kids are thrown into the pool and then have to float for five minutes or until they reach the edge of the pool, whichever comes first.  The first test Hannah had to wear a t-shirt and shorts.  The next day she had to wear a t-shirt, pants and shoes.  On the final day of testing Hannah had to wear socks, shoes, a long sleeved shirt and pants.  She was a little nervous but also excited to get to swim in full clothes.  After she passed her test she got to keep the bell Ms. Ashleigh rang when she passed and received a special t-shirt and certificate.  In addition to passing the float test, she leveled up and is now in the Swordfish class.

She passed all three tests!

Abigail’s swim lessons this year went great.  This year she was old enough for the Guppy class which means no more mommy and me!  Abigail was not a fan of learning to float on her back.  She reacted exactly how Hannah did at this phase of swim lessons and hated it.  She loved everything about the class and had fun with Mr. Collin, except when it was time to float.  After the two weeks of lessons were over, she was promoted to Goldfish and was very proud of herself!

Next up, our trip to Galveston . . .