Morning Update – Dec. 7

The dressing change yesterday was better. I feel it would have been much worse, but we made a plan for it and that worked. First, I talked to the doctors about how much pain she was in the last couple of days during dressing change and how the dose of Oxy she got didn’t touch the pain even when we planned ahead to get it to her half an hour earlier. They increased the dose and we got that to her 30-40 minutes before so it would be working.

We also got child life involved. They came to help distract her from the pain and also brought a “buzzy bee” which is a small massager. The idea is to put it on her leg above where the pain is to help distract her nerves from the original pain message.

I’m really glad we had all that in place, because the current protocol is to irrigate the wound, then dry it out as well as possible. That was a LOT. Irrigating it wasn’t the problem, but stuffing gauze into the wound and pulling it out multiple times was definitely not fun. The nurse had to help and she was not timid at all. She used a long wooden q-tip to poke the gauze in, then used the q-tip itself to keep wiping it out. Meg definitely felt it, but with the various strategies she was able to tolerate it.

After it was dried out we had to pack it with this blue antimicrobial foam. This is supposed to help it heal correctly and more quickly, but again, it mean stuffing it down into the wound. That was so painful to watch. I don’t know how Megan tolerated it so well, but I’m glad we only have to do this once a day. I have no idea how I’m going to do this to her if we go home this week.

Yesterday she only went poo 3 times. It was soft but not runny. Meg hoped she would be cleared today, but they said at least one more day. We’ll keep with the quarantine for a few more days, but if she isn’t released from quarantine by the end of the week, we go home. I really do want to go home, but I also want her to get the most out of inpatient rehab, which isn’t happening right now. If she can get out of quarantine here for another week or two I think that is best for Megan.

Today is Susan’s birthday. It also marks three months since this all started. She has come so far, but it really is time to get home.

Prayer Needs:

• Gut recovery
• General recovery
• Getting out of quarantine

Talitha cumi, we are ready to get you home.