Meeting up with Dan (skyglen) at 1:30. We will see you at the benefit at 2

 

Very nice to have met all of you... Very glad to see you locals show up. Kinda feeling bad that I didn't spend more time visiting with you, but I had alot of people to cover, plus,,, needed time to myself to take it all in...

Was a good day all in all.

Rich spent some good time visiting with everyone that showed. Most he's been up and walking around since the accident. Didn't feel tired until say around 6:00, then he decided to go home to rest for the day.
But,,, he was up to it, and did his best to talk a bit with everyone that was there, mostly just to say "Thanks for being here".

Raised roughly $1500.00 today. Not alot,,, but it's more than we had yesterday. So it was good...

I won a telescope from the silent auction table, plus an oil change from local garage off another raffle table.
Always wanted a telescope.....


To bad there's no "Awesome Babes" living near me, guess I'll have to stick with star gazing.

 

Nice to have met you and your son. We wish him continued success on his recovery and hope to see you sometime at any of the HHR meets

 

Rich and Linda will be heading for Toledo in a couple hours.
She don't think the graft needs to be done now. Linda has been doing the dressing changes since he came home, and she believes his legs are healing just fine.
Rich on the other hand, believes he wants it done, just to get it over with. We'll have to see what the Dr's say.

News as I get it..

 

Surgery was done.

Got the call at 3:30PM that he was out of the OR and in the recovery room. As far as Linda knew, everything went well.
Donor sites were from his thighs, to do the lower legs.

I should have an update to post in the morning.

 

7:00PM phone call from Linda was some decent news.

Rich was already eating again, a very good sign. He even wanted some chocolate milk, and he's not one for much of anything chocolate.

The Staff were more than HAPPY with his rate of recovery after surgery, and were eager to go get him whatever it was he wanted to snack on.

As of the call, they were trying to find the right level of pain meds to give him. They don't want to put him in a stupor, but they do want to ease the pain from the new donor sites. I have confidence that they've figure the dosage out by now.

Everything looks good so far. Dr's are pleased with the rest of the graft and burn areas and how they are healing.

They are planning to get him up and moving around today. PT Staff will be in to work on him also.

And to correct my misunderstanding of what Linda had said about his legs before this surgery;
She "did" feel that this final graft was needed, even though his legs were finally healing good. There was still the possibility of the burns breaking down, and getting infected. So yeah, do it..

 

Went to see Rich last night, his oldest Sister Heather went with me.

He seemed to be in good spirits despite the new donor sites hurting. They took skin from his upper thigh/lower belly. That is some tender areas to have that done on, so I can sympathize with him.

Deep breaths, coughing or sneezing really hurts him. Actually just about any movement hurts right now.

One thing that is really irritating him is, they put the IV into his right thumb. That means he can't really use that hand much, as he can't grip anything all that well now, compared to before this. He's none to happy about that...

Slight temperature of a bit over 100*, but he feels it's from having his legs all wrapped up, plus having pillows covering part of his chest, (those are for him to rest his arms on to help keep them straight). Says it's like having a heavy blanket covering him, one he can't toss off.

He had the lower leg areas wrapped before the surgery, but now both legs are fully wrapped, except for the knee areas. That'll hold in some heat right there.

His face is finally healing again. They had scrubbed it to hard on his previous visit. Plus, he had an allergic reaction to the stuff they were putting on him to help all of the burn/graft areas heal. Using something different now, so he's healing.

More as I get it..

 

Wow Tom... it's a long road for him but let him know there's plenty of thoughts and prayers out here in HHR-land for him. Once he's feeling up to it, maybe next summer, we can have a g2g and meet him in person with lots of laughing and good times.

 

He sure puts up with all this well, I have to say that!! At this point it must be getting really old even though he's healing well. Glad your benefit went well; just imagine how good he'll feel by winter time!

 

Just back from visiting Rich. Rode down with his Mom, and Sister's Becky, and Heather.

Got the news that he does have an infection in his right leg. Was suspected earlier this week, but they confirmed it yesterday afternoon. Pretty confident that they can get it cleaned up, but the area where it is may not take the graft. Have to play the "wait-n-see" game on that. May need yet another graft if it don't take.

Other than that, he's in good spirits, just about like before the accident. Even laughing about his condition at the moment. Good to see him joking and laughing about things.

He's not doing much walking around yet due to the donor sites still being painfull, but he is moving from the bed to the chair. Says he walks like a very old man right now, more of a shuffle than a walk.
That's mainly from the staples holding the grafts that run up the back of his cavles. Says it hurts to actually pick his feet up to take a step, so he shuffles. He had a good laugh about it.

They have removed the IV from his hand, so he can use it again. Said he asked them late Thursday why it was still in, response was so he can get antibiotics thru it.
His response was, "What,,, they don't do that in pill form anymore? I want it gone,,, now. I can't use my hand with it there." It was removed within the hour.

Found out today that they are letting him use his cellphone in his room. He don't talk on it, just does texting on it. None of the other patients are on any kind of monitoring machines or IV pumps, so they figure it's okay for him to use it. Rich says it's nice to be able to chat with some of his friends, but wishing he could get the phone up to his ear to talk with a few more people.

Mobility in the right elbow and shoulder isn't enough for him to get the phone to his ear as of yet. But he can place his glasses on hiself properly, which he couldn't last week, so it's getting there. Left arm is going to take a bit more time.

Going to be a couple more days before it's known if he can come home or not. They may send him to the ReHab Hospital when they do decide to discharge him. That will depend on how well he gets back to walking around good on his own.

Here's hoping for the "Comes Home" part of that...

More as I get it..