This is the sunrise location on Monday. It has changed quite a bit and is now directly down the valley.
Our appointment was early Tuesday morning. Here is the view from the waiting room.
This is a piece of art there as well. It is painted by Grace Athena Flott. She is a burn survivor who paints. I thought it was remarkable.
The nurse Jennifer met us and took Tom’s dressings down. Here is what his face looks like now.
Here is the view from the exam room. I can really appreciate why it is called Harborview.
The burn attending and resident came in and examined the wounds. Then the attending said that the arm wound is not healing and needs skin grafting. He said that the area on the hand around the thumb may need grafting as well. This was somewhat of a shock for us as we were not expecting it. So we are scheduled for the grafting procedure on Friday. He said that the thumb area may heal without the graft but may need future surgeries as well over time. They will look at it again on Friday to decide.
The good news is that the other areas are all healing well. He no longer needs to wear the mummy wrap nor the crop top. His face, scalp, and chest burns all just need moisturizer.
After the hard news we headed to Alki.
We had lunch at Alki Spud Fish and Chips. This had been on my Seattle bucket list for a bit so happy to finally eat here.
Here are the views while we were enjoying our meal.
We then went to West Seattle to try to find my gramma’s old home but were unsuccessful. We then headed north to Wallingford through the Alaska Way tunnel. Tom hadn’t been in it before.
Our map program seemed to show us driving through buildings.
We were heading to Bottleworks, Tom’s favorite bottle shop for ciders.
I purchased a Swedish cider that I am excited to try.
On the way home we stopped at Skagit Building Salvage and bought a new front door for Greg to install. Tom used to work there and impressed his old co-worker with his tale of near death. He emphasized not to ever use gasoline on a fire. His co-worker, like so many others, have said they have done this and gotten away with it. But he did say he would never do this again.
This morning things are back to the new normal. There was a GBH in our spruce tree this morning which is unusual. Fortunately Ryeleigh did not seem to notice.
We did the wound care later this morning. Even though it is a much smaller area, it still took 1 1/2 hours. But Tom is doing more of it himself, so that is nice. Here is our dressing station after removing them in the shower. It is nice because there are get well/Valentines cards as well as flowers.
So this journey will be much longer than either of us thought, but we are prepared to push forward and get him completely healed. Good wishes, thoughts, and prayers are still appreciated as we continue on.
He looks wonderful to me. So healed..the body is a miraculous thing. I am so glad he looks so good. Couldn’t hardly be any better news, it sounds to me. Hugs more and sighs , I just let out my breath from reading and looking at pics. A relief to me. I know I don’t know you and you don’t know me but I wish you both the very best. Beth
Thanks Beth! He looks wonderful to me as well.
Tom, I have had a couple friends whose facial burn scars made them hardly recognizable. I know the expression “It could have been worse” seems trite and not much consolation to you–but it is true !! Don’s one hand was severely burned and scarred, but he still beat me playing golf–by a bunch !!!
You and Donna have proven your very unique abilities to deal with traumatic events. I am constantly amazed from afar at your enjoyment of life — both the small and the big things. The photo of the rainbow is a symbol to me: There are ups and downs in life; sometimes things are harder to see than at others; but all-in-all it is pretty damn beautiful !!!!
KEEP SMILING !!
Thank you so much!
I would take the rainbow as a very good sign.
Thank you. I hope so
I’m so glad to hear that after the clinic visit you had a good meal and visits to enjoyable places. Those are at least as healing as the medical components.
Thank you. It really helped the shock of the news
sorry to hear about skin grafts being needed. I’m sure he isn’t looking forward to more hospital time. but nice that he can at least ditch the facial wrappings-
Denise
Thanks Denise. We are in the pre-op waiting room now. Anxious times.
I just talked to the surgeon, the head of the burn department. Tom did well. They are going to keep him overnight so they can recheck the site again tomorrow before he goes home.
Home , right away again. I can hardly believe and am so glad you all get to be home.
We are glad to be home. Tom is not fond of spending the night in the burn unit.
Continued prayers from here! I’m thankful that Tom is doing so well. I pray that the skin grafting will heal well. Having had skin grafting on my lower leg, which required a large piece of skin to be removed from my thigh, I can sympathize with Tom.
Do you let him read all the comments concerning his burns and recovery?
Take care!
Thanks for the prayers. We are sure hoping that the skin graft heals and we don’t have to do that again. I have read all the comments to him. We are having a nice breakfast now but the beagle just jumped on his leg. This will be a long journey still.