It has been 3 weeks today since Tom was burned badly. It has been quite the journey with A Scary Day, Tom’s Burn Adventure,  Post-Burn Farming and First Burn Clinic Appointment.  It is weird.  It seems like a really long time and just yesterday.  I have learned that trauma distorts memories.

But he is healing,  Here is his face from last Wednesday.  Much better!

My brother had been staying with us, helping out and doing some home repairs. He has been so incredibly helpful.   I have been doing the cooking.  Comfort food is the order of the day.  Wednesday I made Venison Tater Tot Hotdish.  It was comforting.

On Friday we went back to Harborview for skin grafting.  Dr. Pham was the surgeon.  There was talk of grafting on his right hand, but when we looked at it Friday, it was much improved and did not need surgery.  But his right inner upper arm still did need a graft.

He had an IV and a right leg nerve block placed.  Neither of these were fun for Tom.  Then he went into the OR.  I had some lunch and checked out the park next to the hospital.

I returned to the waiting room via The Nurses’ Tunnel.  The link on the sign doesn’t seem to work, and I didn’t hear any voices, but there is more information here.  My aunt was a nurse at Harborview.

I returned to the waiting room and watched the display for his status.  He was 1036911 and was in the operating room about 2.5 hours.

I was the second to last person waiting in the room.

I finally was able to speak with the surgeon and then see Tom in the recovery room.  The good news was that the surgery went well.  The bad news is that he needed to spend the night in the burn unit for a wound check in the morning to make sure the graft was OK before going home.

So back to 8 East, and we got Aaliyah again.

At least we had a window and a view.

As I was leaving after visiting hours, there was a helicopter on the roof of the parking garage.

And there was a full moon and a plane over the hospital.  I was able to stay with my father again which was quite nice.

Once again, I got to go through the Emergency Room security to visit Saturday morning.  There was a disturbance nearby so they let us in a little early which was nice for me.  But I didn’t think I was going to get to wear one of these bracelets again.

Tom was eager to leave.  There was an emergency in the Burn ICU so we had to wait a little for the burn surgeon to arrive and assess his graft.  Dr. Stewart thought it looked good.  The occupational therapist Jody helped dress his wounds.

And here he is smiling, knowing he will be able to go home.

While we waited, I noticed that there is a Pan-African flag on the tower.  I hadn’t noticed it before.

Juli was another great nurse, advocating for our departure.  And finally we left the hospital bed behind.

After we got home, Russ, Jay and the grandkids arrived.  The grandkids hadn’t seen Tom since his burns, and William especially really wanted to see his grampa again.  They went out to the garage, of course, and William got seemingly more and more comfortable with the current appearance of his grandfather.

Piper mostly napped with Ryeleigh.

They made dinner for us which was so wonderful.

I had to work Sunday so our farmsitter Dani did the animal chores, and Tom’s son Thomas came over and helped Tom get his prescriptions and drove him to a family gathering.  He was well fed at this event as well.  I missed it, but Tom had a great time.

Today I am back to doing farm chores again after a considerable absence when my brother and Dani did everything.  I noticed a GBH on the barn roof this morning.

Wally is getting more and more adventurous and today was on the “grampa shed” above our Bambam.

I missed my toss of some hay into the sheep feeder from the hay loft, and Diddley made a mess of himself.

It had rained quite a bit while I was gone yesterday.

I took the dogs out to the back four acres and noticed that the grass is starting to grow.

I also noticed how much Summer is growing.

And more croci are blooming.

I was going out to the back 4 acres to gather the game camera and see what has been lurking around back there.  And there are three nights with coyote photos.

 

Then one with the dogs with me today.

We have collected quite a bit of burn supplies.  Right now we do not need them, but we may after our next appointment on Wednesday.

This afternoon it was sleeting for quite a while.  Thankfully it was after I was done with the outdoor chores.

For dinner I made more comfort food.  This time was Lasagne Soup.  It was really good and comforting.

This evening the hail turned to snow, and it is starting to accumulate.  The peacock balloon Russ and Jay got me for Christmas was lit up this evening in contrast to the snow.

I am hoping it is all good news from here on and healing.  This has been really difficult for Tom but also for me.  I am exhausted.  But we have had lots of support and help which was been invaluable.