Burn Clinic: Take Two

I know a lot of you have been waiting to hear about the progress with Austin's burn. I will get right to that after my warning..

 WARNING: there are some picture in THIS post that are NOT of the pretty nature. If wounds and blood make you squimish this post is NOT for you!



I was told by some that it was unclear who else was injured in the incident so I thought I would first give a run down of that before I tell you what the burn clinic said.

1st- Andrew did catch on fire but his quick reaction of Stop, Drop, and Roll saved him from getting ANY burns. It worked so fast he doesn't even remember feeling the heat of the fire.
2nd- Merrill received burns on a few of his fingers from trying to stop the fire from going back into the gas tank. (At least I think that is what caused them.)
3rd- Austin- I think everyone knows how he was burned on the ear (front and back) and across his forehead
4th- Daimian (The boy whose head caught on fire) was burned on his head in 4 spots. His hair mostly saved him from harm amazingly so. He didn't need to be treated at the ER. He is being treated with cream and band-aids


Now with the report!

Austin's ear has been doing awesome! Almost every time we change the dressing it looks better, and better. Here are some pictures of the progress:

Taken 4/23/2012

Taken 4/25/2012

Taken 4/26/2012

Andrew buzzed his hair since Austin was so mad about getting his hair buzzed. We were going to let him help me cut daddy's hair but his didn't want daddy to have his hair cut either. We did it anyways..

The Beanie Brothers

Taken 4/27/2012

The Beanie Brothers strike again

Taken May 1st- Burn Clinic day

The nurse practitioner was optimistic about the outcome with a little horror in there as well. The top of the ear is still very concerning. The ear is just a small layer of skin on top of cartilage. So there is a possibility that the ear could get infected, and if it did, there's a chance that part of his ear would need to be removed. Obviously...worse case scenario. So no infection check!

We will continue to change his dressing 2 times a day, and his ear should be looking like the side of his face does in 1 week. Yes that soon! That was until the nurse messed up....

The nurse that was helping Austin was very kind and nice with Austin but she did his wrap all wrong. and sadly I didn't realize how wrong until too late. She barely put any Bacitracin on his wound. That was the part I knew to be wrong. She covered him in gauze and the nurse practitioner took a look at it and ok'd it. They told me to make the wrap just like that from now on. When I removed the gauze for a fresh wrap before bed the gauze stuck to his burn and made him bleed. I felt so bad for him! I made him a new wrap the way they told me to except I put 10 x the goop on it than she did. Thinking that was all I needed to make it better from hers.
 I am embarrassed that my brain didn't think more about this situation and prevented what happened next. I can only say that I believed that the burn clinic knew what they were doing, and told me everything I needed to do.

The next morning when I went to put on a new dressing. The gauze was completely adhered to his ear. I had to almost pry it off. Austin was in tears and blood was once again going down his ear but this time in multiple places and he had a huge scab where his ear connects to his head in the front. This is when I realized theirs and now my mistake. We didn't put on the non- adherent strips that goes against the burn to prevent sticking.  So we went from looking SO good to blood and scabs to worry about. I am now more concerned about him getting the infection in his ear now because of this mistake.

I called right then after getting a proper cover on Austin. I just happened to have just one more of those strips in my stash. A different nurse answered the phone and was shocked that the strips weren't provided or on the wrap we obtained at the clinic. I went and picked up more supplies from them. (so happy I was still at my sister Diane's place)

So we went from this:

 

to this:

And this

All the red area wasn't there on burn clinic day..

   This is after a full day of healing after the incident. I didn't think about taking a picture but you should all be happy I'm not making you look at that! They would have made you cry! I was surprise how quickly the scab went away. Currently he still has blood with every dressing change, but hopefully in a couple of days those will heal enough. I think I'll do another update in a week. That is when we would have to make an appointment with the burn clinic again. But only if he is not healed. So keep your fingers crossed!