miracle

photo courtesy Google

Ron the PT ended up letting us have a break over the weekend from the hydotherapy treatments.  But we had to be in first thing this morning to see him before we went to see Dr. Maloff the plastic surgeon at 9:15.  It was a busy morning.

Let me just begin by saying that prayer and fasting and priesthood blessings really work.

Evelyn's hand looked pretty amazing today after the long weekend.  There have been some big improvements made.

Dr. Maloff  was so impressed with how the debridement was going (thanks Ron!).  And he couldn't believe how much better it looked from one week ago.  He didn't even mention the words 'skin graft' during the whole appointment today.  Yay!

For the next week and a half, Dr. Maloff is having us continue to visit Ron for debridement, BUT she only needs to go in every other day.  We will visit Dr. Maloff  again a week from this Wednesday for further evaluation.

Until then, Evelyn is doing well.  We have learned a trick.  We put a peanut butter M&M in her mouth if she doesn't cry while her hand is in the whirlpool.  This is helping a lot.  Once the hand is out of the water, then Ron works on it with wet swabs, tweezers and scissors.  This is where I have to hold her hand really, really still.  She doesn't like it one bit, but she cooperates.   I have been so amazed at how brave she has been and how she always says "thank you, Ron" when he is done.

We have felt of your prayers and we thank you.  This act alone has strengthened us.  We have also felt of our Heavenly Father's love for us.  He is so mindful of each one of us.  And for this I am so grateful.

Day 6 of this adventure....

The whirlpool debridement treatments are becoming more difficult for Evelyn.  The nerves are growing back, so there is more pain.  Ron her PT is having to cut away the dead material from the wound as she cries and cries.  She doesn't even like the whirlpool part anymore.  I'm having to physically hold her hand down in the water.  It's no longer a fun bubbly bath for her hand  (Bill even uploaded the movie "UP" to his iPod so she would have a distraction today.  It didn't work.)

We knew it was going to be hard this week.  And it has.  I was SO looking forward to tomorrow because I thought these treatments would only be through Friday, But Ron told us today that he was pretty sure we would at least have to do Saturday too.  So it's going to be a long weekend before we get to go back on Monday morning to see the surgeon.

So, to get my mind off of what's to come, here are some pictures of happier moments from this past weekend.  We put a big mitten over her bandaged hand, I found an oversized coat for her, and Porter took her out on the deck so she could play in the falling snow:

catchin' snowflakes on her face

wanting to explore

snowball, midflight, heading straight for Porter's face

Porter is THE BEST big brother to this little girl

manicure....?

I really wish :)

The whirlpool therapy went well today.  Ron, her PT was awesome.  He was so impressed with how brave she was and how much she talked his ear off.  He said most toddlers scream their heads off.

She didn't cry once.

Evelyn got to put her hand in a big silver tub with lots of jetted water and bubbles.  She thought it was great!  After that, Ron swabbed the wound to clean it out a little which she didn't like.  He said that today he would only swab it because if he did any more, she would not want to come back ever again...and we have to do this all week so we're easing her into it.  Baby steps.

Tomorrow he will need to use scissors.

I can look at the wound now.  A little.  It's looking better.  Kind of.  I still hide my eyes when it gets worked on and I DON'T THINK that's gonna change.

And I'm okay with that.

We're being brave around here....and I think we deserve some chocolate.

Evelyn's hand

We met with the plastic surgeon today.

As of right now, she will be going to physical therapy everyday this week for 'whirlpool debridement' of the wound.  This entails allowing the swirling movement of water to debride or remove the dead tissues from her fingers.  There will also be some physical picking or scraping of the wound in areas that need special attention.  Not fun.  The good thing about this is that she will be re-bandaged everyday by someone who knows what they are doing.  This will also reduce greatly the possibility of infection (which we don't want).

The whirlpool treatment will help the wound fully reveal itself.  There is a possibility of needing skin grafts which is another story in and of itself.  I will update on that if we have to cross that road.  The wounds are in a hard place, i.e., knuckles, etc.

We meet with the doctor again, one week from today.  He will further evaluate the wound then.

Evelyn did well at the doctor today.  She was a little apprehensive of the doctor (she did say "cheese" when he took pictures of her hand :), but completely LOVED her nurse Rosie.  Rosie was able to help Evelyn have the courage not to cry and pull back on her hand while they were working on it.  

Please keep Evelyn in your prayers.  It's going to be a long week.

How is she?

Well, when she was able to wear great-grandma's earrings to church this morning, she was happy.

But honestly...she's been quite a bit of grump mixed in with a little bit of happy, which has been a big shift from our happy, spunky, social butterfly of a girl.

She doesn't want anyone to touch her owie.  We had to put a short sleeved dress on her for church (in this snowstorm, nonetheless) so that it was easier to get her hand through a sleeve. (She's very conscientious and careful with her bandaged hand.)  I debated bringing her to church at all, and ended up bringing her home right after the sacrament because of a major meltdown.

We told her she gets to meet her new doctor tomorrow (the plastic surgeon) and that he will help fix her fingers, and she says "No.  No doctor."  The novelty has worn off.

But at the same time, she has been an extremely brave little girl, who has respected her bandages and melted the hearts of many physicians and nurses this weekend with her wit, her conversation and big blue eyes.

I, myself have not been so brave.  I'm having some issues that I need to work through.  I get physically sick when I think about what happened, or think about the wound, OR see the wound.  I have to put my head down and hide my eyes whenever the doctor looks at it.  And I'm still not getting much sleep because it's all I think about. When are they going to scrub it?   Is she going to need skin grafts?  Will she have full mobility?  

I need to buck-up.  It's going to take some time for her hand to heal...with lots of re-dressing the wound; which I am going to need to do.  I have to do this!  Bill's going to give me a priesthood blessing after Porter's court of honor tonight.  (He's receiving 4 merit badges!!!)

We can do this Evelyn.

You might just need to help pull mommy through.