Healing

After seeing Jacob at the hospital the first night, I thought he would be on his way to a quick recovery-I wish!  The first couple weeks were the worst, but eventually things started getting better for him.  Jacob was given some pain pills to help him out, but they did not work at all.  After a few days of misery, our Bishop (who is a dentist) came and gave Jacob some tips on how to take his pain medication along with over the counter meds to help him feel some relief.  What a difference that made.  We had to go back to the hospital for a wound check.  Even though we had an appointment, we waited over 2 1/2 hours to get in.  Once we got in, the doctor didn't even look at it.  He just sent us down to the place where they put casts on and told them to take the bandages off and put fresh ones on. 

Picture Jacob sitting on a table in a big room with a few curtained off sections, but still not a very private area at all. The guy came in to start unwrapping it and was so rough with him.  The bandages were stuck to the wounds so he decided to just rip it off when he could.  Jacob was in so much pain, I literally had to hold him up on the table as he almost passed out.  The nurse would tear a little off at a time, then wait for Jacob to start breathing again and then do more.  At some point I remembered seeing a family sitting right in front of us watching.  They had three young kids, and I can only imagine what they were thinking as they watched.  I think this appointment was even worse than the other ones.  Although he hurt at the other ones, he had a lot of medication in him so he wasn't really there.  I could go on and on about what happened there, but it makes me sick to think of it-not really because of how things looked, but because I have never seen Jacob in so much pain to the point where he was crying and nearly passing out. I felt so helpless. 

After that disaster, we decided to have Jacob's brother try to change the bandages for him.  All I can say is that Joe was so incredibly patient and awesome.  We soaked the bandages for a while then Joe slowly started pulling them off.  Whenever it started hurting Jacob he would stop, wait for him to breath again, soak it, then start over.  He had to do this with two fingers, and it took 5 hours.  It was still painful and Joe had to stop a lot because Jacob would go all white and start swaying and get ready to pass out again.   Joe did this for several days (it got faster each time) but they still got infected (there is no doubt in my mind that this was due to the first bandage change at the hospital).  Kim took pictures of them and sent them to her friend who was a nurse at a wound clinic.  She explained his story and they called the next day saying the doctor had cancelled appointments so Jacob could get in.  This was the real start to his healing.

At the wound clinic he was treated in two different ways.  First, they changed his bandages and gave him better medication to help him heal.  He was in so much pain because his nerve endings were still exposed.  Anything that touched it, including air, was just a direct shot to it and hurt him.  He got different creams and like fake skin (Santyl) to help him.  I was surprised how quickly it changed things for him.

The other way they helped him was by getting treatments in a bariatric chamber.  At the wound clinic, they do a lot of treatments for people who have diabetes or other conditions and have sores that take a long time to heal.  They put them in a thing like an MRI tube and they breathe 100% oxygen.  This is supposed to help heal the wound from the inside out. The tube was clear so he could see out of it to watch tv, he just couldn't hear it.  He went in for treatments 5 days a week for 2 hours each time.  It took an hour of driving time each way, so that took up a big chunk of each day for him.  However, the results were worth it! At first I went with him because it's supposed to make you really tired.  I would drop him off at the clinic then take the girls (until school started) and go hang out at Walmart or Target. After a couple of weeks he was able to drive himself.   The doctors originally told Jacob it would take like 6 months to heal before he could even start doing anything.  Once we went to the wound clinic they thought it would take 6 weeks, but after 4 weeks he was done.  Of course, he still had a lot of pain if he got bumped, but the skin was all healed over so he could slowly start doing things again.  Jacob was so blessed to be able to go there.  All the doctors and nurses in the office were so kind and gentle and since he saw them so often he really got to know them.  When Jacob was finally finished with the treatments we bought lunch for everyone in the office we were so grateful for them.

Originally Jacob thought it might be nice to have a little break from work.  Unfortunately he didn't factor in the amount of pain he would be in.  He was so miserable he couldn't do much.  He couldn't use his hand at all, so that took outt all video or computer games.  The pain meds made him all fuzzy so he couldn't even watch movies and play games very well.  The girls enjoyed being able to spend time with him and having him read with them and just listen to them talk.  So much of that time was a big blur, but we are all glad it's over!