New Year Brings Sorrow with New Beginnings

I have been away from blogging for a couple of months now.  There is a reason why this has happened.  My new year did not exactly start happy.  There are things to be happy about though.  You will see when you read this post.  My apologies in advance for the length of this one.

On January 3, 2010, I was busy at home doing various chores and anticipating my return to work the next day.  Since I live in the lower part of my parent's house, I make frequent trips upstairs to see how they are making out.  This particular day, I was up and down a few times looking for my mother.  My father told me that he thought she was in her room reading.  I hadn't seen her yet, and I was waiting for her to appear.  In the meantime, I went back down to my place and continued to do paperwork.  Little did I know in a matter of moments, my life would change in a drastic way.

All of a sudden, I heard yelling and stomping on the floor.  I immediately knew there was something horribly wrong.  I took a big breath and ran upstairs.  What I encountered, ripped my very core from my body.  My mother was totally engulfed in flames and my father was desperately trying to rip the burning clothing off of her.  My first instinct was to run and wet some towels and put them over her to extinguish the fire.  All of this happened so quickly, and my mother remained very quiet.  No doubt she was going into shock from what had been a major trauma to her body.

I called 911 and tried to explain the situation to the operator - this was hard as I was hysterical through this ordeal.  In no time, the air ambulance was circling the area looking for a place to land.  The fire department, ambulance, and police arrived in a matter of minutes.  The attendants loaded my mother into the ambulance and took her to meet the helicopter.  From about 3 kilometres up the road, they airlifted her to the Burn Trauma Unit in Hamilton, ON.  The helicopter could not land near our house because of windy conditions.

My mother had been cooking poached eggs on a gas stove and caught her clothing on fire and couldn't put it out.  I am so thankful to have been home on this day as my father and I were able to react to the situation in the best way we could at the time.  My father sustained some superficial burns on his hands from the flames, but my mother received 2nd and 3rd degree burns to 40% of her body. 

We were able to see our mother for a few minutes on the evening of her accident and were told that her condition was grim.  The next morning, they put mom into a drug induced coma with a drug called Versed to keep her calm and sleepy.  To control her pain, she was given Fentanyl.  In order to help her breathe, she was intubated.  The first few days after the accident seemed like months had gone by.  For 72 hours, we did not know the full extent of our mother's burns.  Existing burns continued to deepen and new ones appeared during the first three days.  The family was so grief stricken and worried, we couldn't focus on anything but the well-being of mom.  I know for myself, flashbacks of the accident have haunted me, tears have been plenty, and nightmares of the incident have interrupted my sleep cycle.  My doctor spoke to me about a condition she feels I am suffering from called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Over time, I will experience less and less anxiety surrounding memories of the event.

Doctors and nurses were constantly monitoring her and adjusting things to keep her alive. No one could ever imagine what this has been like.  Little things like hearing that her urine output was adequate were like amazing steps to healing.  With her being so burned, keeping fluid in her body was a challenge and her wounds were like sieves.  Her bed and floor surrounding her bed were puddled from saline fluid coming out of her wounds. Her vital signs were constantly monitored through an arterial line that was inserted into an artery below her clavicle.  Through this arterial line, they could monitor her vitals, as well as take blood work which happened constantly.  They placed an NG tube through her nose into her stomach to give her constant feeds to keep her protein levels up.  Proper fluid and protein levels are both important factors for healing, especially with burn patients. 

We learned that the medical team would have to perform skin grafting surgery on mom and would have to take healthy skin off of her and place it on the burn sites.  The process would involve a total debridement of the dead skin and then the new skin would be placed on the burn sites and held there with hundreds of staples.  We were told that mom had a 40% chance of making it through this surgery.  We were horrified and sat waiting to hear news.  After waiting for over eight hours, we saw the doctor come into the waiting room.  Mom made it through the surgery, but within a few days, she suffered a heart attack.  The medical team was quick to respond with medications to help her condition. We knew that she would need more surgery because they were only able to do so many areas during the first surgery.  The major concern was always her burns.  I was told by the medical team that burn patients are the sickest patients because every system of the body is affected. 

Mom needed more surgery and the team held off for a few weeks due to the fact that her condition was further weakened from the heart attack she suffered.  When the team felt she was stronger, they decided to do the second surgery.  My sister's and I were at the hospital bright and early that morning to see mom before she went to the Operating Room.  I texted my brother, as he had to be at work that mornng.  The hours ticked by very slowly and finally we got some news from a nurse that the surgery was going well.  It wouldn't be long and she would be back in her room.  She made it through another one and we were so relieved.  Within a few hours after the surgery, her left lung collapsed.  We were back in panic mode and mom had to have a chest tube inserted to inflate her lung.  Within the next week or so, mom was improving and was able to come off the respirator and breathe on her own.  For the next few days, her vitals were off and her blood pressure was extremely high. She was working harder on her own without help to breathe and her body was reacting to this.  The team finally got things in check again.  One of the doctors that were taking care of mom came into the room and said "ah we fixed her".   He then said, "was it the drugs or was it all the love that brought that blood pressure down"?  This was such a compliment to our family to have the medical team notice the warmth and love that surrounded our mother.

Once she was more stable, they moved her out of intensive care to the step down care.  This was an exciting time for all of us.  She was coming off of the heavy drugs and was now talking to us.  Conversations were convoluted as the narcotics play a big part in confusion in patients.  Within a couple of days, we learned mom had developed an infection in her blood commonly known as sepsis.  Doctors quickly put her on a couple of antibiotics to combat the infection.  They did blood cultures to see what the best course of treatment would be and they found that Vancomycin was their drug of choice. She has received this drug for two weeks now.  Her temperature has gone to normal as well as her white blood cell count.  The team suspects that the PICC line they inserted into her was the cause of her infection.

The team in the Burn Trauma Unit has been amazing with the care they have given our mother.  It has been over six weeks since my mother's accident and she has been through two major surgeries for skin grafting, was asleep for over a month, and has fought an infection in her blood.  She is improving day by day and is now regaining memories and making conversation.  Her road to recovery is long but she is healing and that is a gift.  She will have to go through physiotherapy to regain mobility and control scarring for the better part of two years. 

I am thankful to the Burn Trauma Unit team, my family, and friends for their support, love, strength, and commitment.  The many prayers and healing thoughts that have been sent to my mother and our family have definitely played a big part in how this story has been shaping up.  Mother has proved her strength and will to live.  She has amazed her medical team and many others.  We love her so much and are so proud to call her mom. 

In a card to our mother, my sister and I wrote a poem that says the following:

The healing thoughts and healing hands that you have felt;
Are lifting you out of the sickness that has dwelt;
Accept this love, that encircles you;
It's your guardian angels that will get you through.

I can honestly say I have learned a few things from all of this. Never give up on the possibilities and certainly never underestimate the power of LOVE.