Today Friday 3/12/10 Surgery Day

Before surgery Leah played on the laptop and colored in her coloring book. She was feeling a good bit better. Then they came and took her for a 3-4hr surgery(including recovery room time). The doctor came out after and told us that everything went well and that she may not need to have her leg and butt grafted and if she doesn't they MAY NOT have to get skin from her scalp. We are hoping and praying this is the case because we don't want them to have to shave her head. She is already having a hard time with her appearance and doesn't want people to look at her. She loves brushing her hair and I'm afraid of her reaction to that. She is terrified of bright lights that get really warm, how she looks,how people see her. She's ONLY 4.5yrs old!!! but she wants to be covered so nobody can see her..she doesn't even want mommy and daddy to look. I have tried to tell her that she is still a beautiful princess but I don't know if I'm helping or hurting the situation and don't really know what to say to her about it. I want to give her the attitude that it doesn't matter that she is beautiful anyway and don't know how to do that. The words aren't helping..I don't know if it's just she doesn't believe me or she doesn't trust me.

The boys are staying with my mom and aunt. John's parents are coming down on Sunday and will be staying at our house with the boys and John to help us. David and Robbie have been tossed around so much. They also are not going to be playing tball after all. I took them out because we won't be able to go watch them play and getting them back and forth to practice/games now with the situation with Leah just isn't possible. Even after she comes home she will have to have special care we'll have to massage her skin, taking her to and from therapy for about the next two years they say. They will also watch the scaring and she will possible need surgeries in the future to help with that. When we take her home we'll have to keep the house super extra clean bleach the tub before and after her baths, bleach her towels, sheets and things because of the risk of infection. She will also have to be very careful being out in the sun because the skin will be so thin and new she will burn SUPER EASY. They say she may not really tolarate the sunlight for awhile. With triplets this is going to get tricky because how do I not hold the boys back from swimming and playing outside because I have to be inside with Leah. They like to swim(and so does she) how will we do that? John works 12hrs/day 5-6days a week. I'm already freaking out about them going home and they haven't even gotten here and we're nowhere near even home....I'm just so stressed and overwhelmed I can't think straight. All three of my kids lives have just been turned upside down and I feel SO EXTREMELY GUILTY because I feel like I should've prevented this from happening in the first place. It's so hard to look at her laying there and know that it happened on MY WATCH. As a mommy we want to protect them and I used to say all the time "Mommy's got you....your alright" Now I wonder if they will ever believe me when I say that again. I'm posting a pic of my sweet baby girl coloring yesterday afternoon after surgery.

Day 3-Today was an ok day...

She isn't sleeping good and in alot of pain but they stopped the morophine because they thought she was having a reaction to it but decided it wasn't and started giving it to her again because she was in SO MUCH pain the night before. They lowered the dose and she did pretty good with it. She ate a little and talked some. She doesn't like when the nurses come in here and bother her. She is getting to be quite the little diva.(which is just fine!) She has surgery tomorrow for the first deep removal of dead skin and they will use cadaver skin on her arm and side. Then a on Tuesday or so of next week graft her to put a thin layer of her skin on that area before her body rejects it.(the body rejects the cadaver skin within 10days) After that they will start the process over again with the cleaning of another area and cadaver skin and will keep doing that process til she has been grafted and has new skin on each area that needs it.

Day 2-She had a VERY BAD DAY3/10/10

Today was not a good day AT ALL. Since she'd been here they were checking her hands and feet to make sure she still had good pulse in them because of the swelling. Everything was going along and they came to take her for a bath. They give them a sedative to relax them then bath them and they know what is going on but they don't really FEEL to much(so they say...the nurses tell us she does hurt some because of how bad some of the spots are). This can change for up to three days after the burn. When they brought her back from her bath the muscles and stuff started to clamp down and she didn't have a pulse in her hands or feet anymore. All the sudden monitors started going off and her pulse rate dropped to 50/32 and she was non-responsive. Her room filled with doctors and nurses and it was really scary for a few minutes and they finally got her heartrate stable and her blood pressure up. Afterward they told us they needed to take her to the OR immediately and cut her arm on the inside and outside from shoulder to elbow and elbow to wrist so that the fluid could drain off because it had contracted down and if they didn't she could loose her hand. Off she went for surgery and we LOST IT completely after what we had just witnessed but little did we know at the time how bad that situation really had been. The nurse told us the next day that Leah was almost in cardiac arrest the day before and that is why all the other doctors were paged because they were just needing A doctor to get in here IMMEDIATELY. We were a little thankful for stupidity at the situation because we scared but had we known how grave that situation was it would've been allot worse. She had the surgery on her arm came back and looked like a different child the rest of the night. It was amazing at the difference in her. We thank GOD for protecting her when we couldn't.

Leah's accident 3/9/10

We got up this day and had plans. I had to get some clothes washed and folded that morning and get the house picked up then we were going to get baths and take our van to Jerry's shop to have a tune-up done. Well it got a little late on us so we decided to eat lunch at home instead of going on so I asked everybody what we were going to eat for lunch and they wanted spaghetti. I put the sauce in the pot and started the water. When it got boiling Leah and David(as usual) grab a chair and come over to help mommy. I asked them to get down a couple of times and David got down first. When Leah was trying to get down she lost her balance and fell toward the stove grabbing or hitting the pot and knocking it off onto her. The water poured on her arm,side,back and some of her leg. The water was a rolling boil and I grabbed her up and jerked her clothes off but it was already to late. Her skin started peeling and blistering. I was SCREAMING for my husband and my sons were screaming for "Daddy". Robbie went charging up the stairs yelling Leah's hurt bad...Daddy hurry. I grabbed the phone and called 911 and wrapped her in a clean sheet. She laid on the couch on with her head of my leg til the ambulance got there to get us. John drove the boys in the van and when we got here I had to sit in the waiting room and answer a bunch of questions from the doctor about what happened and how much she weighed from birth til now, medications and things. After an hour or two we were allowed to see her. She was SO PITIFUL. We comforted her as much as we could. She was doped up and jumping all over the place because of the med's. From there it has been a ride but we have had some AWESOME NURSES at Children's Medical Center. We're very blessed they are amazing.
She ended up with 2nd and 3rd degree burns on her body from this. The doctor day say we will be here a minium of 6wks and she will go through 10 surgeries for the burns while here. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.