Support Robert's Fight Burn Recovery Journey

9/10

Update on Dad. He is two weeks post final skin graft surgery. Even though he is still in the Burn ICU, his grafts and donor sites look promising. Everything seems to be taking well and there are no signs of infection thus far. The pain the first week after surgery was excruciating and very hard to watch. His pain seems to be getting more and more under control. They finally got the last of 600-800 staples out of him yesterday during wound care. It took roughly five to six days to get them all out. Dad does have quite a bit of swelling which they are working on getting out of his body. They did say this swelling will come and go as his body learns to adapt to the new skin. He is getting stronger and stronger every day with the help of a great physical therapy team. We are so inspired and proud to see how hard our dad is working to get strong again. Besides therapy, he tries to walk 8-10 laps around the unit as well as go to the therapy gym to ride the bike. His grit and try is amazing. He is still on track for an end of the month discharge but we will wait to hear further instructions during the next week or two. Thank you all for the continued thoughts, prayers, and encouragement. We really appreciate it!

-Steph & Mandy

8/28 Update:

Robert had surgery yesterday for his final skin graft, and it went well. He will now have to stay completely still for 3-4 days after surgery, then he will hit the ground running with physical therapy. The skins grafts are extremely painful, and he will be struggling for a few days until the grafts get integrated. The risk for wound infection is high and potential complication, so we are hopeful his grafts stay healthy. His potential discharge is middle of September, followed by virtual visits with his doctors every Wednesday and regular physical therapy. We are glad that he got his final surgery and look forward to the weeks to come.

-Steph & Mandy

8/18

Dad is currently waiting with his BTM wound covering till his first auto graft surgery towards the end of the month . His face is healing really well and won’t need grafting. He is still struggling with some pneumonia but his respiratory output is very good and coughing stuff up and clearing the pneumonia . He is dealing with some ICU delirium which is totally normal for his status . He is able to stand for a short time and take a few steps. He has had some stomach motility issues and currently has a NG tube in . He has been performing well after the stomach tube was put in and tomorrow or next few days we will find out if he gets his NG tube out so he is able to eat and drink. His spirits are high and so is ours. He has toughed through his medical obstacles and hope to keep climbing the ladder . We are so grateful for all the help, prayers, well wishes, donations, calls, and texts. Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts!

-Steph & Mandy

8/10

Dad has spent the last 7-8 days getting his infections cleared and two BTM surgeries completed. He was able to be taken off the ventilator today! His breathing and vitals are stable and his team thinks he will have a successful extubation. He is still kind of out of it due to sedation meds he is clearing in his system and being in a medically induced coma for 14 days . He was able to talk, although his voice is hoarse due to intubation tube. He has his sense of humor and was giving us and the nurses a hard time . We hope to see him have more mental clarity in the days to come recovering from the coma and successful wound improvement. Robert’s next step is to have the final grafts in roughly 3-4 weeks . We appreciate all the messages, calls, and prayers. So sorry if we haven’t gotten back to anyone, our total focus has been on our dad; also, Steph’s phone quit and lost a lot of her messages . Due to still being in the Burn ICU and high risk for infection given his condition, he cannot have any other new visitors for the time being. We will definitely provide an update when he is able make calls and talk without tiring out.

-Steph & Mandy