Nurse Tammy

A little update on how Ryan is doing.

Monday morning we had to head back to Winnipeg to see plastics and occupational therapy. It was a long hard day for Ryan. Plastics may have been the worst of it because they had to pull off all the dressing and some of it was stuck on there good. Plastics took a good look at his x-rays and then a good look at his hand. They were happy with the way it was healing. They checked out the skin graph and all looked well. We see them again next Wednesday to have the stitches removed and get new x-rays.

Ryan was already in pain from that experience and then it was on to a 2 1/2 hour appointment with therapy. Our Therapist was exceptional though. She was gentle and kind and worked with Ryan very well. She took off the dressing and gave his whole hand a good cleaning. Then she dressed it again making sure to have a lot of gauze on to absorb any moisture. At this point they are a little afraid as maceration, (prolonged wetness that can cause skin layers to deteriorate and cause open sores) so we want to keep his hand as dry as possible even between the fingers. This was a little bit painful for Ryan as no one had pulled his fingers apart yet to get in between. After he was all wrapped up with new dressing they molded him a splint out of thermal plastic. The main purpose of this is to help keep his finger straight and protect the skin graph. The tendons still need time to heal before he can move his thumb.

Right before we were able to leave the therapist gave Ryan some exercises to do. Because of the 3 hours of touching he had already been through, this was exceptionally hard, but he did it. He has been so strong through all of this. I am so amazed with and proud of him.

The doctors want Ryan's dressing to be changed daily so they got in touch with Brandon to set something up. Unfortunately Brandon's home care service is very busy and there is a 2 week waiting list. Obviously that is not an option so the lady that set it up had to contract it out to a private nursing company in town. They came yesterday to re-dress Ryan's hand. It was the first and last time they will be doing it.

Everything from reading the doctors orders to listening to us was too hard for them to do. The nurses showed up without any sterile gloves, or sterile towels, pads....anything. We had told them twice that we had enough gauze to do at least one dressing, and their orders say to bring all supplies with them, but apparently that is too confusing. Right from the start the head nurse seemed out of her element, she said she would watch as she undressed it to dress it the same way, which she did not do. She refused to read my hand out from OT on how to use one of the products claiming she uses it all the time. She did not listen to me when I told her how our OT wants it done, all she did was complain about how we did not have the right materials to do the job and that she thought we had gloves and everything. Honestly what nurse does house calls for dressing changes without bringing sterile gloves? Really? . Ryan was huffing and puffing, not because they hurt him physically but because their incompetence scared him. I was ready to just 'snap lose it' on them. Once they were done Ryan got up and went to his room. I was left to explain that this was not what we expected and that we were unhappy with how this worked out. They finally left and I went to check on Ryan

This is how he explained it..."of all the things that I thought would take me to my breaking point, I did not expect it to be 2 nurses changing my dressing. They are never touching me again. I would rather have a no-handed monkey do it next time".

So I set out to find what will do for the next day. We decided that we would take Ryan to Day Treatment at the hospital, but couldn't without a doctors referral. So, we went to the home care pharmacy and got all our supplies and decided I would do it today, tomorrow we see his Occupational therapist in Brandon then we will go from there.

Then we hit problem #2: not a single pharmacy in town stocks sterile gloves. They can order them in but do not carry them. I went in to the ER and told them this, " My husband cut off his fingers and part of his thumb last week, he needs daily dressing changes and I am capable of doing them. The problem is that I can find any sterile gloves in all of Brandon so, you need to either supply me with some gloves or I will have to bring him in here and have one of your nurses do it." She went and got me the gloves and gave them to me. :)

Today I was Ryan's nurses and I took down his dressing, cleaned up his wounds and then redressed it. Now, we both agree it is not quite as good as the Occupational Therapist, but 100x better than the private nurses. I can not explain how good it was to be able to do that for him; to see him more at ease, to know that he trusts me enough to take care of him like that. I has been a hard go but the fact that I can be there for him to help him with everything from the paperwork to his medicine and be his nurse makes me feel...almost special.

Props to Ryan's parents who have been helping out with the kids because with the kids home I almost lose my mind a bit. They are both very very demanding children who need A LOT of attention and right now Ryan needs that attention so not having the boys home is a huge help.

Thanks Mom and Dad!

watch for cute picture I will be posting tomorrow. :)