July 15, 2008

The Hyatt's are back at home! Chris had a few visitor's today. He is now wearing normal clothes, which must feel comfortable after so long. Tiffannie cooked dinner, so they all got a home cooked meal after so much dining out (at least for Tiff and Earl). This evening they are headed out to see some people around Carlin (mainly stopping by the Pizza Factory and the Softball games at the park). Chris' first physical therapy appointment in Elko is tomorrow, though Chris is doing most of the PT on his own now.

Now that Chris is back home, many of you will be able to get the update on Chris' condition straight from Chris, so I don't know how often I will add posts to the blog. So many of you have expressed thanks in your comments. You are all welcome. When something like this happens everyone wants to pitch in and help in some way and this is really the only way I could think to help the Hyatt's. I am glad so many of you were able to visit the site and enjoy the amazing milestones with me and Chris' family. I hope that when life throws something hard at me I can respond with as much strength and determination as the Hyatt's have. We are all so lucky to know them!

July 14, 2008

You will never believe the news today. A little while ago, Chris set a pretty ambitious goal of being home in Carlin on July 27th. We were all cautiously optimistic that he'd be able to meet it but also prepared that this timeline might have been too aggressive. Then, Chris worked so hard that the doctor agreed to a date of July 18th, and we were shocked by the good news. That was before today. Chris' follow-up tests and appointments went so well today that he is headed home to Carlin tomorrow! Yes, that is tomorrow, July 15th! It hasn't even been a full month - after injuries like his this is amazing. I guess it goes to show what hard work and determination can do.

Chris' swallow test went well, so they removed his feeding tube. Now he is able to eat and drink whatever he wishes. Since it has been almost a month without a drink, Chris is making the most of it. By early afternoon he had already had Starbuck's, a couple of sodas and some tea. He also enjoyed a big breakfast today which helped when it came time for physical therapy.

Once the Hyatt's return home (tomorrow!) they will start taking Chris to physical therapy in Elko immediately. They will have many follow-up visits in Salt Lake, the first of which is next week. Chris' pressure suit has come in and he will have to wear it 23 hours per day. The suit, which is really just tight material similar to the UnderArmour the boys wear for sports, will likely be hot, so you may not see him out and about much in the heat of the day for a while. At least it is only for his torso and arms, so his face and legs will be able to breathe some.

Thank you all for following Chris' recovery so closely and keeping him and his family in your thoughts. This amazing young man has definitely impressed me over the past month. While I am sure you are all excited to visit, please keep in mind that Chris still has to rest for most of the day, plus he has two sessions of physical therapy and wound care to do every day. If possible, it would be nice to give the Hyatt's a few days to settle into a routine. At that time, I'll be happy to let you all know what time of the day is best for a visit.

July 13, 2008

It was another relaxing day, mostly spent at the hotel. Tiffannie helped Chris through physical therapy and wound care by herself as Earl headed to Carlin to take a load of their stuff home. Physical Therapy is more painful now that Chris is on different pain medications since leaving the hospital, but he is handling the pain pretty well. Tiffannie's Aunt Crystal and Cousin Cody visited for the day. Other than that, there was very little excitement. Chris is feeling a little sick tonight, which they think is from being outside in the heat for a little while.

Tomorrow is a big day of appointments, including another swallow test. Also tomorrow, Coach Branning is coming to learn about Chris' physical therapy so that he can assist with that during Chris' weights class this school year.

July 12, 2008

Today was a pretty quiet day spent mostly at the hotel. This morning, they did have to go to the hospital for physical therapy, but they did wound care and the second physical therapy session at the hotel. They all went to lunch together at a buffet place so that Chris could have a wide range of choices of acceptable foods. This was Chris' first public outing and went pretty well. Since Chris' body is consuming so much energy to heal, he needs all the calories he can get. For this reason, he still has to be hooked up to the feeding tube at night. Every four hours during the night his parents have to flush the tube and refill the bag. With first night jitters, Tiff had a few struggles with the feeding machine, which made for a long night. Now that they have all the bugs worked out, though, tonight should go better. Sam spent the day hanging out with the Hyatt's and will return to Carlin tomorrow.

Tomorrow should be another quiet day, but Monday will be busy with another swallow test and a doctor's appointment.

July 11, 2008

This morning started out pretty normal with wound care and physical therapy. The speech therapist stopped by again today and did another swallow test. This one went better, but still not quite good enough. Hopefully Monday will be the day.

After the normal morning activities, Chris (or as the doctor puts it "the healing machine") was released from the hospital! He is now staying in a two bedroom hotel suite with his parents. Sam was able to visit him there today. Tiff and Earl are glad to have him hanging out in the hotel with them. They had to go back to the hospital for afternoon physical therapy and will have to continue to go twice per day, but the hotel is a huge improvement for all of them.

On Monday, Chris will have another visit from the speech therapist. After that, the Hyatt's will just be waiting for the day the doctors tell them they can bring Chris home. Today's pictures are of Chris getting into Tiff's van for the ride away from the hospital and Chris chilling on the couch in the hotel room.

For those of you who don't regularly read the Elko Daily Free Press, pick up today's edition or check it out online (http://www.elkodaily.com/articles/2008/07/11/sports/sports1.txt). There is an article about Chris' recovery by the sportswriter that covers Carlin sports.

July 10, 2008

Chris had another swallow test with the speech therapist today. While he is able to add any pureed foods to his diet, he is still not allowed to drink water. Despite all the good news about being able to go to the hotel and home soon, Chris is pretty disappointed that he still can't drink anything. They are all hopeful that they can get an appointment with the speech therapist on Monday to try again.

Chris gets to leave the hospital and head for the hotel tomorrow! Tiff and Earl will pick him up in the morning. They will still have to go to the hospital twice per day for physical therapy, but at least they don't have to spend their whole day there. Chris will probably get his first night of uninterupted sleep since there won't be someone drawing his blood at 3 am!

Kaleb, Lisa, Jordan, Andy and Jorge all left today after a few day visit. Tiff's Aunt from Wyoming came down for the day and got to spend some time with everyone. Tomorrow, Sam arrives and will get to be Chris' first visitor at the hotel.

July 9, 2008

In preparation for taking over all of the responsibilities, Tiffannie and Earl did the wound care by themselves for the first time today. In addition, they got some coaching from the Physical Therapist on continuing Chris’ work. Chris completed his physical therapy today without any oxygen and has been without oxygen all day. This afternoon, he walked up three flights of stairs. Both wound care and therapy went well and Chris is looking really good.

During the day, all of Chris’ food is coming from eating the semi-solids like yogurt and applesauce. At night, they hook back up his feeding tube so that they can make sure he is getting enough calories. He still has an IV, but it is only used for administering antibiotics twice per day.

Tomorrow, Tiff and Earl are switching to a two bedroom hotel suite in preparation for Chris joining them. All three of them are excited to spend more time at the hotel and less time at the hospital! Also, hopefully the speech therapist will test Chris’ swallow again tomorrow and if everything goes well he’ll get a wider range of food or drinks to choose from.

July 8, 2008

Today was an incredible day. There has been one great day after another for the last week, but today seems to top them all. Chris was a little down this morning so Earl made sure he stayed focused on physical therapy and how well he was doing. Before they knew it, he was riding the exercise bike after doing all the other exercises and they were talking about going to the basketball court in the evening and just bouncing the ball around and getting his feel for the ball back.

After physical therapy was wound care and everything looked great. Most of the bandages have fallen off his legs which means those areas are healed. After a nap for Chris and lunch for Earl and Tiff, they found out that since he is doing so well they are going to wean him off of the oxygen and he may be able to be at the hotel with his parents as early as Friday! That would be this Friday, July 11th, less than four weeks after the incident. Once the Hyatt’s adjusted to that great news, they got hit with even better news. If everything goes as planned and Chris continues to kick butt, the Hyatt’s may be home by a week from this Friday. That is Friday, July 18th! This is the new goal date that the doctor has set for Chris.

Still running on the good news high, Chris was getting ready to take the stairs as part of his afternoon physical therapy when Kaleb, Lisa, Jordan, Andy and Jorge showed up for a visit. Now Chris has some teammates for his evening basketball practice.

It seems like now that Chris is able to focus and attack this situation with determination, there is nothing that will stop him or even slow him down.

July 7, 2008

Today was another good day for Chris. Physical Therapy and Wound Care went well again. Now Chris gets to sit up in a chair for wound care rather than laying on a stainless steel table. This means he is one step closer to being able to handle wound care at home. The eye doctor visited and said that Chris' vision is back to 20/20 and that the blurriness he had been experiencing was due to swelling. The scratches and abrasions that were on his cornea when he arrived are now all healed up. The speech therapist came by to do the swallow test as well. Chris is now able to eat thick-liquid type foods such as yogurt, ice cream and applesauce. He is still not able to drink liquids or eat solid foods, but at least he is eating something. They will check on the swallowing again on Thursday, and hopefully he can take liquids after that. Chris was a little bummed that he couldn't drink becuase this is still what he is looking forward to, but still the semi-solid foods are a big step after 3 weeks with nothing.

Another great piece of news is that the doctor told Chris that his goal of being home in 3 weeks is realistic and that he may be staying with Tiff and Earl in the hotel as soon as next week! For this to happen on such an accelerated schedule, Chris has to maintain his great rate of recovery and get to where he is able to eat and drink without restriction. Chris continues to not only amaze all of us, but the staff at the hospital as well!

July 6, 2008

Chris saw all his weekend visitors one more time today before they left for home. After that, it was a pretty normal day of physical therapy followed by wound care. Today they did wound care on his donor sites (legs and middle of back). This makes the wound care more painful because those injuries are "partial thickness" or similar to second degree burns, which means the nerve endings are still all alive in the skin, causing more pain than the areas that were third degree or "full thickness" burns. Despite this, Chris did a great job of toughing it out. During wound care, Tiff and Earl are able to see what the grafts and donor sites look like and they say that the skin is looking a lot better.

The speech therapist stopped by today to see if Chris was swallowing correctly, and he is doing well enough that he can now swallow the ice chips he chews up. Before, he was having to chew them to wet his mouth, but then spit them out to prevent the liquid from getting into his lungs. Tomorrow they are going to conduct a special x-ray that allows them to watch liquids go down his throat in order to be able to ensure that they are reaching his stomach rather than his lungs. If that is successful, he'll be able to start drinking liquids. If his stomach is able to handle the liquids after 3 weeks with nothing in it, than he will be able to start eating food again. If everything goes perfectly, he may be able to enjoy his first food on Tuesday, which will be exactly 3 weeks since his last meal!

This afternoon, Chris walked around quite a bit, including up and down one flight of stairs. He is repeatedly doing more and more things on his own and is almost able to get up and down from the bed by himself. After all of this exercise, he should sleep really good tonight.

A lot of people have asked how long Chris will be in the hospital and what his life will be like once he is released. A lot of that depends on Chris and how hard he works and how quickly he heals. Judging by the last week, Chris should be able to beat any time expectations that are set for him. The hospital says that he is way ahead of schedule for recovering from this type of burn. Roughly, though, his schedule will go something like this:
1) Chris will remain in the Burn ward for 2 to 3 more weeks, continuing to focus on be able to eat, drink, heal his lungs and monitor his grafts. Also, he'll continue physical therapy at least once per day to make sure he keeps a full range of motion as he heals.
2) After being released, he and his family will go through a 2 week transition period. This period is designed to make sure that he and his family know how to care for the wounds and monitor his condition before taking it all on themselves. During the transition period, Chris may be moved to another area of the hospital or he may be able to stay in the hotel with his parents. This will depend on how well he is doing, but of course the Hyatts are hoping for the hotel option.
3) Once the transition period is over, Chris will be able to return home with his parents. For quite some time, he will have to do physical therapy in Elko twice per day. Eventually this requirement will drop to once per day.
4) In order to keep the scarring to a minimum, Chris will have to wear a pressure suit (essentially a specially designed tight suit) under his clothes for between a year and 18 months.

Chris has set his own goal of being home in only 3 weeks. He is very determined to accomplish this and uses some of his downtime to do extra physical therapy. Whether he makes it in 3 weeks or not, having this goal will surely help keep him focused.

Chris read this blog all the way through for the first time today. His parents had been reading him the comments that you have all left, but this was the first time that he has read through everything himself. Because he doesn't remember much about the first week or so in the hospital, some of it was new to him. His spirits were lifted by all of your comments. Today's picture is of Chris on his long walk. We just saw him this morning and he already looks even better!

July 5, 2008

Chris is having a little bit of a harder day today, but his spirits are still good. He still has a lot of gunk in his lungs and this caused his oxygen levels to drop a bit today. He went to physical therapy and did a lot of really good work, including time on the hand bike. After about 6 minutes, though, his oxygen levels were low again and they had to call it quits for the day. For the afternoon, he was restricted from having visitors so that he could relax and get his oxygen levels back up. If he is unable to get the level back into the 90s, he may have to get the breathing tube back in, which none of us wants.

It sounds like he is doing better now, though, so a large group of people are heading up there to see him. The Paweleks, the Baynes and Mathew and Anthony are all here to visit.

Today's picture is actually a few days old, but shows Chris standing up, which he has only been doing since Thursday.

July 4, 2008

Once again, wound care went better than yesterday. This time, Chris walked from his room to wound care and back again. This is quite an accomplishment since his room is on the far side of the ward from where they do the wound care. It seems like this week, now that the grafts are starting to heal some, Chris is getting better at phenomenal speed. Jairah and Ruben visited again. Other than that, it was just us and his parents. There are a lot more visitors scheduled to arrive tomorrow, though. Chris got a good nap in the afternoon so that he would be able to hang through all the fireworks.

We got a spot right by the fence on the atrium and settled in to wait for fireworks. We were able to see about 3 different shows, two from nearby parks and one from Bee's stadium. None were terribly close, but they were certainly better than not seeing any at all. At about 10:30, after sitting outside for 2 hours, Chris decided he needed to get to bed.

Today's picture is of Chris headed back to bed at 10:30 pm. I tried to get some fireworks shots, but they were all too far away for the camera to focus on them.

July 3, 2008

We arrived in Salt Lake around noon today to visit with the Hyatt's. We found Christopher already in his cardio chair and ready to take a spin around the hopsital. We spent about half an hour exploring all the potential places to watch the fireworks from. Chris told us that he was going to try standing during physical therapy today, and if he can do it, he'll be able to use a regular wheelchair rather than the big, bulky cardio chair. Wound care went well again this morning and Chris said he is feeling alot better. We even got a few signature sarcastic remarks!

Physical Therapy went great and Chris was able to stand and take enough steps that he got to go to the regular wheel char. Also, this afternoon they took his catheter out, so there is even one less tube than yesterday. This evening we were able to take him outside for about an hour. It was perfect because he got to feel a cool breeze and look out over Salt Lake City. Jairah and Reuben showed up while we were out there, so they got to enjoy it a little with Chris. The long holiday weekend will probably slow down his visits from specialists. He is looking forward to seeing the therapist that is working on helping him retrain his throat to swallow. After having the breathing tube in for nine days, he has to do exercises to get ready. Once he can do it right, he'll be able to have that much anticipated drink. At this point, he doesn't really miss food, but wants a drink so badly that he covers his eyes when we go past a vending machine. Also, he will hopefully see an eye doctor soon to determine if he will have any permanent loss of eye sight.

Today was another great day, and one more closer to Chris getting to come home. Chris is enjoying all of his mail and everyone's comments. Thanks for all of your support!

July 2, 2008

The tube that has been sucking liquid from Chris’ stomach for two weeks is finally out. This leaves only the feeding tube and oxygen tube. This is a huge improvement over the number of tubes he has had and will certainly make it easier to go places in the chair.

Chris had a great day today. He was much more positive and receptive to seeing and talking with people. He sat up most of the day, as well. He got to leave the burn ward in his chair. He went to the catwalk between the UofU hospital and Primary Children’s Hospital and he got to go outside! This gives us great hope that we’ll be able to take him outside to see fireworks on the 4th of July.
The only bummer of the day was when Tiffannie got kicked out of the hospital for 3 hours because of a bomb threat. Since they can’t really kick out the patients, Chris had to go through most of the wound care without her present. Even this story has good news too. Chris had a much easier time with wound care, proving that it gets better everyday. Also, as of 8:30 pm, Chris has not had any pain medications since his wound care around lunchtime. This makes the longest stretch he has been able to go without pain medications. He says he just doesn't need them right now!

July 1, 2008

Today makes two weeks since Chris’ accident and he has certainly come a long way. Wound care went better today, it took less time and seemed to be less painful. This is partially because they didn’t have to do his legs. Chris was able to get in his chair today and leave his room. They didn’t let him leave the burn ward yet, but at least he got a slight change of scenery. The hospital evaluated the possibility of removing his stomach tube, but decided against it since his stomach is still healing. Hopefully that will come out in a few more days. Since his arrival, Chris has lost 14 pounds.

Chris seems to be struggling now with some depression. He is becoming reluctant to talk with visitors, the hospital staff and his parents. While he still has to undergo many physical struggles, it seems like the focus will be shifting now toward the mental struggles. Hopefully the increased mobility that the chair offers will help cheer him up a little bit. I am certain that all of the well wishes he is receiving from all of you will help as well.

On Thursday, we will be traveling again to Salt Lake City to spend a four day weekend with the Hyatt’s. I will continue to post from there, and truly hope that we can witness some of Chris’ toughness and resilience first-hand.