Briar Green Needs family prayers now.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, than this about sums it up.
Ashley was our nurse today, we saw her on our first visit. She is great. She was constantly reassuring my nervous boy with phrases like, "I'm just going to cut this off, but I'm using the nice scissors." and "That came off so easy!", "It's looking so much better!", "Oh, that's a little stuck, here, let's use some water - it doesn't hurt, it's just kind of cold."
We got the bandages off, no problem. Briar examined his hands and said, "Owie, Owie - yucky, owies," and he's right, they look pretty yucky. We left both hands unwrapped for a while so that they could take another set of pictures and so the doctor could come and look at them.
We watched some "Veggie Tales" movies on my tablet while we waited for Dr. Bruggerman.
Dr. Bruggerman said that the wounds are healing nicely. He pointed out that the burns between Briar's fingers on his right hand are white in the center, which mean that those are also "full" depth burns, so we will need to watch that spot for scarring as well as his left palm.
Briar's palm didn't look quite as scary today the burn there is about the size of a half dollar, the tissue there is very white, like paper, but today there was a little pink in the center, which is encouraging. The area around that burn was all yellow and crusty, but they didn't try to scrub that off this time (Briar really hated that the last time they did it.) The Doctor thinks Briar is doing great and he sounded very optimistic.
Dr. Bruggerman said that we need to keep his hands wrapped up to prevent infection. He said that he won't need to see Briar for a week, so not until next Monday, but he said that he wants the bandages changed mid-week, just because little kids get them dirty and need them changed.
So, we have appointments set for Thursday and Monday.
Briar sat there so sweetly. Carrie, a nurse that worked with us last week popped in to say 'Hi,' she had heard he was there and said, "He's just so cute! I had to come and see him."
After Carrie left Briar decided that it was time to go, he tried to get down, but I told him "No" and held on to him. It was then that he started screaming and fighting to get away from me. He was really mad, and it came on so suddenly. I didn't know what brought it on or how to calm him down. We couldn't let him get down until we had his owies covered up again, because we didn't want him getting them dirty.
So, I held him as best as I could while Ashley wrapped his hands and arms back up. She worked very quickly and we had him all wrapped up in just a couple of minutes. Then I let him get down. He walked straight to our diaper bag and took his sippy cup out of the side pocket and began drinking his water.
I don't know how thirsty he had been before his fit, but he was sure thirsty by the time he got down. The sippy was clear full and he just about drained it. That poor boy, if I had realized that he was just thirsty I could have solved the problem without so much crying!
After getting a drink Briar calmed down. Then Ashley started to clean up. Brair got a panicked look on his face and started crying again. I got down where I could look him in the eye, and once he looked at me I said, "Do you want to go?" He smiled through his tears and said, "Yeah."
Briar hid his face against my neck as I made the appointments and as we walked back to the car. He got upset again when I put him in his car seat, cried all of the way home and was still mad for a good 45 minutes after we were at home.
I finally calmed him down with some chocolate chip cookies and a movie.
This time the fingers on his right hand are wrapped open instead of closed into a fist like they have been before. We'll see if that works better for him or not.
 

Taken July 21, 2014
 

Briar after his appoint at the hospital to have his bandages redone.

We had another rough night. Briar woke up around 3:00 but I got him a drink and sang to him. He went back to sleep by 3:30. Then Skyler, who is 3, got up around 4:00 and turned on all of the lights in the house because he had had a bad dream. Tate, who shares a room with Skyler, started yelling at him to "Turn the lights OFF!" Which woke up everyone else.
Canton could not get back to sleep so at 4:30 he decided to clean his room, which is great, but it kept his roommate, Oran, awake. The two of them decided to be nice and let everyone else "sleep in" 'til 6:00.
Needless to say, we have a house hold full of grumpy, sleep deprived people.
Briar's appointment was at 11:15, my awesome cousin Tina offered to watch the older boys for me while Briar and I went to the hospital. So I was shooting to leave our house by 10:30 in order to get to her house, get the boys settled, and get to the hospital in plenty of time for his appointment.
Canton thought it would be extra funny to hide Oran's shoes, dump a bottle of water on Skyler, and spit in Tate's face. It was a challenge but I got everyone into the car on time, but everyone was crying by the time we left our house.
After dropping the big boys off Briar and I got to the hospital almost 15 minutes early. That was when I realized that I had left in such a hurry that I had forgotten to bring my tablet for the baby to play on. Having that there had been such a life saver that I wasn't sure how we would pull this off without one. It is a 15 minute drive from our house to the hospital So I knew that there was no way I could make it home and back again before the appointment time.
So I called my friend Katie who lives only 5 minutes from the hospital. She let me come and get her tablet to entertain Briar.
After we were back at the hospital, equipped with baby entertainment material, we went through the front doors, and down the halls to the wound care place. The lights in the waiting room were all off, but I went in anyway there was an itty-bitty lady, (I'd say 4'11" and maybe 90 lbs) in green scrubs, sitting cross-legged on top of the receptionist desk.
I tentatively said, "We have an appointment." She said, "I know, I'm just waiting for you." She then hopped off of the desk and said, "I have everything set up, come on back."
Because it is Saturday there was no one else there. The lady we met with is actually the physical therapist on staff, I think she said her name is Danika. She was very quiet and soft spoken. She didn't seem to have much to say, and neither did I, I get that way when I am tired.  Briar wasn't sure what to think about her. The last nurses we had seen had made a fuss over him and spoke to him in a sing-song voice.
It was eerily quiet and Briar was starting to fuss. When Danika started to cut off the old bandages Briar firmly told her "No" he shook his head and told her, "My, owie."
We started with the left hand, because Danika thought it would be best to get the worst one out of the way first. I tried to keep Briar entertained with Katie's tablet, that worked occasionally, but he was getting pretty fed-up with the nurse. Briar would just turn to her and yell or growl in her face to let her know he wasn't happy. He'd yank his arm away and she'd gently pull it back so she could keep working.
By the time we moved on the the left hand Briar was mad, he was flailing his arms about and arching his back. I changed to a new game on the tablet and that calmed him down enough to let Danika re-wrap his right hand, with him only yanking it away a few times.
When she was done I saw that she had wrapped his right hand up into one big club. Briar didn't like that and immediately started chewing at the bandage, I told her that he had, had his thumb out before so that he could at least use that hand a little. She asked if I cared one way or another. I told her it would be kind of nice to have his thumb out. Briar must have thought the same thing because he was ripping it apart with his teeth.
Danika took off the bandage to try again, and by now Briar was just done. He was kicking and hitting and screaming. Danika had told me how everyone else had told her how well behaved Briar was, and how he acted like such a little adult. She hadn't had anyone else stay around to help, but another set of hands might have been nice.
She did the best she could, but the wrappings are kind of a mess. She sent me home with extra supplies so that I could re-enforce it if I need to, because we aren't going in again until Monday.
Briar yelled and growled and bucked as I wrestled him all the way back to the car. I strapped him in his seat as he continued to express his irritation. He then screamed and screamed until we were nearly home. He was asleep by the time I pulled into our driveway.
Tina is such an angel and offered the keep the other boys for me all day.
Phew, What a day!

Quintin White says "please keep my little nephew in your thoughts and prayers. He is not quite 2 yrs old yet and on saturday morning he was playing and running around chasing a ball when he tripped and felling into a pile of glowing charcoal briquettes. They took him to the hospital were he was treated for severe burns to his left palm forearm and elbow and some fingers on his right hand and forearm. He is a trooper and doing well but he may need a skin graph and physical therapy plus a lot of healing. "

 

This morning (July 12) we were at the Dave and Barbara Green family reunion at Eric and Bonnie's house in Springville. We had a dutch oven breakfast. A pile of charcoal briquettes was left on the stone hearth around to the fire pit. Briar was kicking and chasing a ball and ran near the fire pit. He tripped and fell into the hot coals. He caught himself with his hands. He burned his left palm really bad and burned the side of his right hand and in between his two middle fingers.

I jumped up and was quick to poor a bottle of water over his hands while Barbara  ran to get a bowl of ice water. Briar was screaming and it was so sad. Someone found some consecrated oil and Dave gave Briar a blessing. During (and after) the blessing Brair's screaming quieted to a little whimper.

Eric took pictures of the burns and e-mailed them to his friend at Power County Hospital, in American Falls. They got everything ready and were waiting for us when we got there. It took us 30 minutes to drive to American Falls, but that was half the time it would have taken to get to Pocatello or Idaho Falls.

We soaked some rags in ice water and wrapped them around his hands as we drove. We put Briar's car seat in the Eric's car. Eric drove, Ryan sat in the front seat, and I sat in the back next to Briar. He fussed a lot and kept saying "Owie, Owie, Owie" but I kept feeding him Popsicles to keep him semi-content as we drove.  They were very nice to us at Power County. Eric was already wearing his scrubs; he just threw on some gloves and helped the nurses there. Briar sustained 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree burns. None of the blisters were left intact so they cut away the dead skin. The burn on Briar's left palm goes all the way to the muscle. The nurse was encouraged because he still had pain sensation in his palm - which means that it didn't damage his nerve endings. They smeared goop on his hands and wrapped them all up (up to his elbows) so he has two giant, blue boxing glove hands - with just his thumbs showing. We are supposed to take him into the ER at EIMC tomorrow. To be evaluated by a surgeon and determine if a skin graft is necessary. (They may want us to go to Primary Children's.)
Regardless  of what the doctors at EIMC say tomorrow I will need to take him in everyday to have the wounds cleaned and the bandages changed for at least a week. Because all of the tendons run through the palm of the hand (that allow for opening and closing and flexing) Briar might need physical therapy in order to keep the range of motion in his hand. [That will keep it from seizing up and folding in on itself.]  Briar is in pretty good spirits. He wants to be held all the time, which is understandable, and is very sleepy. He has been smiling and laughing when he is awake.They told us that bad burns really impair the immune system so we should keep him kind of isolated for a while, until he's doing better. The nurse said, 'that means no church, no trips to the store... anywhere there might be a lot of people.' Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers,

Caranna