Re: RC: Re: My niece in the fire

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

In a message dated 7/11/00 4:15:12 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
tondi313@yahoo.com writes:

<< Please accept my condolenscences (sp?) and prayers for
 a good outcome.  Don't take this the wrong way, but
 Andrea now needs the kind of attention we have been
 discussing for our mounts:  loads of electrolytes,
 amino acids and more calories and fluids than you can
 believe a human being can consume.  As soon as she can
 comprehend her situation, she needs to be informed and
 supported intensely, if she is to recover. >>

Thanks, Sheila--and no "wrong way" about it--the levels of fluids that go 
into burn victims are astronomical, etc.  

An update: She is off the respirator (yay!) but still not able to talk much, 
and still does not seem to comprehend quite where she is or why.  She suffers 
from claustrophobia and aquaphobia--difficult for one who is trussed up in 
bandages, and subjected to debriding baths twice daily.  (She is especially 
having trouble with the latter, I gather.)  She seemed to have a fear that 
she had lost her feet, but someone lifted them up one at a time to show her, 
and that calmed that.  She will try to remove the bandages from her hands if 
left unattended--likely also a fear reaction to some degree, and of more 
concern, as her hands ARE badly damaged.  Her first skin graft was scheduled 
for today--I have not yet heard how it went--but they planned to do a major 
graft onto her right arm.  The burn unit people are terrific--they take 
e-mails addressed to her, and print them down, and read them to her--and she 
responds very positively to that.  They also sent home a doll for her 2-1/2 
year old daughter that represents "mommy"--and they instruct my sister how to 
show little Emmy on the doll what is happening to mommy (bandages, etc.) so 
that she does not feel left out of the loop.  (I think I mentioned--her 
little girl was witness to all that went on with my niece when she got out of 
the fire--her mommy lying there burned ["dirty owies"], the first aid ["two 
towels on mommy"], and the EMT's working on her prior to going into the 
ambulance ["scarey guys"].  She still has nightmares, muttering in her sleep 
about the "scarey guys.")  Back to the physical aspects--I don't know what 
the level of fluids is now, but initially it was 1.5 liters per hour--my 
niece only weighs about 100 lbs., so compare this to an 800# endurance horse 
getting 12 liters per hour to put it in perspective...  I'm not sure at this 
point if she is getting anything orally or not, or if all the calories, etc. 
also have to go by way of the IV.

Again, thanks for the continued support and prayers from so many of you, and 
I apologize for not getting all of your posts answered personally.

Heidi