Monday, March 30th

Clay had a busy day. He was awake at 6:00 and we visited a little. At the 8:00 visit he tried a little juice to start his day. I tried to stretch his right hand and he was not really willing. The grafted skin is tight over his knuckles and it is pulling the fingers up. We know that this will be true of all the grafted areas and we are trying to prepare for constant stretching battles. Everyone has told us that a burn patent will always seek the position of comfort even though it will make functioning harder. Sounds like the majority of us. Anyway I visited with Clay's occupational therapist about the hand and she came in to have a look. She had been at a conference last week and could quickly see what I was concerned about. She said they might have to cast the hand, but she had another idea that she wanted to try first. Kristen spent several hours working with the hand and made him a new blue splint, (Clay picked the color) and she put small rings around each finger with bands to pull them down and stretch the skin over the top of the hand. It is a pretty neat invention and appears to be doing the job. Thanks. At the 2:00 visit Aunt Kay had arrived from Corpus. She is filling in for Grandma Joy this week. This was her first time to see Clay and I told her the visits were one hour in length and she did not have to stay for the whole thing if she did not want to. We walked out after 2 hours and 20 minutes. We helped Clay walk down to the window. He then made it back to his room where I promptly volunteered to hold him in my lap for a while. I rocked him in the chair for over an hour and Aunt Kay helped with all the little odd jobs that are associated with his care. We knew he was tired from all the activities of the morning but when I placed him back in his bed he asked for a drink and a cartoon. He received a breathing treatment at 5:00 and a new bandage all around his head to prepare his face for surgery. At 7:30 tonight he was sound asleep and had finally run down from a very full day. He is the second procedure on the schedule tomorrow and we will all be here waiting anxiously on the outcome of surgery VIII. I hope everyone had a good Monday. We are thankful for all of the gracious people who have helped us, we are trying to thank everyone personally but if we have missed you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Sincerely, The Fite Family