Friday, September 16, 2011

Nothing... and some scar care

Really, nothing to say.

Got home from the hospital (asthma check-ups) to an early dinner and the bath is ready for Erica to hop in. She's the only one who wants to get IN in this heat! It helps soften her scar. Now she's collecting some of her little treasures off the floor into her pink doctor's bag while telling herself a story. Things like her wooden trains, tiny teddy bear, Dora book, hour-glass).

Amy is exhausted beyond belief after getting NO sleep at camp last night, with crazy kids wandering around the room complaining that it was too dark, or too noisy, or too hot to sleep, and keeping awake everyone else! Lena's kind of doing her homework, but mostly showing Amy a documentary about octomom. (? the stuff Kanji thinks would be cool to show the kids....)

No work this week, but some proofreading and essays to keep me busy, plus the Journal, which I've been badly neglecting. Promising myself to give it all morning tomorrow (going to visit Katy in the afternoon) and ALL day Sunday.

The kids are going to Kurume tomorrow to visit Jiichan. Erica's off on a field trip on Friday. Ana's birthday party that same day, then Erica's on Sunday! Fun weekend next weekend! This weekend, I can but try to stay away from that by-now very expertly chilled bottle of 2011 NZ sauvignon blanc in the fridge.... have to bath Erica first and change her dressings. That is getting very tiresome...

I spend about 1000yen a week on new dressings - gauze, bandages, tape. I only need to do the foot once a day, and just change the sock over it in the morning. I have to do the hand twice a day, a brand new fresh dressing after her bath, with gauze and a pressure bandage and a splint to stretch her thumb and finger out. And then again in the morning, when the splint comes off so she can live her life, but I replace it with a piece of sponge held firmly on with tape and bandages. Being an active kid, and now going to kindy, means everything has to be held on with extra tape and layers of bandages and protective socks.

Underneath it all we have silicon gel laying directly over the scars to keep it soft. It works really well, but it's really expensive - I paid 5000 yen for a 20cm square sheet. So I've been told to wash it and hang it on a peg! So I have cut pieces to fit and diligently wash and hang them every evening! This is all scar care - her wounds have all healed, but with a genetic predisposition to hypertrophic scarring, it's to be expected that she will scar badly again, so I am doing all I can to minimize the damage.

On the bright side, she is very pleased that she can now do the thumbs up (when her dressings are not on!) and make diamonds with her two thumbs and forefingers. She couldn't do that before.

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