Family

Family

My parents were vacationing in Ireland, and when they found out what had happened to me, they got on the first flight they could and came home. At the time, I did not know that some of the hospital staff had told them that I would maybe live for another five days, which was unknown to me when they arrived at the hospital to see me. I was only interested in one thing. Due to a recent breakup with a woman I thought I was going to marry, I had become depressed about that. It be became very important to me that they didn't think I was trying to commit suicide. I remember being in the hospital bed with a tube down my throat, which made it very hard to talk, but I had to tell my parents this wasn't an attempt to end my life. Despite how incredibly hard it was talk, but I managed to say what I needed to and tell them this was not an attempt at suicide. This was the most important thing to me to express, as I didn't want my mother to think I had tried to kill myself. Why exactly I was so intent to express this to her is obvious to me now and I'm glad I was able to tell my parents that this was just an accident.

A great doctor.

I had been experiencing incredible pain and I knew I having found out a long time ago that I had a very high tolerance to medications of any kind. I was getting two dressing changes every day, this is when they removed all the my bandages, then washed my wounds, and then replaced every bandage after applying the medications. This was an incredible painful experience. I am in this hospital bed with a tube my throat, which makes it almost impossible to talk, but I had to say something to my doctor because I was absolutely suffering. I could barely talk, and appealed to my doctor to please increase the pain medication, because what they were giving me was not doing the job. Thankfully, she listened to me and increased the medication that I absolutely needed to control the pain. I now think that I would not have survived the initial part of my recovery without her helping me to control the pain. I thanked this woman and sent her card for Christmas thanking her for listening to me. During these first weeks of my recovery, I do not have many clear memories of what happened, but this situation involving the pain medication was very prominent in my mind, thank you doctor again. Next post is about family.

Pain.

When I first became conscious in the hospital, my first memory was incredible pain that I felt when they were cleaning my wounds. I was in this tub, and they were spraying me with water to clean out the dirt, that had accumulated in my wounds after jumping out the window. Pain was incredible, was mostly indescribable. I can only remember screaming because of the pain and losing consciousness because of it. In the she is It's very hard to describe the pain that comes with third degree burns and the continuing pain that is experienced when treating the burns. Pain medication can only do so much, and I have a very high tolerance to drugs, which made it even more difficult for the doctors to treat me. If I hadn't been able to convince my doctor to increase the pain medication because of this tolerance, I'm not sure what would've happened.

Do not accept negative thinking.

I began with self-talk, by telling myself things could be worse. I concentrated on the positive things. My face was not burned, and I was still capable of making love. These things are taken for granted until they are threatened or for some taken away. My suggestion for a positive recovery is to find whatever it is you can be happy about no matter if it is insignificant to the big picture, because it will not be to you. This may not be much, but if you want to recover, there will be something to feel good about, and available to you. This is not magic, it can be and probably is the hardest thing you will ever do, and you must convince yourself that you want a productive life. This will not be easy, but what other choice do you have? Giving up is not the answer. Never refuse support by turning someone away who wants to talk to you. It’s not uncommon to want to crawl into your shell, but don’t. I have added a couple of links I think could be helpful.

Accepting the challenge.

Hi there, when you are feeling completely out of it and lying in a hospital bed things can be pretty bleak. With some help from recovering burn survivors, I got angry. I asked all he usual questions; why me, what did I do to deserve this and so on. It was suggested that I should be pissed off about this development in my life. I agreed with that suggestion and told myself this (what happened to me) was not fair. Anger became a great motivator for me. I said to myself this was unfair and what could I do about it. I decided I wanted my life back, and it had to be as close to the way I remembered it. I had many problems related to my injuries, and in the beginning of the recovery process, my state of mind was the main problem to overcome. This is where my anger helped me. I realized the process was going to take time and involve considerable pain, but I knew I had to endure and accept the fact that I couldn't be the person I was before the accident, but I damn sure could come close. By thinking in those terms I became convinced the road to my recovery was available to me if I went for it. Next post, the many obstacles to overcome. Rick

Do you think your situation is hopeless?

At one time, I didn't believe my life could be enjoyable anymore. With the help of other burn survivors, I was able to see my life could be worth living again. Anger became a great motivator for me. I became determined to regain as much of my life before the injuries as possible. I asked myself why did this happen to me? At that point, I started to want to take back what fate had taken from me. Developing a positive attitude is necessary despite what appears to be insurmountable problems, such as loss of range of motion, scarring and thoughts that no women would want to be with me again. Self-esteem takes a real beating when you become disfigured in any way. I'll talk about developing a positive outlook again, tomorrow. Rick

Are you a seriously burn injury survivor?

My names Rick and I survived an 85% body burn, given no chance to live. This happened in 1987 and I'm going to make comments about recovery from time to time and I would like to hear from others with similar experiences. I plan to be as helpful as possible by adding links and anything I can find that might help someone recover. This is what happened to me.

I'm living in Mountain View, California; it is around three o’clock in the morning, March 8, 1987. I'm in bed asleep. I woke up to find my room was on fire. I thought I was dreaming. Not until I stuck my hand near the flames and felt the heat that I realized I wasn’t dreaming. I broke out my bedroom window, not just opening it, which would have been the best thing to do. I’m sure I was in complete shock and not thinking clearly. I then hesitated on the ledge, debating which was worse, the two story drop or getting burned. What I didn’t realize was while debating the jump I was getting burned. After jumping out by holding on to the ledge and then dropping to the ground, two girls covered me with a blanket. I was in shock and incoherent and can’t remember much conversation if there was any conversation at all, until the ambulance arrived. I can remember saying “I got out and I’m alive, I should be OK, right?” Then one of the ambulance attendants said I shouldn't be as sure about that as I could still die. I thought the ambulance attendant telling me I could still die was a cruel thing to say. I can’t remember much about the ride to the hospital. I arrived at the emergency room and they drugged me. Thank God for that. The only thing I remember clearly is screaming in pain as they washed my body so they could apply medicine to my burns. Everything after that is a blank until I woke up with a tube down my throat, making me unable to talk and I was in extreme pain. I was quite delirious for sometime, maybe the first three days. All I can really remember is a lot of pain when they changed my bandages. The doctors contacted my family and told them if they wanted to see me alive they should come right away. My family was told that I might live for five days. My parents were in Ireland, but they were found and came home when told the news. When I saw my family they looked very distressed and I thought that was because of my condition, which in part it was, but what I didn’t know was that the doctors and nurses had told them I had only five days left to live. I had been burned eighty-five percent. Sixty-five percent were third degree. Maybe three percent of people survive burns like I had. The most fortunate occurrence was my survival, which was not expected to happen and all the predictions of my imminent demise, proved wrong, by my beating the odds. Now comes the hard part, recovery. This process took over two years before I started feeling a little better about myself. My doctors were amazing.