Trip to Shriners in Boston Yesterday...

Yesterday David had his annual check up at Shriners Burn Hospital in Boston to check on his scars. Many of you who have known us for awhile, will remember that David was severely burned 4 years ago in a back yard accident. ( I have an old webstie where most of the story is archived.. I haven't updated it in a long time, but click here if you want to read about it.) We spent many months in the hospital between the burn unit here in CT during the acute stage where the Drs. there literally saved his leg (and his life for that matter) and then at Shriners in Boston for reconstructive surgerys to make his leg the best that it could possibly be.
Davids legs are completely scarred and the scarring tends to be thick bands around his knee and especially behind it. The scar tissue doesn't grow and stretch the same as healthy skin does so he is leterally outgrowing his skin. There are areas at the back of his leg that are starting to pull and are restricting his ability to straighten his leg out.

In order to fix this, David will be having yet another reconstructive surgery to release these bands of scar tissue. The surgery is called a z-plasty . We will be heading to Shriners on March 1st and he will have the surgery on March 2nd. We will be there a few days while he heals, it is important to keep his leg immoble for a few days so that will be the fun part!

The Shriners Hospital in Boston is the most amazing place I have ever been to. Every time we go for a visit or have to stay for a surgery, I am just so humbled and awed at the level of care that we receive. The Drs and nurses have a way of taking a very stressful situation and turning it into something that you can deal with, they are so attentive to the individuals needs and really listen when you talk to them. The other thing that makes it so wonderful is that there is NEVER a bill. Everything is fully funded. They never even ask for insurance information, so therefore they are not bound to what the insurance companies want. They do what needs to be done without permission from some insurance Dr. that has never met my child. For instance, we will be going up on Monday night and staying over so that I don't have to drive first thing Tuesday morning. They will get David's labs done, get an IV in and whatever else needs to be done ahead of time. Then afterwards we don't get kicked out after a certain amount of time because the insurance will only pay for X number of days... we stay until Davids Doctors feel he is ready to go home! It is truly wonderful.
Ok, enough for today... I will update more about this as we get closer.

~Vicki