Sam the Magic Button and Bob the Skin Graft, Also a SAFETY WARNING
First, Bobo’s SAFETY WARNING:
WARNING: SOME BRANDS OF OVEN CLEANER CONTAIN SODIUM HYDROXIDE (LYE) A STRONG BASE THAT CAN CAUSE SECOND AND THIRD DEGREE BURNS IF IT COMES IN CONTACT WITH YOUR SKIN. IF YOU EVER GET OVEN CLEANER ON YOUR SKIN, WASH THE AREA FOR 15 FULL MINUTES WITH WATER, EVEN IF IT DOESN’T HURT!!
First, this entry would not be complete without mentioning and thanking Sam, a magic button who made two days last week a time that I will cherish and remember forever. Sam is a little button, attached to a wire. The wire was attached to a pump, which contained morphine. Whenever I pushed Sam, he dutifully made the pump deliver 1mg of morphine into my intravenous line. It was the most morphine I have ever had in my life, and while I certainly know that it can become a really bad habit really quick, for those two days it was indeed very nice. I’m not advocatiing recreational use of morphine, my use was in a hospital under doctors orders - certainly any opiate can be really nice for a short period, but we all know if used too long they tend to have the opposite effect and can make life a living hell (just ask any heroin addict). Experience has taught me that morphine, like most things in life, follows the same rules of physics and murphy’s law, namely: what goes up, must come down, and every rose has it’s thorn. Still, Sam the button is worth mentioning, though I hope to never require his services again.
This brings me to another more permanent entity in my life: Bob the Skin Graft. We’ll get back to Bob in a moment, for now I should start from the beginning. It all started with my attempt to clean the oven. It seems if there is a way to totally screw something up, resulting in bodily injury, I am doomed to experience it. Well, I was trying to clean my oven, and when I leaned over bracing myself with my right arm, spay can in left hand aimed into the oven, the little hole in the spray nozzle was not pointed into the oven, it was actually pointed to the right, and thus my right forearm got utterly soaked in oven cleaner.
How often do we actually read what’s in our household cleaning products (or anything for that matter, ingredients in food, etc.). I, for one, will make it a point to do just that from now on. Anyhow, having my arm soaked, it did not hurt or anything, so I rinsed it off real quick, realized time was running short, and decided to clean the oven later. I put on my long sleeve shirt, checked some email, and off to class I went. About an hour later, my arm itched. Not bad, just a minor annoying itch that I scratched. About two hours after that it started stinging, and I finally pulled back my sleeve to see what was stinging: My forearm had turned entirely red, and had what appeared to be a brown spot the size of a dime, and several open blisters that were starting to drain. Needless to say I figured I was having a bad allergic reaction, and proceeded to the Student Health clinic to see if they could maybe give me something for the reaction and perhaps a cream for the itch/stinging.
The clinic informed me that was not a reaction, that it was in fact a chemical burn. They sent me to the OSU Medical Center (hey, at least it’s convenient having all this on campus). OSU Medical Center, also located on campus, happens to have the only burn unit in central Ohio. The burn specialist explained that unlike acids, bases burn different - they often do not hurt at first, instead they penetrate deep into the skin, and then start to burn “from the inside out”. By the time you start to feel pain, it’s too late, the process has started, and the only thing to do is wait and see how far it goes. I was admitted into the hospital, given morphine, and stayed two days. Last Saturday I was discharged, it looked like it was mostly second degree burns that would heal.
Unfortunately chemical burns can take many days to fully “evolve”. Mine started to hurt less, and turn black. Having just gotten out of the Hospital on Saturday (13th May) I went to my follow up on Wednesday (17th May). The surgeon informed me that the burn had indeed evolved into a full thickness, third degree burn, and would require a skin graft ASAP. Surgery was scheduled for the following morning, and I was at least allowed to go home and pack a few things before returning to check into the hospital Wednesday night.
Thursday was surgery day - a process unfortunately which I am very familiar. One nice thing: they took my hospital bed, the nice one in my room, and just used that to wheel me down to the OR. After the operation I’d be put back into my nice comfy hospital bed, and they’d simply wheel the whole thing back to my room, after a brief stay in recovery. Anyhow, I’ve told the tales of surgery before - today was no different. Anesthesiologist comes in, gives me something in the IV that erases all fear, anxiety, worry, problems, etc. (and really makes you not mind at all that you’re being taken into a room to be cut on). Then once on the table, it’s lights out. The only freaky difference was this time I remember waking up in the OR as they pulled the tube out and caughing my brains out. Most people don’t remember that (I never have) but this time I did - still it wasn’t too bad or scary, just odd to remember it (you’re still so doped up you don’t care). Then it was off to recovery, and finally back to my room where Paul and the morphine pump awaited.
Skin grafts are very painful. Not so much for the burned area (it often feels better because thay also graft the second degree burns bordering the third degree areas, in fact, my arm finally did not hurt at all) but the “donor site” is essentially a spot where you’re skinned and all those nerves are now exposed and screaming - hence the need for a morphine pump. Although I was expecting only the black area to be grafted (about 2.5 inches by 2 inches) they actually grafted most of my forearm (guess it was best because even the not so serious burned areas could evolve) so the graft and donor site are about 9 inches by 6 inches. A big ‘ol raw spot right on my thigh. Again, thank you Sam, you wonderful angel of mercy faithfully delivering me into the arms of Morpheus.
Skin grafts also are NOT outpatient. In fact, it’s about 5 days in the hospital. I was let out on Monday (yesterday). That was 5 days in, and counting the time from the weekend before, it was a total of about 8 days in the hospital. Needless to say I’m glad to be home, I really started to miss home, even with the morphine.
So, today it seems most of the graft is taking and continueing to turn pink (means blood vessels are growing into it). There are a couple of spots that didn’t take, about the size of a penny - those spots will scab off and unfortunately leave a scar. Still, most of my forearm won’t have any scaring, so I’ll end up with just a couple of small burn scars that I’m sure can make great conversation pieces at coctail parties.
Anyhow, I missed a bit of school, including a mid-term exam (cham). I have some studying to do to catch up - luckily my professors are all being very accomodating, providing me the full notes / powerpoint slides from the missed lectures, and allowing me to schedule make-up quizzes and the make-up midterm. Still, only two weeks left this quarter - this week and next week, so I need to get my butt in gear. Worst case scenario, I can request an "Incomplete" which gives me six additional weeks to catch up, but I don't think that'll be necessary, there's not that much homework to catch up on, just studying the missed lectures.
So there it is - yes, I know I’m accident prone, yada yada. Nothing I can really do about that, except pay more attention to what I’m doing and always read directions / precautions before I start on something. I don’t feel too bad - I called J.W., who as an attorney has handeled hundreds of chemical exposure / burn cases and asked him if he knew what was in oven cleaner: He had no idea.
WARNING: SOME BRANDS OF OVEN CLEANER CONTAIN SODIUM HYDROXIDE (LYE) A STRONG BASE THAT CAN CAUSE SECOND AND THIRD DEGREE BURNS IF IT COMES IN CONTACT WITH YOUR SKIN. IF YOU EVER GET OVEN CLEANER ON YOUR SKIN, WASH THE AREA FOR 15 FULL MINUTES WITH WATER, EVEN IF IT DOESN’T HURT!!
First, this entry would not be complete without mentioning and thanking Sam, a magic button who made two days last week a time that I will cherish and remember forever. Sam is a little button, attached to a wire. The wire was attached to a pump, which contained morphine. Whenever I pushed Sam, he dutifully made the pump deliver 1mg of morphine into my intravenous line. It was the most morphine I have ever had in my life, and while I certainly know that it can become a really bad habit really quick, for those two days it was indeed very nice. I’m not advocatiing recreational use of morphine, my use was in a hospital under doctors orders - certainly any opiate can be really nice for a short period, but we all know if used too long they tend to have the opposite effect and can make life a living hell (just ask any heroin addict). Experience has taught me that morphine, like most things in life, follows the same rules of physics and murphy’s law, namely: what goes up, must come down, and every rose has it’s thorn. Still, Sam the button is worth mentioning, though I hope to never require his services again.
This brings me to another more permanent entity in my life: Bob the Skin Graft. We’ll get back to Bob in a moment, for now I should start from the beginning. It all started with my attempt to clean the oven. It seems if there is a way to totally screw something up, resulting in bodily injury, I am doomed to experience it. Well, I was trying to clean my oven, and when I leaned over bracing myself with my right arm, spay can in left hand aimed into the oven, the little hole in the spray nozzle was not pointed into the oven, it was actually pointed to the right, and thus my right forearm got utterly soaked in oven cleaner.
How often do we actually read what’s in our household cleaning products (or anything for that matter, ingredients in food, etc.). I, for one, will make it a point to do just that from now on. Anyhow, having my arm soaked, it did not hurt or anything, so I rinsed it off real quick, realized time was running short, and decided to clean the oven later. I put on my long sleeve shirt, checked some email, and off to class I went. About an hour later, my arm itched. Not bad, just a minor annoying itch that I scratched. About two hours after that it started stinging, and I finally pulled back my sleeve to see what was stinging: My forearm had turned entirely red, and had what appeared to be a brown spot the size of a dime, and several open blisters that were starting to drain. Needless to say I figured I was having a bad allergic reaction, and proceeded to the Student Health clinic to see if they could maybe give me something for the reaction and perhaps a cream for the itch/stinging.
The clinic informed me that was not a reaction, that it was in fact a chemical burn. They sent me to the OSU Medical Center (hey, at least it’s convenient having all this on campus). OSU Medical Center, also located on campus, happens to have the only burn unit in central Ohio. The burn specialist explained that unlike acids, bases burn different - they often do not hurt at first, instead they penetrate deep into the skin, and then start to burn “from the inside out”. By the time you start to feel pain, it’s too late, the process has started, and the only thing to do is wait and see how far it goes. I was admitted into the hospital, given morphine, and stayed two days. Last Saturday I was discharged, it looked like it was mostly second degree burns that would heal.
Unfortunately chemical burns can take many days to fully “evolve”. Mine started to hurt less, and turn black. Having just gotten out of the Hospital on Saturday (13th May) I went to my follow up on Wednesday (17th May). The surgeon informed me that the burn had indeed evolved into a full thickness, third degree burn, and would require a skin graft ASAP. Surgery was scheduled for the following morning, and I was at least allowed to go home and pack a few things before returning to check into the hospital Wednesday night.
Thursday was surgery day - a process unfortunately which I am very familiar. One nice thing: they took my hospital bed, the nice one in my room, and just used that to wheel me down to the OR. After the operation I’d be put back into my nice comfy hospital bed, and they’d simply wheel the whole thing back to my room, after a brief stay in recovery. Anyhow, I’ve told the tales of surgery before - today was no different. Anesthesiologist comes in, gives me something in the IV that erases all fear, anxiety, worry, problems, etc. (and really makes you not mind at all that you’re being taken into a room to be cut on). Then once on the table, it’s lights out. The only freaky difference was this time I remember waking up in the OR as they pulled the tube out and caughing my brains out. Most people don’t remember that (I never have) but this time I did - still it wasn’t too bad or scary, just odd to remember it (you’re still so doped up you don’t care). Then it was off to recovery, and finally back to my room where Paul and the morphine pump awaited.
Skin grafts are very painful. Not so much for the burned area (it often feels better because thay also graft the second degree burns bordering the third degree areas, in fact, my arm finally did not hurt at all) but the “donor site” is essentially a spot where you’re skinned and all those nerves are now exposed and screaming - hence the need for a morphine pump. Although I was expecting only the black area to be grafted (about 2.5 inches by 2 inches) they actually grafted most of my forearm (guess it was best because even the not so serious burned areas could evolve) so the graft and donor site are about 9 inches by 6 inches. A big ‘ol raw spot right on my thigh. Again, thank you Sam, you wonderful angel of mercy faithfully delivering me into the arms of Morpheus.
Skin grafts also are NOT outpatient. In fact, it’s about 5 days in the hospital. I was let out on Monday (yesterday). That was 5 days in, and counting the time from the weekend before, it was a total of about 8 days in the hospital. Needless to say I’m glad to be home, I really started to miss home, even with the morphine.
So, today it seems most of the graft is taking and continueing to turn pink (means blood vessels are growing into it). There are a couple of spots that didn’t take, about the size of a penny - those spots will scab off and unfortunately leave a scar. Still, most of my forearm won’t have any scaring, so I’ll end up with just a couple of small burn scars that I’m sure can make great conversation pieces at coctail parties.
Anyhow, I missed a bit of school, including a mid-term exam (cham). I have some studying to do to catch up - luckily my professors are all being very accomodating, providing me the full notes / powerpoint slides from the missed lectures, and allowing me to schedule make-up quizzes and the make-up midterm. Still, only two weeks left this quarter - this week and next week, so I need to get my butt in gear. Worst case scenario, I can request an "Incomplete" which gives me six additional weeks to catch up, but I don't think that'll be necessary, there's not that much homework to catch up on, just studying the missed lectures.
So there it is - yes, I know I’m accident prone, yada yada. Nothing I can really do about that, except pay more attention to what I’m doing and always read directions / precautions before I start on something. I don’t feel too bad - I called J.W., who as an attorney has handeled hundreds of chemical exposure / burn cases and asked him if he knew what was in oven cleaner: He had no idea.