Home after #31 and #32 (nearly 3 weeks)

I am home, oh my Lordy after nearly 3 weeks in the hospital I am finally home!  Don't get me wrong, the Oregon Burn Center and the staff there is like my second home and second family but after awhile you just start to get tired of the very boring daily routine and the daily pain and you just want to come home.  I mean, you especially get tired of that same food, no matter how much of an improvement has been made in that area.  There's only so many times you can walk up and down the halls, there's only so much therapy you can do, so much crap TV you can watch, so much reading you can do, and so much computer play you can do believe it or not.  So after nearly 3 weeks, you start to get awfully tired of all those options and long to be home.  Besides, some of those beds are not that comfortable.  And then when you're in excruciating pain, you can't sleep, you can sit and read or play on the computer so you end up pacing the room and the halls.

While I was there I had some very dear visitors, one was a surprise, one was meant to be a surprise (my best friend's visit) and the other was scheduled twice.  My great and dearly close friend Stephanie came by twice to see me and it was wonderful to have her there.  I really needed her both times she showed up because I was not in a good way.  My best friend wanted to surprise me and come visit me but I ruined the surprise for her by demanding to know if she was able to come or not :)  So she was able to come down on the Saturday before the second part to my two-part surgery and she brought fun halloween goodies with her like wigs and witch hats!!  It was an absolute delight.

 (Me and my best friend, Corrie in our wigs)

 (Now wigs with the added hats)

(My beautiful best friend, Corrie, when she first arrived there.  I was so excited to see her) 

We had an absolute wonderful time together and I was desperately sad to see her go.  A day after her arrival and departure, another very dear and close friend of mine, Jessa, surprised me along with the surprise meet and greet of a wonderful gal that I have come to know through Facebook but have never met, Kelly.  They were only there for a little while but we, as always, ended with mustaches and using my wig that Corrie left for me.  Somehow those damn mustaches always get into pictures but I absolutely love them because it makes me laugh so hard.

 (My dear, dear friend Jessa rockin' her 'stache and wig)

 (My good friend, Kelly, whom I finally got to meet rockin' her 'stache and wig)

 (Finally me in my 'stache and wig and even with how disgusting I look in them, my wonderful friend Jessa still digs me )

 (HAHAHAHAAHAAAA!!!!!  Kelly!!!!)

(Peace for 'staches)

So this time around they cut me open in 8 different places, not to mention the donor areas.  Here is the diagram of what they did:

The left side is my backside where they took most of the donor skin, and the right side is my front side where they did all of the contracture releases (8 different areas were released) and two more donor areas on the side of my right and left thighs.  They barely had enough donor area to take from.  Garrett didn't want to take from my lower legs because that's where they have always taken from and the skin is getting very thin there and not very takeable.  There were some very excruciating days of pain in my back while I was there and there was nothing much that could be done to get me comfortable.

So you can see I am so glad to be home again no matter if it's not exactly my own home, it's my home in a way still.  And I came home to box after box after box of things people have bought to contribute to our needs.  It was wonderful and heartening to see how people want to help and do.  Thank you to all of you who have been able to contribute and help have.  We thank you from the bottom of our hearts.  As always, help is always needed.

But as always coming home is bittersweet.  I miss my second family there but it is much too good to come home to a real bed and a real room.  I want to thank all of you for your incredible support.  In fact, incredible just isn't a strong or expressive enough word for the kind of support I was and am given.  I have incredible friends and supporters and blog followers.  You all touch me everyday whether you realize it or not.  A little comment here and there whether here or on Facebook means so much to me and I truly pay attention.