Wednesday, August 5, 2009

DAY 32

Another night at the hospital. I am just as good at not sleeping there as I am at home. I am glad though that I stayed last night. Sweet Nicole had a bad night but I was there to comfort her. At last I feel useful. I was there to wipe away the tears from the pain. I was there to soothe her after a nightmare. I was there for her!

This morning I had a long talk with Nicole's nurse. It was really nice to talked to someone that really knows what is going on with her. Not just going in and seeing her but actually knows. I was able to vent some frustration and I was able to be sad. But the best part was hearing things from her perspective.

Liz: "I have worked here many years. I have seen many patients and as patients go she is doing great. Nicole's burns are very extensive but she is a fighter. I can tell. I love to be Nicole's nurse because even though she is in pain and everything hurts, she still lets me do what I need to do to help her and take care of her. She doesn't fight me like other patients do. She doesn't tell me to go away. She just nods her head knowing it will hurt but also knowing it is the best for her. I love it when I say I am going to do something and ask her if it is okay, she looks up at me with her sweet eyes. sometimes she lifts one finger as if to say 'one minute please' and then she nods. I think she is just saying a quick prayer that God will help her through this one more thing."

Please God help her.

Nicole is such a trooper. Physical therapy really works her out. Each day they come in and stretch each part of her that has been burned. Each finger, each joint, each limb. She makes fists, bends elbows, lifts arms. Hip movement, knee bends and ankle twists. Today they moved her bed into a sitting position. Who would have known a hospital bed could do that. I thought it was a kind of transformer, bed in disguise.

Nicole has lost so much muscle and some bone density. That is one reason they have been putting her on the tilt table. It helps to build up both of those ever do slightly. But today....
du du na na......With the help of physical therapy and her nurse she stood for 10 seconds. WOW! WOO-HOO. What an accomplishment. Amazing. Of course she can't stand by herself and the 10 seconds she did stand took everything from her but she did it. I was so proud of her to try.

At that moment I remembered all the times she was not afraid to try. She would try anything once. She loved the challenge of trying and succeeding and knowing she could do something and then not ever having to do it again because she didn't need to prove herself.

For example, both Christian and Nicole had been climbing at the climbing gym in Carrollton, TX for about a month. They loved it. It was there time with John. The gym is an old grain silo. There are areas inside and also outside. This day they are climbing outside. I cannot remember that the climbing difficulty was but there were grown-ups, as Nicole would call them, that couldn't get to the top. Nicole got it in her little mind that she could get to the top. John hooked her up, climber on (as they say at the gym). She started off so fast that I thought she would run out of steam before she got the the top which was 85 feet straight up. There she goes, so nimble, not looking back or asking for direction. 10 feet, 20 feet, 50 feet...higher and higher she goes. Then you hear it.....the bells ringing. That is the sign someone has made it to the top. People are clapping. She was just like a little spider. The manager came out and told us she was the youngest climber to ever get to the top. Nicole was 5.

She is full of life!

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