Routine

Since leaving Brittany in Calgary yesterday she hasn't had much time to write as she is constantly by Ethan's bedside. I called a couple of times throughout the day to see how everything was going and everytime I called she would tell me how rotten Ethan was being today. I will try and attempt to write some of what was going one today, If I write anything wrong I guess I can come back an do some editing later.

The day for me started out back in the regular routine with the two girls at home except we all stayed at grandma and grandpa Fyfe's house (Grant and Linda). The girls and I snuggled in the big spare bed at grandma's house last night. Grant and Linda woke us up and made us breakfeast, after which we finished getting ready and I headed to school with the girls. Ava and I dropped Hallie off to her class (we stayed for the first couple of minutes of class since Ava's preschool starts later). As we approached the door to Ava's classroom she got really emotional and told me she didn't want to go to school. I could tell she didn't want to say goodbye to me as she had really missed Brittany and I this past week and a half. She asked if I would read her her book from her backpack. Although we were already a couple of minutes late for class I figured it couldn't hurt. I took her into the classroom and dropped her off. She almost started crying and that made my heart break for her. Her teacher, Mrs. Wik, came in and distracted her long enough for me to sneek out so that worked out good.

I called Brittany to see how her night went. She sounded tired when I called and said that she had a rotten night. She told me Ethan had been scratching his burns like crazy this morning and she couldn't get him to stop. I guess he started tearing at his bandages and practically ripped off the main bandage from off his head. I guess the nurses must have been busy with him today re-dressing his head so I feel bad for them as well. When people get burns such as Ethan they experience an itch as a result from the skin healing (kind of how a scab itches after a while and most people end up picking it off), by the way, Ethan is a picker. Also, as Ethan and probably anyone who has been on morphine , developed another itch as a side effect of the drug. There are anti-itch medications that he could have and has been on to reduce the irritation of itchy skin. I guess today he went on both meds for itchiness but that he was still going crazy... poor little guy.

So tomorrow is Ethan's first skin graft. I really don't know what to think about all of this. I really want to be there for it and see him before he goes under the knife, but I also recognise the need to be here with the girls and give them the attention they desperatly need. They have school tomorrow and I also have a couple of classes as well. Brittany said tonight that his skin graft surgery got bumped to 3:20pm tomorrow afternoon, I guess it originally was at 12:30pm or somethiing like that. So from what I remember is they will graft some patches on his arms and right foot. Ethan's head will get some grafting later after the doctors can make a better assessment of how much skin is growing back. I am still hoping his head will require very little or no grafting at all, I guess we will see soon. Maybe tomorrow the doctors will get a look at the skin regeneration and let us know what they think.

One of Hallie's friends from school is having a birthday party on Saturday, Hallie has been really excited to go all week. This morning I asked the girls (I guess I kinda gave them an ultimatim). I offered for them to either go up to Calgary tomorrow after school to see Ethan and Mommy or they could stay here with grandma and go to the birthday party on the weekend (The girls also have swimming and ballet lessons every Sat. morning too but I figured it wouldn't hurt to miss one class and I know Britt would love to see the girls and visa versa). To my suprise Hallie didn't have to think twice about her answer. She said right away that she wanted to go to Calgary to see Ethan and mom. With us going up for the weekend it also allows us to keep our place at the Ronald McDonald House(RMH). (I would reccommend the Ronald McDonald House to anyone who is looking for a charitable organization to donate too. They provide such a nice service to those in need, there is also a really nice feeling or sprirt there - the spirit of charity and giving). So the girls are really excited to go see mom and Ethan tomorrow. I will try and send Britt and the girls to the RMH for the weekend to give her a break. I know she will need one by the time we get up there (not that watching the girls is neccessarily a break, but it gets her out of the hospital and should allow her to let down a bit).

Today for me was nice, it was good to get back to school and study for my exam that I wrote tonight. It always feels good to get back in the routine of things. I found that I was able to focus on the task at hand and get some good studying in, while at the same time I periodically took time to think of Ethan and everything that has transpired in the past 10-11 days. Time sure does fly by. Hopefully Ethan's healing and recovery goes as quick as this past week has.

I guess one more thing that Britt told me about Ethan is that they put him on isolation, meaning he is restricted to stay in his room for the next little bit. I don't know why or for how long, whether it was because his surgery is so close or if it had to do anything with the nurses finding what was causing Ethan to spike such high temperatures yesterday. Either way I hope all goes well for him and Britt tonight, hope that Ethan's surgery goes really well tomorrow, and hope there is imporvement in his skin healing.

Tomorrow I will try and post some more pics as I will have access to the camera. I know the girls will be super excited to see him and I know it will be the same for him seeing the girls.