I wrote a very detailed post on the actual "how to" of dressing change last April. You can see it here if you are interested. I went back and read it just now and it BLEW MY MIND. Not much has changed as far as WHAT we do, but there were several things that really struck me. One - I cannot believe how tiny Jonah was, how few supplies it took to bandage him, and how HUGE that FuzziBunz looked on him. Crazy. Two - I cannot believe how many new blisters he was getting on his feet and other places those days, and it just amazes me how now he only seems to blister (most of the time) on his hands, toes, face, and the occasional place on his torso. He has come so far. Three - I cannot believe how scared and timid and ignorant I felt then. I feel so much more confident now. Amazing the difference a year has made. And four - I am still in awe of how much healing has taken place and how much God has done in Jonah's life since he was born and even since last April. The leg that I mention in that post - the one I say will probably always be discolored - looks completely normal now. His only scars are from his biopsy sites. He is an unbelievable healer. His blisters are so much more under control now than they were then - some of that is because we know so much more about how to better protect him now, but a lot of it is ... well, he's just better now.
This post is just to show you how much STUFF is involved with caring for an EB baby. Keep in mind, there are additional supplies to care for g-tubes and trachs, but these are JUST the bandaging materials. Most of you know (as you'll see in last year's post) that we didn't have anywhere to do bandage changes when we first came home from the hospital. So our church, the blessing that they are, finished our unfinished basement, gave us LOTS of storage space, decorated it all purty like, and put in a counter and sink so we would have a designated area (NOT on our dining room table) to care for Jonah. We are forever grateful. Seriously, I don't know what we'd do without it.
Here is our closet fully stocked for the month. I always get a little extra though, so this may be about 40 days worth.
The top shelf is where we keep the boxes of excess stuff that refills the bins on the lower shelves. On the left is Transfer, the bottom layer dressing. On the right is Conco roll gauze, which is the second layer. It is softer than Kendall or other roll gauze, but it's essentially the same thing. The second shelf holds our sterile gauze, Polysporin, Desistin, Alcohol Swabs, and Aquaphor... lots and lots of Aquaphor.
The third shelf holds our drawers with needles, sterile gauze, tongue depressors, and suture kits. That middle drawer holds Vaseline gauze (which we don't really use anymore), Tubifast (the outer layer bandaging that looks like sleeves), and the Conco.
The fourth shelf holds Chux Pads, and all our different sizes of Transfer and also some Lite (another bottom layer dressing). The shelf below that holds boxes of gloves, alcohol sanitizer, rolls of uncut Tubifast, and... I'm not sure what that is. Probably a random box of extras.
The bottom "shelf" holds all our extras. Baby wash, saline water, some Pedialyte, antibacterial wipes, eye lubricant, and lots of different sample dressing materials that I've been sent by other EB folks (and some I've ordered) over time. Every night we go downstairs, usually right after dinner, and set up for the next morning's dressing change. Here is what it looks like before we cut all the supplies. I order big sheets and then just cut the size pieces I need.
Matt cleans the counter, all the tubs and tubes of ointments, scissors and tweezers. He also sets up the TV trays with the towels, Chux Pads, and washing materials. He takes out the trash and puts the clean sheets and blankets on the actual dressing table where Jonah lies. I cut all the Transfer pieces, and lay everything out in the right order.
Here's what it looks like all cut and ready (except for the Vaseline gauze... these photos are from March).
And here's the final set-up. CHECK OUT OUR AWESOME TABLE. My dad made this table for Jonah. It's so sturdy that it survived sliding off the back of his truck at 70 mph going down the highway (but that's a whole other story for another day).
See this lock?
Oh yes, Friends. There is more to this table than first meets the eye. It comes complete with Lazy Susan rotating technology. Jonah thinks it's a trip. Not to be confused with Tripp, who is adorable.
And here's everything from a different angle. You can see the TV trays with all the towels and bath stuff. We leave him bandaged and only bathe is head, face, and torso in the tub. His limbs are done one by one - take off bandages, wash limb, replace bandages on that one limb, then move on to the next.
And this is the angle when you first get down the stairs.
Every day, without fail, this is what we do. Bath and dressing change take about two hours (depending on the state of his skin and how much blister popping I have to do AND on how much he does or does not cooperate).
And this is what it looks like when we travel. This is at the lake condo, on the dining room table.
And this is what it looks like when we travel. This is at the lake condo, on the dining room table.
I'm not complaining. It's really not as bad as you'd think, and it's just part of our normal now. But it does make it hard to travel. He's 100% worth it, and the love and commitment we have for and to him is even greater than when I made that post last year. It just grows. Kind of like his body... HOLY COW... can you imagine what it's going to take to bandage him when he's 15? We'll take our miracle long before then, thankyouverymuch. :)
So anyway, I guess one point I want to make is this - when you are praying for all these EB kids, please pray specifically for the ones who don't have insurance or were refused by insurance because of their condition. Medicaid does not cover bandaging supplies. And even some insurance companies will not cover them. RIDICULOUS. We are beyond blessed, but so many others are not as lucky. That's why donating to DebRA is so awesome. Not only does the money go to finding a cure, a portion goes to providing financial and material support for families who are struggling to foot the $3,000 to $8,000 a month cost for supplies.
As always, thank you so much for praying.
