Fifth Accident update

Written by: Bobbye Jean Manzari

Today is day 70 in the hospital and we are 4 days post-op from surgery #10. It has been a rough few days. On Friday, Matt had surgery to his ears and to correct the hypergranulation on his body. Hypergranulation happens when the body is trying to heal a wound and it goes into “hyperdrive” and the cells in an area will overproduce and create big bumps that cause slower healing and bad scarring. This surgery went well, but Matt’s pain was unbearable afterwards. They had to scrape away very sensitive tissue in his ears in order to place the dermis layer (Made from pig skin) overtop. This layer will help the healing process, but the removal they had to do before placing it was excruciatingly painful. They also stapled the dressings over his ears and the staples pulled every time he tried to move his head or chew, causing severe migraines. The ears were secondary compared to the pain he felt in his legs, where they had burned away the hypergranulation. The dressings would stick to the new wounds and when it came time to change them, there was not enough pain medicine to stop Matt’s weeping and screaming. It was horrible. Thankfully, they have now changed some of the types of dressings on his legs and it has helped them not to stick and cause so much pain. Since that change, there has been improvement in his ability to walk, as the dressings are not sticking and pulling on his wounds when he does so.

Another struggle after surgery was the hard cast they put on his right arm. The scar tissue bands in his arms are preventing full extension and it can become a permanent impairment if left on its own. They decided to straighten his arm as much as possible under anesthesia and put a hard cast on it for a few days to stretch out the bands. This cast made his right arm useless, and his left arm is unable to do very much at all right now. He felt trapped and helpless again, as we had to resume scratching any itches on his nose, feeding him, brushing his teeth etc. The pain and helplessness, along with being worn down from months in the hospital, brought his spirits low for a few days. Now this is all starting to improve and we are hoping the worst is behind him. God has blessed us that these are the only issues we are dealing with in light of what the outcomes should have been.

There was a scare that his Integra over his sternum was not going to take, due to a small infection. They are still monitoring this, but are hopeful as it is responding to antibiotic treatment. There is discussion of moving Matt to the inpatient physical therapy center soon and having him come back in a few weeks to have his skin grafting done over his sternum. This will be a huge step towards going home and we are eager to make that transition.

The baby has been kicking like crazy! Matt even got to be a part of an ultrasound thanks to thoughtful friends of ours  They brought an ultrasound machine from work and set it up in the room so Matt could see our baby boy moving around. It was very special for him!

We are still blown away by the outreach from people far and wide. You all do not realize how much your encouragement helps Matt and I get through the sad days. Thank you for taking the time to hold us up and provide hope.