The Shriner’s Saga Continues

Thursday, June 24, we had another appointment at Shriner's Hospital to have Jonathan's cast changed. The doctor wanted to see how his fingers were healing before putting on another cast. After waiting 4 ½ hrs, we finally were called in. The minute his cast was removed, we knew something was wrong. The finger looked bad (we could see part of the bone), it smelled, and we could tell it was infected. The doctor confirmed that it was not healing correctly – the skin grafts had not taken and it was infected, as we suspected. The doctor decided that another surgery was needed, and right away. She said that he would be first thing the next morning. So, the hospital made up a room for us (all the others were full) and we prepared to spend the night again.

First thing Friday morning he went into surgery again and it lasted about 1 ½ hrs. Afterward, the doctor came and spoke with me. She said that everything had gone well. After cleaning up the finger, they discovered a piece of skin that had grafted, but that they hadn't seen the day before. (Coincidence?) That meant that they had less skin to re-graft. They were able to take more skin from the same place on the outside of his hand, avoiding making another scar. One of the other blessings was that they did not have to cut down the finger because of the bone showing and the infection.

Once again, Jonathan quickly became his active self, showing no signs of just having had major surgery. He soon became eager to move around and we had to restrain him because of the i.v. and the cast on his arm. We passed the day waiting again until they released us about 7:30 that evening to go home.

Thanks for your prayers during this difficult week. Please continue to pray for Jonathan's hand to heal well; with the skin grafts taking and that there will be no infection and no more problems. We return again in two weeks for another checkup and cast change. We are being reminded constantly that our God is in control of every situation.

"And we know that in all things God works together for good; to those who are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28).