I Can Do All Things

Merrym has had 45 surgeries or more. Actually. we've lost count. She had three surgeries within the first 24 hours of entering the hospital. During that seven and a half months stay, she had many more. At first it was to scrape the rotting skin off. But by the time her skin had stopped falling off and rotting, she was left with no meat below the abdomen on the right side, no meat on the hip on the right side and no meat on her whole right leg down to her ankle. The surgeries then turned to skin grafts to cover all the exposed muscle. The part of her body that was not as sick was now being invaded so they could harvest good skin to cover the muscle. Of course this caused more pain. Grafting skin is a long process because they can only do a small area at a time and many times it does not take, so the skin sluffs off. Think about doing this to almost one-forth of your body.

Merrym had one surgery (the colostomy reversal) while in Seattle. When she got back to Utah, we were so busy getting doctors, therapists and counselors for her, we really didn't think about her having any more surgeries. But a doctor said we needed to straighten her foot, so she might be able to walk flat on her foot with her walker. You see, her foot had turned sideways to the point that when Merrym tried to balance herself to transfer or go to the bathroom, she was putting weight on the outside ankle. We were excited to think she might be able to walk better. Of course we agreed to the surgery.

After the surgery was over, it seemed weird to see Merrym's foot laying straight. I was visiting one evening when the nurse came in to change Mer's bandage. I thought I might throw up, because after taking the outside wrapping off, the nurse began pulling bloody, gooey gauze out of a two inch hole on the inside of Mer's foot. She said it had to be packed with gauze during each bandage change, so the wound would heal from the inside out. I was wondering if they would furnish someone to come to the house to change her bandages, but then the nurse said to me, "You need to come in tomorrow night, so you can learn how to change Merrym's bandages". My tummy was quivering and my knees were weak. Then she proceeded to show me another area I would have to bandage. On Merrym's right hip, there was a hole the shape of an eye. Inside you could see her bone moving. They had used a piece of her hip bone for ankle stabilization. All that evening and the next day at work all I could think of was, "How am I ever going to be able to do this?"

In spite of all my fears, I showed up at the hospital to get instructions. It was even more difficult than I thought it would be. There were all kinds of sterilizing techniques that needed to be done to clean my hands and the wounds. I wore gloves. The nurse had me do the work as she supervised. I semi-closed my eyes as I pulled the gauze out and threw it away. Putting the clean new gauze in was not as bad. Then the nurse showed me how to clean around the wound on her hip. I had to use a Q-tip and clean a crusty, mucus-looking substance from around it. Then I found out that her bandages had to be changed three times a day. A nurse would do the mid-day change, but the morning and evening were mine. On weekends all three were mine. EXCITING!

Because of all the sterilizing, the changes took approximately 30 minutes each. I would do one bandage change before I left for work, then do the other before Merrym went to bed at night. At first I would keep my eyes semi-closed, but after a few days it was no big deal. This process took many weeks and finally Merrym's ankle was healed, but her hip was another story. She was able to walk better with the walker and this gave her a break from the wheelchair. I know that God allowed me to have that experience, so I was prepared to help with Merrym's up-coming surgeries.

Soon after this a teacher from my school had a cyst removed just below the back of her neck, leaving a large hole. One day while at work she asked me if I would help her change the bandage. Of course I did. As I was helping her I was thanking God that He had allowed me not only to help my sister, but help others.

I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.

Phillipians 4:13

Love, Mother Hen Glory

We want to remind you, if you have any questions or comments feel free to put them underneath the posts or on any one of our Facebook pages. Thank you!