Second and 3rd Degree Burns

As difficult as it was for all of us to see Michael in this condition, this, as the doctors and nurses told us, was the easy part. The time came to wake Michael up from his drug-induced coma. We literally did not sleep for four days. Michael’s flashbacks over the next four days became more and more intense. On the fourth day, the flashbacks were so bad they considered putting Michael back on life support. This was the start of the hard part. He was now awake and could feel the pain. They had him on three different pain killers. Nothing could completely take away this pain. He suffered through bandage changes and shower time (better known as torture time). This alone lasted for 2?–?3 hours and then he had physical therapy. Michael was in the hospital for three months. He was released on December 23, 2009. We moved to the Ronald McDonald House on the Property of Jackson Memorial.

Michael had another 2 months of outpatient physical therapy 5 days a week. On the weekends, we would go to my mother in law’s house for a well-deserved break. We would also visit Hippocrates on those days. Michael, his father and I would go to the HHI gym to work with Michael on the exercise equipment. We finally came home for good February 16, 2010. I took another 2 months off of work to continue working with Michael. He needed to stretch every day. We continued to visit Hippocrates, using the exercise balls, several of the machines and the mineral pools. The first time Michael submerged himself in the mineral pool I stood poolside, holding my breath. I was waiting for him to cry out in pain, as he still had open wounds and I was certain that it would be painful. Again, he surprised me. I stood there crying tears of joy watching him submerge himself, and then float effortlessly in the mineral pool. During the third month of recovery, I started giving Michael LifeGive™ supplements that Brian and Anna Maria Clement recommended. These included Chlorella, Sun-D, Vitamin C, etc. There are about 10 different supplements that he still takes. Michael gets weekly massages with magnesium oil to help his skin. He uses an H-Wave machine provided by Kevin Kehoe to stimulate healing, has had acupuncture by Dr. Keith Cini and laser treatments by Dr. Navarro. The laser treatments have made a big difference in the texture and coloration of Michael’s skin. He also sees Antony Chatham to help heal his deep mental scars.

Michael is now 16. While his recovery is ongoing, we are thrilled that he is moving on with his life and putting the ordeal behind him. We all want to thank everyone for the love, the prayers and the other gestures of kindness and generosity during our most difficult life challenge. Your support has helped us immensely this past year and made it much easier for us to cope. Thank you from the bottom our hearts.

Vol 31 Issue 1 Page 42