Reconstruction: January - February 2006

02/17/06
Surgery Wednesday was a success, with no complications. A little over two hours in the O.R. and Nikki came out with no skin from her right eyebrow, back to her ear and down to the top of her shoulder. Her largest WoundVac to date is sitting snugly over this huge site, encouraging circulation in the area & preparing it for the skin graft in a couple of weeks.

Nikki was a little upset when she first woke up & found more skin gone from her face than she expected. Dr. Gordillo explained that even though part of her last skin graft looked good to the eye, it was actually contracted tight as a snare drum. When Gordillo removed all of this, the skin around Nikki's right eye lifted almost an inch, and the right corner of her mouth literally snapped back up where it belonged. Even under the WoundVac & Integra, Nikki can tell that the constricted skin is gone.

Nikki is expecting to be discharged early Saturday morning. She'll be sent home with a tightly wrapped bandage pack that will need no care for several days, until she returns for a checkup. On March 1st, she returns to OSU for the actual skin graft. This will be done in two pieces. One smaller piece will be removed from her scalp (yep, there goes some hair again) and grafted around the eye and upper face. Skin from the scalp is most similar to that around the upper face. A much larger area will be harvested from her left thigh & used to cover the lower face, neck and shoulder top. This will be a split-thickness graft, not involving any but the topmost layers of skin. Think of falling off a motorcycle onto pavement, wearing shorts, and you'll get a good idea what her thigh will look (and feel) like afterwards.

While Nikki was recovering from surgery Wednesday, the fledgling burn support group that she is helping to start had its first real meeting. This was to lay the groundwork for electing officers, discussing group structure, etc. She was really bummed to miss it, after waiting so long.
More updates during the coming week... stay tuned!

02/14/06
Happy Valentine’s Day! And yes, I've been bad…. My updates this year have been spotty and infrequent. I plead forgiveness… it's been a busy time at work this year, while Nikki's life has been quiet and uneventful for a few months. Rest time's over, though, and its back to the surgery table for Nicole. Surgery 19 is tomorrow (Wednesday), around 12 noon.

Dr. Gordillo is concentrating on the right side of the face and neck again, an area that's been grafted several times. There's a continuous problem with contractures here, resulting in several grafts not coming out as good as expected. It's more of the same this time…. the plan for tomorrow is to remove hardened skin from the right face and neck. Afterwards, Nikki will spend 3 days in the hospital with a WoundVac latched to her face like a leech, stimulating blood flow into the tissue that will form the bed for the new graft. Then Nikki will leave the hospital until March 1st, when she will return for the actual skin graft, to be taken from her thigh again. Depending on how things go, this could be a same-day surgery, or a night or two.

This year should also see more surgeries on the right eye and right arm, from hand to shoulder. Nikki is still working on getting the burn support group off the ground. This effort paused during the holidays, due to everyone's schedule. She's also making some noise about going back to school, while working full time. Can't hold her down.

I'll post tomorrow or the following day with an update on her surgery. Thoughts and prayers appreciated.

01/05/06
Happy New Year to everyone who continues to follow Nikki through her recovery! This is just another very brief update, as there's nothing new to report as yet. However, I received a couple of emails asking if I'd given up on the blog- not at all. It's just that the last few months have been surgery-free and uneventful for Nikki. She continues improving physically through her continuous therapy. She also works nearly full-time, which keeps her quite busy.

The month of December was extremely busy for all of us, and I just never got another update done- very sorry. I hope that everyone had a great holiday season, From Thanksgiving right through New Years. We all had a great Christmas here and are looking forward to a great 2006.
Today, Nikki scheduled her next doctor's appointment for next week, and this should signal the start of another year of surgery. Nikki still needs a lot of work on her right face, right eye, right arm and maybe the right hand. I'll provide updates on upcoming surgeries as soon as I have them.Thanks again for everyone's support. I really enjoy the emails that I receive through this site, and I hope to hear from many more of you during the year. Stay tuned!