God is so good!

A couple of weeks after our last post I received an email from one of my sisters informing me that one of our other sisters, Tammy, was in the intensive care burn unit at the University of Utah Medical Center. Tam had been fighting a Staph infection in her eye for two months and had been suffering through disfiguring facial swelling, constant oozing from her nearly swollen shut eye, and excruciating pain that radiated to her throat. After further diagnosis, Tam ended up having a PICC line inserted to administer a powerful antibiotic concoction 24 hours a day. After 28 days of IV antibiotics, the line was removed and we were hopeful that she was firmly on the road to recovery. But within a couple of days her face and head began to swell and turn bright red. In a matter of hours her left ear was so swollen that she couldn't hear out of it. By the next morning, when she went to the ER, our Mom almost didn't recognize her. In the ER she began developing huge, quarter-size blisters all over her body while the swelling continued at an alarming rate. The oozing blisters posed a serious infection risk, so Tam was transported to the burn unit at the University.

Mom, Kristin (baby sister), and my two sisters-in-law were planning on meeting in NYC that weekend for a few days taking in the sights and a Broadway show. Over the next few days, as Tam's condition grew more serious, we decided to cancel our trip. Super Travel Agent Nancy (Mom) worked her magic with the airlines and my siblings graciously pitched in financially to trade my NY ticket in for a ticket to Salt Lake City. Wonder Stud-Muffin juggled all the kids and his work schedule, and sent me jetting Westward for two weeks. (We've been blessed with amazing kids! They did an absolutely awesome job of taking care of each other, fixing all the meals, and running the house for two weeks while Dad was at work!)

Tam spent nearly two excruciatingly agonizing weeks in the burn unit being deemed healed enough to go home. She was released the day before I got to her house, so I was spared the horror of seeing her in the hospital. I did see photos of Tam while in the hospital and can't adequately describe how completely disfigured she was. Her swelling increased to the point that she was put on a respirator for several days. Her skin was an otherwordly shade of deep, purple-red (almost like an electric magenta). She looked like she'd gained a hundred pounds which made her face lose all it's features. No chin, no ears, slits for eyes. Her skin, from the top of her head to the tips of her toes was covered in huge blisters and crusted, oozing sores. Her head had been shaved so the sores on her head could be treated. Her fingers were so grotesquely swollen that she could barely bend them to hold a pencil. And she was covered with little staples that attached a synthetic "skin" to the 80% of her real skin that hadn't been surgically removed. When he first went to visit Tammy, our brother, Steve, walked out of her room to tell the nurses they'd given him the wrong room number. He didn't recognize her at all. Picture Will Smith in "Hitch" after he eats the shell fish.

Over the last couple of months Tammy has made an amazing recovery. The upside to all of this is that her skin looks fabulous! She looks like she's had several chemical peels and just glows like an 18 year old now. She's gone through two very painful cycles of her skin completely sloughing off; all part of the healing process. The result is that she has very tender, almost premature baby skin that has to be protected from all sun exposure for at least a year. Her hair is growing back and her sassy, smart-alecky, stubbornness is back in full force. (That unbelievable stubbornness is most likely the reason she survived!)

I treasure the two weeks I had alone with her (before I brought the kids back with me) and I miss her terribly. Thank you all for praying for her recovery!

I love you, Tam!!