DMZ-LT injured

[DMZ-LT]

Lil' LT. here- I just finished printing out the 4 pages off the thread to send his way-he's now at Northside hospital- (great hopsital)! He's in alot of pain, but realizes he needs to be there instead of here at home right now Thank all of you again for everyting! ALL OUR LOVE_

[SEATJERKER]

...any phone number that could be pm'ed as to giving him a call...

...

[frisco-kid]

They don't call it "Fire Water" fer nuthin', Bro. Hell, I thought there was some kinda law down there that you couldn't have an open fire within 200 miles of Atlanta, dating back to 1865 . You might be in a heap o' trouble, Boy, seein's how yer a transplanted Yankee an' all .

Skin grafts. Are you going to be having some? 3rd degree burns make it a real possibilty. I've had several as they rebuilt my hand. Unless things have changed, the donor sites hurt much worse than the place receiving them. Maybe Doc Fred can fill you in on this. Because of the amount needed, they took mine off of my thighs. I couldn't stand so much as a sheet to touch them until they healed over. Received some REAL GOOD drugs [morphine, darvon, percocet] to compensate.

Hang in there, John. They can do some pretty amazing things these days. It might be a rough hump at times, but you've done tougher and you've got plenty of people willing to help carry your ruck, Bro.

[Keith_Hixson]

I don't know how many times I've told that guy, "beware of them psycho vets and motorcycle riders, you can never be too careful." But, would he listen? No.

Keep the LT. in our prayers.

Keith

[PHO127]

LT is doing better but a long way to go. They have been putting him in a whirlpool and then scrubbing the burns twice a day, The plastic surgeon was comming by to discuss surgery but had not made it there yet. He will be in the hospital untill at least Friday depending on when the decide to do surgery. Not that he would mind but don't call, he can't pick up a phone.

Say, Yall haven't seen any Yankees around have ya. Heard there was a little skirmish up in the mountains.

LT said hi to all and thanks for your kind feelings and prayers......
My thanks also.

[Jerry D]

LT you get well soon and take care of yourself .

[1CAVCCO15MED]

Skin

We are bags of water. The skin is the bag. If we lose a significant area of the bag the water leaks out. There are other problems. The skin is a wall against all the germs of the world. If we lose a significant area of the skin it leaves a huge area that is unprotected. Germs by the millions are able to invade. A gunshot wound is this little hole but a burn is this huge area that is no longer protected. There are other problems. The kidneys are filters of small waste molecules. Burns cause huge amounts of large molecules of trash from dead tissue that are extremely difficult to filter out. They clog up the nephrons and stop filtration. If the kidneys can't filter they can't get food and oxygen. These travel the same route as the trash molecules caused by the burns. The dead areas caused by the burns are just food for the germs. They double in number every four hours. The pain of the burns is so intense it causes the blood vesels to dilate and lower the blood pressure. This lowers the food and oxygen that is available to the kidneys even more.

Those are the problems associated with major burns. The larger the body surface area burned the greater these problems are.

Here's what you do about it: To reduce the food for the germs you get rid of the dead tissue. You do this by picking it off and soaking the area in an antibiotic solution of water in a whirlpool to loosen it. To slow down the clogging of the kidneys you give large doses of IV fluids to dilute the trash molecules from the burn. This replaces the massive loss of fluid also. To increase the blood flow you give much pain medication to stop the dilation of the blood vessels. You give massive amounts of antibiotics to combat massive amounts of infection.

The severity of these problems is directly proportional to the amount of body surface area that is no longer covered by an intact skin. Obviously the ultimate solution to these attacks is to cover the burned areas again with skin or something similar.

Major burns are huge insults to the body. It ain't a battle, it's World War III. The enemies are infection, dehydration, kidney failure and shock from both fluid loss and pain.

[Arrow]

Cav,

You said it all, and I feel better. I thought maybe Griz message might have been to direct but I felt the same way. I wanted LT in the hospital from the get go. Having watched my child go through this and close to death many moons ago I was more than a little anxious for LT to be in the hospital. I know he is strong but like you said this is World War III and he needs help to fight it. Sis

[Arrow]

Sid,

I have been thinkin' about Tiny the guy from LT's Platoon. Can you let him know about LT? I know LT has been e-mailing him and he's going to get worried if he doesn't hear from him after awhile. Maybe you can get Lisa to find the e-mail address. Whatever you think best. I just know he thinks an awful lot of John and would want to know.

Arrow>>>>>>>>

[Arrow]

Lt...your sis is countin' on you to keep movin'...one thing I know for sure it "ain't" your way to quit....you're gonna do just like you tell all of us to do...

Arrow>>>>>>>