Amanda Franklin, We'll miss you.....

Is your kid Student Of The Month? Beat up Student Of The Month? Lets hear all about it!
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AlisoBob
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Kyle and Amanda did alot to visit childrens hospitals and make wishes of special needs kids come true before their accident.

Now its their turn to be on the receiving end.....
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AlisoBob
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Post by AlisoBob »

I hate hospitals! Bad enough when your the patient but when it's someone you love in there it's even worse. It's not the food or that you can't get any sleep. It's that nobody has the same story on the condition of the one you love. Everyone has a different take on how they are doing from the nurses to all levels of doctors. If they really aren't sure, they should keep their damn mouths shut! I had a doctor today tell me...well I'm not going to go into all that, but in short "Amanda's most likely not going to survive". Everything he told me contradicted what her main doctor told me that morning and this isn't the first time something like this has happened. Needless to say I called her main doctor's cell and had him clarify her condition.



Amanda is doing okay. But this next week may be the turning point oneway or the other. At this time she has no new infections. Her old ones are staying down for the most part, her wound beds are staying clean and her skin graphs are starting to take. All good news. Amanda's doctor has even order the epy cells to be sent to him. This was something that was suppose to happen two weeks ago before the infections blew up. I hope and pray that the infections stay away long enough for him to get the epy cells on her. If he does, I feel Amanda will be a thousand times better off. But if her infections come back strong before the epy cells, things could get really bad.



Amanda's main doctor is looking into bacteriophage therapy, (Thank you Chris) he is finding it very interesting. He had not heard of it before. Most of the other ideas, all great ideas the hyperbaric chamber, maggot therapy, Ozone treatment and the skin gun just wont work for one reason or another. At least not at this point, maybe down the road.



They take Amanda into surgery again in the morning to change her bandages. They are only doing it once a day instead of twice, they didn't want her graphs getting torn up changing her bandages bed-side. This tactic of changing her bandages every day is one reason the infections are staying down.



Hope you all have a happy Easter and please say a prayer for Amanda. I feel she will need them badly this week.



Thank you all, goodnight, God bless & Happy Easter,



Kyle
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AlisoBob
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Post by AlisoBob »

Not a lot change today. There were a lot of new burn cases and several emergencies so the doctors didn't get to Amanda till late this evening. They did her bandage changes bed-side tonight. Her doctor said once again her wounds and graphs looked good. Amanda is second case tomorrow and they will be doing more then usual. They are going to change out some of the older cadaver skin in places as well as take some good skin from her foot (again) to close up some of her better looking wounds. As far as her wounds go, things are looking okay but I am becoming more and more concerned with her organs. Both her kidneys and lungs are still suffering and now her digestive system is not processing much food. This has caused her to become very swollen and bloated. They tell me that most of this is normal for a person in her condition but it's hard for me to see it that way. To see her.........when I first saw her she looked like she was in a plane crash......now she looks like she's been through a plane crash and Hell and back. It's like every day she gets a little better and a little worse. This is only day three for the baby steps I know, but I'm tired of baby steps and steps back, I'm ready for a big leap forward of some kind. It just blows my mind, with all our technology, world wide social networking, hand & face transplants and all the crap we have.........that we don't have something to close up Amanda's wounds.



I have emails and phone calls out to other burn doctors and researchers here in the States and in Australia, to see if they have any other ideas on how to help my beautiful girl. All of them I found because of all of you.



Thank you, Goodnight & God bless,



Kyle
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AlisoBob
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Post by AlisoBob »

Amanda is doing well today. They did all they had planned. They graphed some skin from her foot and put it on her leg. They also replaced a lot of her older cadaver skin. She used a lot of blood and plasma today so please keep donating. Talking with her doctor he is sounding more positive on her condition. He believes she's getting to a spot where she could survive this. Amanda still has a long way to go but this show's how strong she is. He said "He has never seen someone get this far behind the eight ball and make this good of a come back." I pray she keeps getting stronger. Her organs are still about the same, which is good, she still isn't digesting much but some is better then none. Tomorrow will be more bandage changes and wound care not much else.



My hand and arm are healing good. Only a few blisters. I got my new compression garments in a week or so ago. They're a custom made spandex glove and arm sleeve to help keep scarring down. I'd say I have about 80% of full motion back in my hand and fingers. A few more weeks and I should be back at 100%.



Rocky has been treeing squirrels for the past two days. They thought they could out smart him by jumping from tree to tree but Rocky's wasn't going to be fooled that easily. He followed them through seven different trees. I finally had to call him in. He treed another one an hour later. Rambo has been having some fun too, today he is six months old. He got a special treat this afternoon.


Image

Don't think many people have seen this picture. I flew the Cub down to Amanda's house early that morning, landed in the yard which got her out of bed, and proposed to her. One of the happiest days of my life.

Talk to you all tomorrow, goodnight, God bless,



Kyle
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AlisoBob
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Post by AlisoBob »

Just got back from seeing Amanda. She looks good, doing a little better then last night which is really good. All her sites are healing well and her vitals are good. Wounds are clean and her doctor feels she will be ready for the Epicels when they get here.


They switched her sedation meds to something that is working better for her and started giving her something else to make her heal faster. Not sure what that is yet but I'm going to check. Other than that her report is good again. Hoping and praying it stays that way.

Been doing research on treatments to help Amanda. It's amazing all the things approved for use all over the world, even Canada, but not in the US. All because the govt FDA has to do 10 years of testing and spend millions of dollars to prove something works. When the rest of the world has already proven that it does.

Goodnight & God bless,



Kyle


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Post by AlisoBob »

Amanda's doing okay today. In surgery this afternoon they took skin from the back of her head and put it on her right arm to close up a few wounds, looked her over and changed her bandages. Her vitals this afternoon when I went to see her were all over the place. All part of the roller coaster ride I guess.



I'm getting more and more frustrated each day with the doctors and the hospital. I'm told that's to be expected, but not till around day 100. It's just......I see little things here and there that they do or don't do and it drives me crazy. It's like, well I know it's this way, all their job is to keep her alive. They don't really care what she turns out looking like or how many scars she has. Don't get me wrong keeping her alive is the most important thing but her wanting to be alive when she wakes up is important too.



Let me give an small example, 3 or 4 weeks ago they took skin from Amanda's top left foot one of the few places on her that wasn't burned and grafted it somewhere else, fine. The goal is to have the good donor sites like her foot heal fast so they can take from it again, like they did with her head today. The donor sites themselves are now open wounds like a second degree burn. But, that day I went in to see her and the stuff called Xeroform they put over the donor sites, was partially folded over and was not covering all of her donor site. I pointed this out to the nurse she didn't really seem to care, so later I called one of her doctors and asked him to check on it, he did. But even though he checked on it nobody ever did anything about it. I noticed last night that that spot that was not covered with Xeroform had at some point become infected and is now a much deeper wound. Meaning it will probably scar worse, they are not able to take from it for a longer time meaning her wounds will be open longer, leading to a higher chance of infection.....sorry I'm rambling.



Now I'm no doctor. I'm just a paranoid husband who doesn't what his wife to be scarred up anymore then she has to be. It's just irritating that one of the few areas she wasn't burned they are screwing up. Not to mention how much Amanda loves her 500 pairs of shoes and now her feet are going to be all scarred up as well. Like I said I'm rambling. I just know that in my short time there, their were a few times that I took over my own care because a few, and I do mean only a few, nurses didn't do their jobs very well. Amanda is not able to do this.



All this being said I still believe Amanda is in the best place she could be in the US. Outside the US not so sure, but she can not be moved now. This is going to be a very long, hard and frustrating ride!



Goodnight & God bless,



Kyle
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Post by AlisoBob »

Amanda is doing good. Everything went well today. In surgery they changed out some more cadaver skin and the doctor said this was the cleanest he's seen her wounds in the last three days. Sounds like things are looking good for the EpiCels on Friday. Amanda's vitals and organs are all stable, no change for better or worse. My mother was the last one to see her tonight and said .... "Amanda looked like Amanda tonight" and that she was resting well. I hope all I have to do is copy and paste this post for the rest of the week.



I'm doing fine as well. My hand and arm is healing slowly, cosmetically my arm looks great but my hand looks like crap. As long as it all fully works, that's all that matters to me. Today was the first day I had no blisters at all.



Well, I love it when the posts are short means things are going good.



Goodnight and God bless,



Kyle
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Post by AlisoBob »

Today is two months. Amanda's still doing well. They kept her out of surgery again today and changed her bandages bed side. They put her on the tilt table again and then let her rest for the rest of the day so she'd be ready for tomorrow. Everything is looking good for the EpiCels. Their plan is to start on Amanda at around 7:30am then it will be a 3-4 hour surgery and I hope a big step for her recovery. Let you all know how things go.



Goodnight & God bless,



Kyle



P.S. I had some fun flying our Super Cub today. First time I've flown in two months.

.
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Post by Rhino89523 »

Man that proposal photo is pretty rough on the big pussy over here in Reno. Life is such a gift, those 2 are so cute together in their pirate garb. The best words I read were "Amanda looked like Amanda tonight" They say the eyes are the window to the sole, I get it. I hope she heels up well enough to live a normal life..... whatever that is. Everything hits home for me, just because thats the way I am.My wifes name is Amanda so even more so on this one.
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Post by AlisoBob »

:headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang:

Amanda had a really good day. All her vitals are looking good. Her blood sugar is staying down which is great, means she doesn't have an infection. She is still on the CRRT machine but her kidneys are working much better. It was an all around great report from her nurse this evening. As long as the EpiCels take I feel this will be the big step I was looking for. A great report for a great day.



The Neosho fundraiser was a blast today. It was great seeing everyone and I feel I made some new friends. I want to say thank you to all the vendors, sponsors, volunteers, pilots, and everyone who came out to support Amanda and I. A special thanks to Olivia, Richard and everyone who helped make this event happen, and of course a very big thank you to everyone who came out and donated. This event alone raised over 20,000 dollars for Amanda, even with the cold weather.



I find it fitting that Amanda and I probably both had the best day of the last two months today.



Thank you all, goodnight & God bless,



Kyle
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AlisoBob
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Post by AlisoBob »

Amanda has been doing okay the last two days. As her mother mentioned they gave her a brake from the kidney machine yesterday and today but had to put her back on it this evening. She's been on blood pressure meds most of the day but just came off them tonight, hopefully they can keep them off all night . Her heart rate is kind of high, around 138, they like to see it in the 120s. She's still heavily sedated so she doesn't move and damage the EpiCels. She looks like hell but is resting well I think.



Everyday the doctors cut open her bandages bed side to let the EpiCels air and dry out for an hour or two, then staple the bandages back together. This is becoming a very nerve racking week. They were changing her bandages every day for the last four weeks and now because of the EpiCels they can't move or change her bandages for 7-10 days. Meaning old bandages that are being open and closed daily and she's on her back side for that long which are perfect breeding grounds for infections. There's no way to look at her back side without taking a chance of damaging the EpiCels. This is like a double edged sword. Hope both do well, no infections and full take on the EpiCels!



Some of you have asked to see how my arm and hand are healing so here are a few pictures. Their looking pretty good. Both are still very sensitive to touch, hot and cold, kind of stiff and feel like.......well it feels like I have duct tape stuck to my arm and hand.



Dogs are doing well. They had a great time being at home. We have two more dogs (Marvin and One Eye Peggy) that stay at home they were really happy to see all of us. I don't think I've ever seen all four dogs so happy. Rambo was neutered last Wednesday but was back to his young self the next day.



Today would have been my father's 63rd birthday. Happy Birthday Dad!



Goodnight all & God bless



Kyle


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Kyle's arm 5-16-11
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AlisoBob
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Post by AlisoBob »

Damm, I just couldnt take this roller coaster of impovement one day.... then the wheels fall off the next day. Kyle is much stronger than I would be over all this....

:(



Amanda had a hard day and things are not looking real good. This morning while checking her EpiCels they noticed some areas on her side that looked like pseudomonas infection. This was not on the EpiCels, they are still looking really good, this was on some of her other graft sites. They cleaned off the infected areas which was only on the top of the grafts, there were no signs that the infection was in her blood stream yet. They also decided to go ahead and change all of her bandages and rap her in daycons to help kill the infections. Another dis-hearting thing I heard, not for sure yet, but is sounds like a lot of the grafts on her back that were done with her skin are not taking. I will know more on this tomorrow. I went to see her this evening and was not happy with her vitals. I've gotten to the point were all I have to do is look at the monitor and I can tell how she's doing for the most part. According to her vitals and what the nurse told me it looks like the infection has gotten in her blood stream. Her heart rate was really, really high, her blood pressure was low, they have been giving her blood and she is on two blood pressure meds. She's still on the kidney machine and the ventilator. Her breathing was fast and shallow about 45 breaths per minute and she was running a fever. These are all signs of an infection. They took some blood to have cultured but it will be sometime tomorrow before we know for sure. I have a lot to find out.



A few good things her face grafts are healing nicely, I wish they could finish it already, and her scalp donor sites are also healing good and fast.



All and all, like I said Amanda had a hard day and it looks like it's going to be an even harder night. Her body is really working hard with these kind of vitals. Hope to learn more from her doctor tomorrow I haven't talked with him in a few days.



Thank you, goodnight & God bless,



Kyle
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Rhino89523
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Post by Rhino89523 »

Bummer :cry:
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Post by AlisoBob »

Amanda's doing a little better tonight. Her vitals are still not the greatest but are back in the green. She's off the blood pressure meds again and her temperature has come down. I found out that they did do a blood culture on her a few days ago which came back positive that she had a blood infection but her doctor wasn't so sure. It took to long for the test to come back but they are treating her as if she does have an infection. They plan to do another culture tomorrow while she's in surgery. I also found out that the pseudomonas infection was on the EpiCels on her thigh after all. They cleaned the area and everything looks okay. I will know more on the condition of the EpiCels tomorrow. The skin grafts on her back were not as bad as I was led to believe (know for sure tomorrow) it sounds like about 70-80 percent are good and taking the rest will most likely have to be redone. Which means taking from her donor sites more which means more possible scarring and infection. Her scalp has healed up very well and is ready to be re harvested (I hate that term). I ask the doctor if he felt he might be able to use some of it to finish the grafts on her face. I would really like it if they could finish her face and be done with it, so it's almost fully healed when she wakes up and is fully aware. And know one knows how long that could be, could be three months could be six or longer. He said he'd consider it, again find out more tomorrow. If her face heals like I'm hoping it's going to, Amanda will look more like Amanda and not as bad as some I've seen. For as bad as her face was between the right side being smashed and all the burns, the doctors have done an amazing job.



Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, I said I'd know more today but Friday looks like the big day. Amanda is first case in the morning, meaning the Anesthesiologist will be calling me about 7am for consent. I already did the surgical consent this evening. I don't get that, why does the Anesthesiologist need consent if I consented to the surgical one. What am I going to say "no, I think she needs to be awake for this one." LOL, strange process. Well....



Goodnight and God bless,



Kyle
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AlisoBob
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Post by AlisoBob »



I'm ready for Monday!! Things are not looking good. The story I've gotten from everyone, doctors and nurses, is that the pseudomonas infection is back with avengeance. It's all over her body, in her blood stream and in her lungs. They are treating her for it and that's the reason for the twice a day dressing changes. We will just have to wait. They said her body looks better today then yesterday. Another really bad thing is that it looks like the infection has almost completely destroyed the EpiCels except for a few small areas. Some of them might come back. This process is like seeding a lawn we have to wait and see if anything grows. I will know a percentage of what wasn't destroyed tomorrow but it doesn't look good. It's sounding like we're back to square one. Not the greatest report for our seventh anniversary today. Amanda and I started dating at the Langley AFB airshow and had our first kiss under the flag pole at the jet park on May 22, 2004.



I Love you beautiful!



Kyle


The 22nd was the 18th Wedding Annavirsary for Vicki and I.....

Stay strong Kyle....
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Rhino89523
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Post by Rhino89523 »

27th is the 10th for myself and my wife Amanda....for real stay strong.
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AlisoBob
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Post by AlisoBob »

Amanda had a little easier day today. She's still doing about the same but is resting better. Unfortunately I don't have much good news tonight. It's just a waiting game now, waiting on the EpiCels and hoping she can fight off this infection. The infection is really bad this time, it was just bad last time. The infection is starting to affect some of the auto-grafts they did a few weeks ago and most of her donor sites have converted into infected wounds and are not healing. They upped the ventilator setting to 40% last night as well. One good thing is her face and head are healing very well. It's strange that her head is healing but the rest of her is not.

I don't know.........as I've said many times she has a long way to go and I know this first hand. I made the decision this morning to stay in for one of her dressing changes today. Her body is indescribable, she is basically burned on 95% of her body now. When she makes it through this I hope she's happy she did. We will see what tomorrow holds.......



Goodnight and God bless,



Kyle


I honestly dont know what I would do in this situation.

I might kick the plug out, when no one was lookin'......

Friggin' tragic....

:cry: x 491
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Post by Rhino89523 »

"When she makes it through this I hope she's happy she did. We will see what tomorrow holds......."

Man that statement right there is brutal....I might kick the plug out too.
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AlisoBob
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Post by AlisoBob »

Amanda had a really hard day. During dressing change this morning she started bleeding really bad and they had a hard time stoping it. Her body has gotten to the point that if you touch her or even look at her wrong she starts bleeding and her blood is not coagulating. Her wounds today looked more infected then the last three days and the antibiotics don't seem to be doing much. Her kidneys have almost completely shut down, her liver is starting to fail and she looks like she was still in a lot of pain. The doctors believe she wouldn't make it another two weeks in time for the EpiCels much less the procedure and I have to agree after seeing her wounds. So, I made the hardest decision of my life today and put her on Comfort Care. They have taken her off most everything with the exception of the ventilator, sedation meds and pain meds. They placed her in a more comfortable position and are doing everything to make her as comfortable as possible.



I believe at this point this is what she would want me to do. I also believe if she did pull through at this point she would kill me for it, a month ago I would have said otherwise. This is a decision I never in my life would have thought I would have to make nor ever wanted too. But, I don't want her to go through another four weeks of hell when we know it will do no good. We do not have a time table on things, most likely a day or two. I will continue to keep you all updated.



Know that she is not alone her mom, brother and his wife, my mother, myself and all of you in spirit are here with her. I feel Amanda will be very happy to see her dad, my dad and of corse Jackson again. But the hardest thing is she's leaving us all behind, till another day.



Amanda my love, I love you with all my heart, soul and everything I am. Our life together here was supposed to be seventy years not seven, but I klook forward to seeing you in my dreams every night my love.



Thank you all for your love, support and help through all this.



Goodnight and God bless,



Kyle


This is getting almost unbearable..... I have no idea how Kyle even goes to bed at night, or gets up the following day.

Anyone who has been following this, take care of your loved ones.... and hug and kiss them every chance you get.

You never know when it will be either their or yours last chance.

Kyle, no one will ever second guess you for what youve done, or the decisions you have made. You love Amanda, no doubt about that. And love sometimes means saying goodbye.

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Kyle and Amanda Franklin..... now and always
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Rhino89523
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Post by Rhino89523 »

:cry:
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Post by Tharrell »

:(
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Post by Hellbear »

:cry: :cry:
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racein01
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Post by racein01 »

what can you say this is just terrible. :( :(
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Post by Roostius_Maximus »

racein01 wrote:what can you say this is just terrible. :( :(
x491
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