Day 308 | JULY 15, 2022

Good evening, Friends, today is day 308 of our new and amazing life!

I was up at my normal time, I arrived late last night past midnight.

I texted Charlie early around 7:20am, and she called me back around 7:30am, she was a little better than last night, she was receiving blood and I am sure that helped!

We talked for a few minutes, she talked with London, he was super adorable, today was his last summer camp, we finished breakfast and we even took mommy on the card with us to drop London off at his school, on the video call.

This kind of normalcy helps Charlie to distract from her pain. She was calm, and in overall good spirits, but I knew she was tired. This return trip to repair a few areas of her grafts has become much more complex, riskier and painful!

Somehow, we both thought that she would come in and have 2 maybe surgery and within few weeks back home, well so far, she has had 2 surgeries, 4 procedures and few more ahead, it is being hard for us to adjust to this reality, but we have to and we also know that our expectations is the cause of some of the frustration and disappointments, we created our own mental suffering one may say.

Today’s surgery was a big one, 6 maybe 7 hours long! They harvested donor skin and used it as autografts. Earlier this week her surgeon said that he would cover her openings on her knees, ankles and feet, those were the wounds that had a good granular bed, but the buttocks and elbows would need more time to develop a good wound base.

Well, we had a pleasant surprise, her surgeon was able to cover all of her open wounds with the autografts from the back of her scalp, that is incredible news, since now hopefully she will ensure one less graft surgery! I am so grateful that they managed to cover all in one surgery!

You see, we did suffer yesterday, and now we are down to one surgery!

In addition to the painful skin grafts procedure, Charlie was also going to endure a block of her left arm and hand (Nerve blocks for shoulder, arm and hand surgery can be made to last up to 24 hours. ) the hand surgeon will manipulate Charlie’s elbow, arm and hand in hopes to regain some range of motion, however due to the difficulty they had when placing her breathing tube, and there was also an issue with her central line placement on her neck, so they decided to place her central line on her groin, she will have a foley and will be bed ridden until her grafts are healed.

Her surgeon told me that she would experience pain and discomfort on her tracheae, since there was the issue with the tube placement.

I waited from 5:30pm until 9:30pm to see her, I am glad that I was able to remain calm, and not too worried, I am glad that I was able to speak with her doctor directly, that made me at ease some, but until I got to see her, my heart was tight.

When I first arrived, I waited in the same area I waited when Charlie first arrived at VCU on the day of the accident, and to be back there it did bring me some memories, but this time, I didn’t feel fear, I felt like I was back in a memory, but this time I had no fear.

Charlie arrived at her room at 9:30p, she was alert, but heavily medicated, we chatted for few minutes, until I asked her what she would like for dinner, she asked for the Broccoli cheddar mac and cheese from Panera, I hurry down to the hospital Panera and got her dinner, I went back up and feed her dinner, Charlie was hungry! Poor thing, her last meal was yesterday at 8pm!

After Dinner, we sat down to watch Access Hollywood. Tonight, they aired the interview they did with Charlie, they did a very good job with the story. We are very grateful to them for their kindness in telling Charlie's story in a positive light.

Today we truly had a day in the rollercoaster, up and down we went.

I am so grateful to you! Your prayers and support have been instrumental in Charlie's recovery.

Have a Good Night and May God Bless You!

André