A Bittersweet Christmas

Christmas this year was bittersweet. We had plenty of quality time with family, although not for all of the reasons I would have liked. As many of you know my brother, Ryan, has spent the last several days in the hospital with 2^nd and 3^rd degree burns on 20% of his body. Yesterday, he went in for surgery and skin grafts. The doctors were able to take 3 stripes of skin from his thigh and graft it on to his right arm and then adhere pig's skin to his back for a temporary cover. He has been immobilized so that the grafted skin has time to take to the wounds and begin to regenerate some new skin. That is supposed take several days. As of now, he will be at Wishard until at least Friday but more than likely longer.

Christmas Eve and Christmas for us was split between the hospital, home and Brenda's (my mother-in-law) house. Ryan hadn't been able to go Christmas shopping yet before his accident and was worried about buying presents. He gave me his wallet and asked if we would go shopping if he told us what he wanted to get each person. Most were an assortment of gift cards. But the best one of all was that he wanted to get both of my parents pre-paid cell phones. HALLELUJAH! We all cheered when they opened them. We are dragging our parents into the 21^st century!

Pam (John's step-mom) and Carolyn (step-sister) spent their time in Germany where Carolyn is living right now. I'm anxious to hear of their Christmas stories. They were suppose to cook Christmas dinner in Carolyn's dorm. John's cousin, Amy, and her family, Louis and Lauren, came to visit for Christmas from Virginia. That has been a nice treat. We've been able to do some fun things with them while they have visited. The kids were so great this week, especially with sitting in the waiting room so much and having to be drug all over the city and kept up at all hours.

It was a lot of fun watching them open their gifts this year. Ethan's big present was a Leapster. It's a small video game about the size of a Nintendo DS that plays educational games and such. It's been hard to pry him away from the thing! Erin's big gift was a play kitchen. She's had so much fun "making soup" for everyone. We've had to keep a close eye on our drinks. We've caught her stealing people's cups and dumping them in the little pots and pans and stirring them (to make the soup, of course). Ha!

John and I were both blessed with many wonderful presents. I absolutely love my gifts! I'm gonna close for now. I am tired beyond words. More updates and Christmas pictures later.

Love,
Rachel

Ryan

It's been a long rough week but I wanted to let you guys know what kind of crazy stuff has been happening in Indiana. No doubt you might have heard bits and pieces from people or the news by now. For sake of retyping everything, I'll copy and paste the 2 emails that I sent out last night and today.

Email 1 (Wednesday, December 19)

Family & Friends,

We had a medical emergency today that totally shocked us. To make a long story short, we got a call early this morning saying that my brother, Ryan, was being rushed to the hospital because his clothes had caught on fire at work. The next call was a little while later saying that they were life-lining him to Wishard Hospital. 20% of his body is burned (his back, bottom and arms) with 2nd and 3rd degree burns. When I got there this morning, skin was hanging off of his body like flaky biscuits. It was grey and even white on some large areas.

Anyway, the total shocker is that it turns out that the fire was not an accident. One of his coworkers set him on fire after they put some kind of fuel on him. The local & state police are involved as well as the FBI at this point. So far, police have a suspect but no motive. I'm unsure as to whether there has been an arrest or not. Today has just been emotionally draining and we've got several more days of this ahead of us. Word from the doctors tonight was that Ryan should fully recover. He is at a high risk for infection right now and in a lot of pain. When we go into his room, we have to suit up in a gown, mask and gloves. We are awaiting to see what the next few days hold and whether he will need skin graphs or not. My parents have been talking to investigators and police all day. I am somewhere between sorrow that my brother is in so much pain and rage that someone would be so sick to set another person on fire.

Please pray that Ryan is able to make a full recovery, that the pain is minimal or not at all and that the puzzle pieces to this whole thing come together and proper action is taken. Another blessing is that my cousin who also works part time as an EMT works the same shift and same department as my brother. He was on the scene and knew exactly what to do. If it hadn't been for him stopping the guys from pouring water on Ryan (it was accelerating the flames) and for him ripping his shirt off as quickly as he did, we'd be looking at a much more tragic story. Anyway, I just walked in the door. I've been at Wishard until now and my family is staying here at the house with us. I've gotta get some sleep. Thanks for your prayers.

Love,
Rachel

Email 2 (Thursday, December 20)
Here's an update:

The suspect turned himself in this morning. It turns out that he was trying to play a practical joke (he's not the brightest bulb in the box) and it went WAY wrong. He'd been taking Mineral Spirits (paint thinner) and putting it on his arm and lighting it. It sends up a quick flame and then disapates. He thought he'd be funny and scare Ryan with this trick. While Ryan was bent over at his machine (he works in a factory), the guy put the mineral spirits on his back. He put it ON HIS CLOTHES (which won't evaporate!) and then lit the fuel. The guy is facing some heavy charges right now. Apparently, he's been wanted by the cops for a long time now anyway. He's a prime suspect in the Williamsport Library Arson that happened a few months ago as well as some other random things. Ryan apparently had a great working relationship with this guy at work though. And none of this was meant to be malicious.

Ryan is doing well. He's incredibly bored out of his mind and it hurts to sit or lie down. He's spent a lot of time today harrasing the nurses and hitting on a few of them. He is running a fever though. The doctors have taken blood work and skin cultures to see if he is getting an infection. After they determine the absence or presence of the infection, then we'll talk more about if he needs skin graphs or not.

The poor guy is kind of an emotional rollercoaster and understandably so. Super happy one minute, super depressed the next. Part of this is the meds, part of it is nicotine withdrawl and the other part is dealing with the fact that a "buddy" set him on fire to be funny.

*sigh* Ugh, what a week... Thanks for your words of encouragement. It's great to know that there are caring people out there! Oh, by the way, it made the news: http://www.wlfi.com/global/story.asp?s=7527959 It also made the news in several newspapers but the date is recorded as September 19 instead of December 19.

Please visit his myspace page (http://www.myspace.com/ryanvickery) and leave him some encouragement. I know he'd really appreciate it.

Love,
Rachel

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