Burnt...

Most of you would have heard by now that a week ago on Sunday, Troy was badly burnt. We had planned to have a lovely Somalian family over for lunch, a single mother with 10 children. Troy had begun to cook hamburger patties on the BBQ and realised that the new BBQ we had purchased just the day before had a tiny cup for the dripping oil. Troy tried to get the oil to go into a bigger container. In doing this a little oil splashed on his hand which hurt and caused the whole thing of oil to drop on him. The burns are to his right leg and on top of his right hand. Troy rushed straight into the shower. He (and the rest of us) did not know how badly he was burnt at first. Laura and I both phoned a health hotline to find out what we should do (apart from having him sit in the shower). They advised us to get him to the hospital. While I was feeling really scattered at this stage, Laura took control of the situation. She filled buckets with cold water and wet lots of cloths to take with us on the journey to the emergency room. I put Hannah down for her nap and knew that she would sleep for at least 2 hours. Ollie then drove the bus very quickly to the Royal Darwin Hospital. Apart from praying on the way to the hospital, I kept telling myself that Darwin Hospital has a great burns unit due to treating victims of the Bali bombings a few years ago.
Up until we got to the hospital I had not cried but when I got to the desk I started bawling my eyes out. The nurses rushed out and put him in a wheel chair. He was given a bed straight away as well as being seen to by a Doctor. At first we were assured it probably wasn't too bad, particularly as he had gotten into the shower so quickly. Another doctor then had a look and said it was not looking very good and that the burns specialist would come to look at the damage. When the burns specialist saw him, he said that it was a deep dermal burn, otherwise known as a 3rd degree burn (meaning it was burning through to the bottom layer of skin). We were told that he would need to be admitted to hospital as he needed surgery to assess the damage and clean out the dead skin. We were also given the news that Troy would most likely need a skin graft. This would mean he would be admitted to hospital for a minimum of 5 days. Of course Troy did not like the idea of being stuck in a hospital for any length of time! Since we had arrived in Darwin he had been out meeting people, sharing his faith and organising plans for the Easter outreaches. Troy said to me that if he had to stay in hospital, the rest of the team would need to step up in doing what he had been doing and that he would spend the time praying and planning from the hospital bed!
to cut a long story short, Troy had surgery on his knee and hand later that night. Thankfully he was allowed to come home the next day as the burn was not as bad as originally thought. The doctors were still talking about the need for skin grafting though on the knee. We went back to he hospital on Wednesday and they redressed the burns. The nurse told us that there was still around a 50/50 chance of the need for a skin graft. On Friday when we went back we were told that the skin is healing better than they had expected. They redressed the burns and we will go back tomorrow for another checkup. At this stage prayer is still needed! Please pray against infection (infection could land Troy in hospital for weeks, even months!), that the skin would continue to fight and heal (sometimes the healing does not keep progressing and goes backwards) and pray that the pain would not be unbearable (even though pain indicates that the nerves are not dead). Troy will need to go to the hospital every 2 days for a new dressing and to monitor the healing process.

So this past week has been an emotional, interesting, and prayer-filled week! We haven't even lived in Darwin for 3 weeks yet! I have such a resolve that we will keep advancing God's Kingdom no matter what! I try to always think eternally :)


The plans for me this week are to go along to a couple of playgroups to meet some other mums. I also want to catch up with a few contacts we have made so far.

The missions team from Penrith will be arriving on the 31st March to assist us in our Easter Outreaches around Darwin. I am so looking forward to seeing them.I was going to say it will be a "taste of home", but I wont - because Penrith is no longer home for me. My new home is the city of DARWIN!!